Wednesday 20 September 2023, Visible Mending with Katrina Rodabaugh

CLICK HERE to add your name to the waiting list

18:00 - 21:00 BST (British Summer Time, London, UK)

Online workshop, hosted on Zoom by Katrina Rodabaugh

Katrina Rodabaugh is an artist, writer, and teacher working across disciplines to explore environmental and social issues through craft techniques. Mostly, she rethinks the relationship between fiber art, sustainability, and fashion. She’s the author of three books including Make Thrift Mend (2021) and Mending Matters (2018). Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living, Selvedge Magazine, Sunset magazine, Taproot magazine, Tauko magazine and more. She earned a BA in Environmental Studies and an MFA in Creative Writing though her fiber arts training started at the side of her mother’s sewing machine.

Outline of the workshop
Mending is a wonderful way to practice hand-stitching and sustainability by extending the life of our textiles. Simple stitches transform torn or distressed garments and homewares through thoughtful repairs. Visible mending is a hand-stitching technique that combines patches, stitches, and design elements. The class will consider the creative opportunity in mending through careful consideration of materials, design, and stitching techniques. All mending will focus on hand-sewing, particularly woven fabrics.

This workshop will lead participants through an overview of basic stitches and patching before turning to a garment that needs mending. Katrina will discuss how best to repair garments considering fabric, thread, utility, beauty, design elements, and more.

Students will leave the workshop with various resources, a mended garment (in- progress), and a class booklet. Basic sewing and stitching skills are required. Please note: We will focus on woven fabrics like denim, linen, cotton, silk, hemp, etc. We will not cover mending stretchy fabrics like leggings or t-shirts. We will discuss basic darning on knits like sweaters, socks, hats, etc. though most of the class will focus on mending woven fabrics like denim.

Level of experience required
No previous knowledge is required.

Materials:
A materials pack will be sent to participants prior to the workshop containing:

Two skeins of 100% cotton thread (navy and white)
- Two metal needles
- Beautiful metal thimble
- Custom wooden ruler
- Color postcard
- printed booklet

In addition, participants will need to provide:

- Textile to mend—Garments made of denim, linen, or cotton are great choices. Household textiles like quilts, tea towels, and tablecloths are good too.
- Patches of the same fiber and weight as the textile to be mended—midweight denim is best patched with a midweight denim patch; light linen is best patched with light linen; and quilts with quilting cotton, etc. Please bring two patches.
- Note on darning: We will cover basic darning stitches on knit garments like sweaters and hats but this will not be our focus. If you want to bring a knitted garment please bring similar-weight yarn, a tapestry needle, and a darning egg.
- Please bring: Fabric scissors, a fabric pencil or marking tool, straight pins and/or safety pins; Optional tools include pinking shears, iron, ironing board, etc.

Recording
The workshop will be recorded and the recording made available to ticket holders after the event. Please allow 7 working days for the recording to be sent to you. 

Workshop Cancellation Policy
All places are non-refundable. However, if you let us know you are not able to make a workshop you have booked at least two weeks prior to the event, we will offer a credit note.

If you require additional information about this workshop please contact the events team, events@selvedge.org.