Repairing Moth Holed jumpers with Embroidery

A couple of weeks ago I had a customer approach me through the Loom app who had two jumpers that he loved but had been damaged by moths when he accidentally left his wardrobe door open one day.

One was a Vivienne Westwood jumper, orange with green back. The other was a Paul Smith jumper, Burgundy with navy and pink sleeves. The customer told me that he liked tropical flowers, in particular Medinilla Magnifica. So I designed him an embroidery design around this that could be broken down into smaller parts so we could use them across both pieces to disguise all the holes.

The Paul Smith Jumper had lots of little holes, three very obvious ones on the body and about ten on the sleeve. This was more than I had thought there would be from the original photos so we had to amend the design a bit from one flower on the sleeve to lots of small petals and leaves being blown across the sleeve to cover the holes.

The Vivienne Westwood, only had one large hole so we decided to pop the main flower over that, but add a little sprig of leaves on the shoulder to balance the design and ground the flower motif.

I started by stabilising the holes, darning in some hand stitches and ensuring that all the loops of the exposed knit were held.

There was also another little surprise hole and ladder on the back hip so we popped another little leaf set over that too.

I think the project went really well and the jumpers now truly look one of a kind, but more importantly are wearable again now which is the main point. The customer was really pleased with the result which I was delighted about so I look forward to making more pieces like this with Loom again.

Transforming Initials on Second-Hand Clothing: A Loom Project

Last week, through the Loom app, I matched with a customer who had bought a second hand jumper which had some initials on the arm. They asked if I could change the letters from PN to FHW which I said I could and they sent the jumper over to me.

With the jumper in hand, I could have a look at the existing embroidery and carefully unpick it. It came out without damage, just leaving a slight shadow of the previous letters behind which we would cover with the new letters.

Selecting a similar font and colour as before, but making the lettering slightly larger to help disguise the shadow I embroidered over the same area with the new letters FHW.

This was a short but sweet one, always great to get new projects done and on their way back to their owners.

New product line for ‘That’s my Favourite Ball’

Off white rubber dog ball with an embroidered orange heart sewn into the rubber

We are delighted to be able to offer a new addition to the ‘That’s my Favourite Ball’ line. Perhaps ball personalisation isn’t for you, or if gifting maybe you don’t know the name of the pooch yet- the hearts and stars line is a great alternative for this as it still allows you to have an identifier for your ball without having to have the ball customised just for you.

It also means that as we don’t need to produce them to order, we are able to ship them out even faster. Win win!

Join Me on Loom: Transform Your Wardrobe

I am super excited to announce that I am now listed as a designer on the Loom App where you can list your garments that need some love, repair or restyling. They partner people with items that need some attention with designers like myself who can do something fun with them.

It’s such an exciting service and such a great way to reduce clothing waste so I am delighted to be getting involved with them on the ground floor when they are on the way up to great things. Stay posted as I already have pieces in the works with them so I will have more to share in due course.

Collaborative Embroidery: A Memorable Day with Butterfly Cannon

Last month, we had the wonderful opportunity to go to see the lovely folks at Butterfly Cannon to chat to them about the craft of embroidery.

In advance of the presentation, I worked on a sample of their logo, leaving some areas unembroidered so that we could finish it all together during the presentation. It was fabulous to see how much the crew got stuck into the stitching with everyone having a good go and putting in at least a few stitches each. By the end of the session we had a piece that we had all worked on together and was complete to leave with them as a little reminder of the day.

Red silk fabric flower held in a mans hand with Natasha Searls-Punter Embroidery details on the leaf attached to its stem. Women stand out of focus in the background in conversation beyond the table behind that hand which is covered by embroidery samples
Natasha Searls-Punter stands in front of embroidery works laid across table

The presentation itself was mainly focused on using the samples I had with me to demonstrate how textiles can be used as an exciting and unusual way to market a clients products in a high end way. The group which consisted of about 15 people was very engaged, getting stuck in with the stitching of the sample and exploring the textiles samples on the table.

At the end we had a little Q & A sessions where I answered some of the questions they had about the textiles industry in general and about previous jobs I have worked on. It was a really positive day and a great experience, from which I look forward to working with Butterfly Cannon again.

Thanks to Chris Joscelyne for all the lovely photos

Etsy shop available

We are super excited to share that the Etsy shop for our dog ball product ‘That’s my Favourite Ball’ is now live!

It’s wonderful to be selling through Etsy so that we can reach more people and make more dogs happy. Plus having the reputation of Etsy behind us gives buyers confidence in a new venture like ours. Head over to check out the offering.