Scarves Tutorial: Repairing pulls in Cashmere/Silk scarves

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Pulls, they seem inevitable. Perhaps it’s the tradeoff for being cozy and chic but considering the price of H shawls I needed to find a way to fix them on my own since sending them for repair would mean they were away from me all the time and I don’t have many so I would truly miss them. So this is what I’ve learned, I hope it’s helpful to you.

This method is only for pulls where the thread has not broken. You need a loop to work with. Broken threads would require reweaving or removal by a specialist. I’ve been told that H can send them out but for your everyday, regular old snag-this works great.

Here’s how I learned:
I caused a huge pull in my Black and White Zebra Pegasus shawl about 2 months after getting it while on a business trip. It was my first shawl and I was devastated as it was already sold out. I thought for sure it was ruined for life. The pull was huge and multi directional but amazingly there were no broken threads, just loops of thread. I found myself staying in possibly the noisiest hotel room in all of New York and couldn’t sleep at all so I decided to see what I could do with the shawl. I pulled the shade off the lamp, grabbed a fine sewing needle from the sewing kit and started gently probing at the pull.

Here’s where the beauty and complexity of the H designs really pay off. I could follow the pulls all the way through the design. I experimentally tried picking up the thread about 1cm from the loop and seeing if I could pull the thread back. It worked! I stayed up most of the night fixing my Zebra and then finished the monster pull over the next few days. You cannot even tell how bad the damage was save for a little fuzz at the site of the big 5 loop pile up. The key was matching up the thread with the design. It’s part sewing and part puzzle.

 

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For the purpose of this tutorial, I’m using Ex Libris en Kimonos as the Zebra pattern was hard to photograph. Go figure, I was in another hotel room when I decided to take photos to write this tutorial. This was a single loop pull that was about 18 inches long.

You’ll need:
A fine, sharp sewing needle, good lighting and magnifiers if you need them. I think these would be very helpful as on fields of the same color, it’s hard to identify the individual thread you are working on. And you know, the shawl you’re working on!

 

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Start by spreading the fabric flat, stretching it out lightly along the pull. Make sure that you’re working on one loop at a time, sometimes there can be two threads snagged at the same time.

Usually one end of the pull is shorter than the other. Start in the direction of the shorter end of the pull. In this photo, the bottom is shorter and the upper part of the pull extends out of the frame.

 

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Find the thread in the weave and pick it up with the needle about 1cm from the loop. Gently pull the thread, pulling some of the loop thread back into the pattern. Then repeat on the longer side.

 

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Using the colors or pattern of the design to guide you, gently match up the thread in place. If you pull too far, you can gently adjust in the other direction.

In this next photo, I’ve finished the bottom of the pull and I’m slowly working up, lining up the blue on the thread to match the waves. You can see the pull disappearing below the arrow as I line up the thread.

 

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You can see that there’s still a good amount of the loop left, as I said this was a pretty long pull. I need to move it another 12-15” and I need the thread to work back into the pattern. The thread may be stretched out slightly but as long as it’s not broken, you can weave it back in. More on how to address the stretched thread and the gaps in the weave around the pulled thread at the end.

 

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Here you can see I’ve almost reached the end of the wave pattern and the loop is much shorter. I only have a few more inches to go. It gets easier in the darker colors and as the loop gets shorter it’s less of a puzzle to know where to fit the colors together.

 

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Here is the finished wave section:

 

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After you’ve successfully woven the loop back in, there may still be a shadow of the work you’ve done or some slight slack to the thread. Since I handwash my cashmere, I find that after I give them a wash all signs of the pull are gone. If you don’t like to handwash, I recommend blotting along the pull with cold water on a clean cloth and after it has dried, brush with a velvet clothes brush and all will be well.

I hope this was helpful to some of you, I’ve learned so much from the forum and I’m happy to be able to give a little something back!

For professional mending, Rammendo Invisible is highly recommended or you can contact your H SA. My local boutique can send them out but I have not asked where they send them for repair.

 

[etoupebirkin]

Mrs O., Thank you! I did the same thing with my Zebra Pegasus shawl with a vintage bracelet that had small prong set stones. I put the shawl in my drawer and left it there. I will have to borrow a friend's jeweler's mask and see what I can do.

But, Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

 

[mistikat]

This is really wonderful; thanks for taking the time to photograph and explain it in such detail.

 

[kewave]

You are really good with your hands! I attempted way before you posted the tutorial but without much success. Will find time to give it another try, thanks for the inspiration!

 

[Gixxer]

Awesome thread! (oh the puns)


Thank you MrsOwen this should be some sort of sticky

 

[bedhead]

Thank you for posting this in such detail! I agree that this should be a sticky.

 

[amber_j]

Definitely sticky-worthy!

Thank you so much for this. My ELeK is beyond help (my cat's claws not only snagged it but made two holes!) but there a couple of other shawls that might benefit.