Cutting with Courage: Upcycling Textiles Into Bespoke Clothing

Join special guest textile artist and tutor Aukje Boonstra for this two-day immersive workshop into textiles. You’ll explore your creativity and learn how to turn outdated, discarded and pre-loved clothing into unique wearable art pieces. 

Participants will get the opportunity to bring along clothing of their own, find pre-loved clothes at our tip shop, explore different fabrics and embellishments, and then learn techniques to transform them into a new piece of clothing. Samples to inspire you will be on display.

You may have a shirt, t shirt, jumper or cardigan in your wardrobe, which may be out of date, or you found at an opportunity shop. Something about the garment appeals to you, the colour, the texture or the feel of it.  But you would not wear them as they are. They need something…

In this workshop you will: 

• Learn how to turn it into a unique trendy wearable art piece;
• Together with other pieces of clothes, knits, collected fabrics, embellishments, bits of lace and doyleys and what ever else you can think of;
• Cut off, add on, play, stitch, embellish, have fun and be creative. You can spend the time available on one piece or you may like to start another piece and finish them later at home; and
• Gain confidence and give your self permission to cut into clothes. Then start thinking of ways how to fix them and turn them into a unique garment, which will be a real talking point. Enjoy wearing something very different which has been your own creation.

Cutting up pieces of clothing and the different ways of how they can be put together again is what this workshop is about.

Participants will leave this workshop with: 

• A trendy wearable art piece to take home
• New sewing and stitching skills (hand and machine based) such as: 
  • Ways to finish off edges and hems with knitting and other yarns on the sewing machine
  • Bobbin work using embroidery yarn
  • Making your own continuous bias binding 
• Problem solving skills so you’ll never look at old clothes the same way again 
• Confidence to cut and create new pieces of clothing at home 

ABOUT THE SKILL SHARER

Aukje is based in north west lutruwita / Tasmania. She is passionate about reusing and remaking, working with existing textiles rather than new to extend their life through dying, cutting and sewing. She is a regular exhibitor at our annual art from trash exhibit where you may have seen her incredible textile creations,  and regularly delivers workshops on textile upcycling across south-eastern Australia. We are excited to welcome Aukje to our Education Centre. You can find Aukje @aukjeboonstratextileartist on Facebook and Instagram. 

WORKSHOP DETAILS

Time - This is a two day workshop. The workshop will go from 10:15am-4pm on Saturday and Sunday. Site access is from 10am to 4:15pm daily.

Location - This workshop will be delivered in our Education Centre, opposite the South Hobart Tip Shop(Look for the sign). This building is also known as our old tip shop building (the green shed). It can be a little cold on cooler days so please wear warm clothes and we'll light the fire. Our public toilets are located in the South Hobart Tip Shop. 

Skills required - Participants in this workshop will need basic sewing skills. 

What to bring - We'll supply all the materials and equipment. Please bring your own lunch and snacks. Clothing and material for use in this workshop will be available for free from our general clothing (non collectable) section in our tip shop if participants do not have something to bring from home.

For this workshop, participants may wish to bring:

• Any piece(s) of clothing you want to transform. 
• Other pieces of clothing, offcuts, lovely scraps of collected cloth /lace etc which compliments the clothing you want to transform.
• Sewing threads, embroidery yarns, fancy knitting yarns etc.. that you may wish to use
• Sewing kit with fabric and embroidery scissors.
• Sewing machine in good working order, if you have one. There are sewing machines available for use. Hand stitching or both is an option. If you wish to bring your sewing machine, please ensure it has been tagged and tested. We can do this for you prior to the workshop. Contact us at education@resourcetipshop.com to discuss. 
• Notebook /Camera.

How to get here - You can ride, walk, drive or bus to our Education Centre.  Buses stop on Cascade Road, and from there its a 10-15 minute walk along McRobies Road to our Centre. 

Cancellations - In the event of severe weather conditions such as strong winds, the McRobies Gully Waste Management facility in which we are located can be closed to the public to keep everyone safe. If this occurs, our workshop will be cancelled. We will make every effort to notify participants as early as possible by phone and email, and provide refunds. We will then work on rescheduling the workshop in the future.