On The Mend!

I have put the two badly damaged linen scarves that were the same size together and stitched them along the edges with threads harvested from the warp or weft of a lovely scrap of cloth that I contact printed with leaves in Australia. Each thread was made up of three smaller somewhat furry threads that might be wool. And of course they are naturally variegated due to the coloring process of the cloth. I was trying not to harvest too much from the scrap because what remains could be a lovely tubular scarf. The colors are scrumptious and there is a good fringe on each side due to the pulling of threads to sew the linen scarves together and emphasize holes.

The scarred linen scarves became very soft after rinsing out the earth pigments. Sort of a nice drape.

I worked with some interference and managed to hold the two pieces together with the threads I did have. It is a bit washed out looking but I love the feel of it. And it does actually look like it was borrowed from a mummy. Here are some detail images.

And the finished scarf.

I am tempted to now add some small beads to this one to give it a bit of color. The mummy likely would have had them there. This piece strikes me as genuinely “boro”. Putting together worn and ragged pieces together in the hopes of extending the life and use of a piece of cloth. Adding beads will certainly take away from that idea….but still, color can be a good thing here. If you ever see me wearing it, you are welcome to touch it. It feels, for lack of another word, “loved”. And I do love it.

So does Sadie.

On the next piece….the large linen shawl that was even more eaten up by the green earth pigment….I am going to patch it with scraps of silk that were printed at the Botanical Studio in Australia. These pieces of silk were just remnants from the bin that I tucked into my very serious attempts to get that quintessential Australian look of leaves on cloth. And they were very successful scarves indeed with a few more to give to friends. See below.

And here are the silk scraps with the very holey linen shawl that is now folded in half lengthwise to make even another scarf.

The linen weave and threads on the shawl are much finer, hence the more damage. But it too is very soft now.  I am wondering whether to use the silk scraps behind the holes between the two layers or cover over the tops with edges turned under. I might do all the patching while it is still not folded in half to avoid so many stitches showing on each side. It is going to be fun to work on and the bits of sheen from the silk should give it a whole different look than the first one. If this came from a mummy, it was a mummy of means, I am sure.

I am not the only one ready to start in on another rescue.

Next week the this one should be finished. Til then.