Creative Stitch & Mend Workshop

Turn your repairs into part of your garment’s history and stitch tears and holes into beautiful features. Suitable for beginners, you’ll learn a mixture of hand stitch techniques suitable for a variety of mending projects. Save a favourite jumper by patching or darning; rework and recreate clothes whilst learning the sustainable value of repair. Bring along your piece of clothing that needs to be repaired or rejuvenated and between us it will be transformed. This event will be led by textile artists and experts from Black Swans Studio.

During this workshop you will learn 3 mending skills

1. Creative Patchwork: Repair for mending holes, tears and rips, reinforcing areas with extra stitches to secure the patch. Use a patterned fabric or one of our stencils to add an applique shape to make a decorative feature of your mend.
2. Darning: Use darning wools and other natural yarns from our collection. Learn basket stitch to create a weave like structure over the hole using warp and weft threads. Choose contrasting colours to create bold checks and stripes or create geometric shapes and graphic patterns to transform and repair your knitwear.
3. Visible Mending: Running stitch or Sashiko, translated as little stabs in Japan for reinforcing fine and thinning fabric. This technique is also used in conjunction with basket stitch to create a stable mend.

Included in this workshop:

• Paper stitch guide
• Needles & Threads in various colours and thicknesses
• Fabric Scraps, different patterns and textures for patching

What to bring and wear:

• Bring fabric or clothes you’d like to upcycle
• Wear you regular clothes