Hole becomes heart with swiss darning

Somewhere in Ghent there's a baby on the way, a little brother for a big sister. This baby sleeping bag that used to belong to big sister was still perfect, except for a small hole. Time to fix this thing. But how so? With swiss darning!

On Instagram I'd seen posts about swiss darning, a technique in which you duplicate knit stitches to close up a hole. I hadn't used this technique myself yet, but I was willing to give it a go. It's very similar to the duplicate stitch where knitters create an image on top of already knitted stitches. But with swiss darning, you can duplicate stitches on top of the hole. How cool is that?

I used some leftover green yarn that contrasted nicely with the sleeping bag itself, and started going. And guess what? Swiss darning is not difficult at all!

I found the result - the green patch - rather dull, and decided to continue with the swiss darning. So I darned a heart in the same colour as the sleeping bag on top of the green patch. Not only did it look a lot nicer, it also made the mend stronger. As a finishing touch, I added a red accent right in the middle of the heart.

So far for the outside. Unfortunately, the hole was still visible on the inside. So I searched for the softest piece of fleece I could find embroider a big kiss on it, and used a whip stitch to cover the hole on the inside.

All done! Come on baby, we're ready!

Do you have a knit garment that needs mending? Feel free to drop me a line, and together we can find a solution.