Progress on Hamadan Rug

 Keeping the rug taught so the warps did not hang loose and the knots come undone was a problem. I used a board behind and stapled the warps to it so I could apply tension.

This is the stage I have reached. The new wool is in place and I don't think the colour match is too bad.  I had to do a row of plain navy then a row of red and beige dots and then another row of navy with a final row of red. I have tied in and sewn in the wefts all apart from the last one. I now need to concentrate on the fringe. This is the difficult bit next as this is what will hold the repair and the rug together.

Mending Hamadan rugs

This is not my rug but belongs to a friend with a holiday cottage.  She knows I can repair things so asked if I would look at this.  Well its not embroidery or quilting but I have dabbled with weaving and darning in the past.  Rugs like this one can be repaired by professionals but as its a small area I thought I would give it a go.  Basically, I think it has been caught in a vacuum cleaner and tugged and then the tear on the fringe has become worn and extended over time.  I needed to check what type of rug I was dealing with first and found out from the back of it that its a single weft, Hamadan rug, which means Turkish knots and rough, strong wool and also some camel hair.  The rug smells of very old incense too so it was probably made in a tent or similar. If you look at the dyes most of them are vegetable but I suspect the bright orange is a chemical one, so it's not that old but it is good quality.

You can see that I needed to weave some new warps and wefts into the edge and I also had to stabilise the end warps which were broken so that the knots of wool would not slide off, this required a sort of blanket stitch. I have not quite finished replacing the warps in this photo. I find the rug very heavy to pull onto my lap whilst working so only do half an hour at a time as its quite a strain and also the rug covers me in fine gritty sand.  I will need to give it a good bashing outside with a broom handle and then vacuum it carefully when I am done. All being well I will post again when it progresses. I think a challenge on this scale does depend on a certain degree of luck, and I hope the repair works, time will tell.

Sashiko workshop - October 24th Cumbria Patchworkers

Sashiko workshop at Just Sew, Penrith

 We delved into this technique at our monthly meeting in October, but I must admit it was not for me.  I do like the idea behind the examples below but hated sewing the small white stitches onto the fabric by hand, it seemed to me that I unpicked more than I sewed. But not everyone likes the same obstacles in sewing, at least I gave it a go and I still have my square which might just become something in the future.  I also bought some of the fabric which was on sale downstairs in the shop; some pretty blue with little owls on it, I think it was also one of the fabrics in the design below.

Examples of Sashiko included in a work in progress