Textile Restoration

Mending

A common issue for historic clothing is often fiber damage or loss in the form of holes, tears, separations, or frayed edges. Factors such as age, fiber content, manufacturing process, pattern, and previous care may accelerate or slow down the rate of damage. It is important to carefully consider all repair work as it is very easy to do more damage. It is also important to note that some of these signs of wear and tear should be preserved since they may provide insight into the unique history or storyline of the textile in question, and erasing or obscuring this information may have an adverse effect on the textile’s history.

A large part of restoration is preventing further damage. For this reason, when a garment in a collection becomes damaged how it should be mended for the best results is an important question.

On some textiles such as tapestries and carpets, the large weave permits skilled craftsmen to reconstruct the areas that have been lost or damaged by weaving or knotting in threads dyed to replicate the pattern. Patches and backings of different textiles can also be used to stabilize large structural issues.

Here is a diagram of a stabilization patch using basted down nylon net on the front and back of a hole.

On most clothing in collections however, where the best measure is preventative work patches carefully hand sewn in are usually the only viable option to mend. The difficulty is of sewing in patches into delicate aged fabrics without drawing visual attention to the repair work.

This is accomplished through careful color matching and very delicate couching stiches, which can also be used to hold down various decorations and trims that are beginning to fail.

Preventative work, such as going over and re threading down beads as they loosen before they are lost, and carefully storing textiles to prevent any area from weakening are very important.

Here is a link to a video from the Victorian and Albert Museum about the mending of an Indian Jama.