Darnlings - Darning mushroom collection in various sizes and shapes

Darnlings

These are darnlings: new and improved (and 100% over-engineered) darning mushrooms / eggs / discs based on learnings from two previous versions.

You can use these to repair holes in fabric; for example in your favourite socks, sweaters or jeans. You place them underneath the damaged area to stretch the fabric and create an even surface that makes weaving in new thread easier.

The attached files include:

• 🍄 Darning mushrooms/discs in sizes 4cm, 5cm, 6cm, 8cm, 10cm, 12cm

• 🪺 Darning eggs in sizes 2.5cm (quail), 3.5cm (chicken) and 4.5cm (goose)

• 🧦 Darning specials for socks and gloves (foot, toe, finger and thumb)

Each darnling comes in different subtypes or flavours:

• 🪡 Variant with threaded stems and integrated needle storage. The stems help with ergonomics and are interchangeable (only the finger, thumb and toe models have smaller stems).

• 🗻 Solid version with no threading for quick and easy prints.

• 💡Hollowed-out version. When printed in transparent filament, these allow you to add LED lights within the darnling (you could glue some fairy lights in place or use a flashlight for this). The illumination helps with mending dark or very fine textiles and lets you see thin spots clearly.

And all models feature:

• 🧶 A groove for an elastic band that holds the fabric in place (teardrop-shaped for easier printing)

• ✂ Chamfered edges that don't snag the item you want to mend

Printing

• No supports needed (except for some hollow versions)

• Concentric top layers

• Adaptive layer height

• PLA works fine. (Unless you want the surface completely smooth. I actually find that the layer ridges help to hold the fabric in place though.)

Customising

In case you still can't find what you're looking for with the existing files, this is a parametric OpenSCAD model with the following settings:

• Part: Which part to render: threaded cap, stem, cap without thread, or hollow cap

• Diameter of the cap

• Height of the cap

• Shape of the cap rounding

• Squashing factor for flattening the cap (e.g. for sock shape)

• Groove settings (for elastic band)

• Stem settings

• Hollowing settings

You'll need a recent OpenSCAD version and the BOSL/2 library to work with this. The customiser configs for files I uploaded are included here as well; as a .txt, because I can't upload the .json. Simply rename this and you're good to go.

Notes

This is based on learnings and feedback from the Darning tools with groove and the Sock darning tool. Thanks to all the lovely people that gave feedback on the prototypes and earlier versions!

Let me know if you have more feedback or you're missing any custom versions.