Join us for this FREE mending class series, sponsored by the District Department of Energy and Environment.

Do you have a favorite pair of jeans that are just a *little* too worn out to wear anymore? How about holes in your socks? Stains on a favorite shirt? Or, maybe you just want to save money, reduce your environmental impact, and reject throw-away culture. Then this workshop series is for you!

This class will be taught by Ursula Sandstrom of Bowerbird Stitchery. Each week will cover a different type of mending, and include a free beginning mending kit for each participant. This ticket is for the third class in the series. To access the other classes, please click on their links below.

Week 1: Darning - reweaving socks and other holes

Week 2: Mending your rips and tears

Week 3: Visible Mending - covering your stains and making it beautiful

Participants from Kelly Miller public housing, other public housing residences, and who are low-income receive first priority for this class series.

Summary

Mending can be so subtle that no one notices your work and it can be flashy, aesthetic or add more visual interest to your clothing. Join us for an evening of working to make clothes back in a state of good repair and look even better than they started.

Ursula is bringing her personal mending studio, some examples, and we will learn-by-doing to keep our clothes and gear lasting longer this open working session!

Issues that can be fixed: Tears and holes in fabric, smaller stains in fabric

Issues that cannot be fixed: Completely shattered or destroyed material, anything that is dirty, very large stains (still totally fixable! But I would recommend you use fabric dye which can be bought at local hardware stores).

We’ll have fun patch fabric, embroidery floss, buttons, and other materials but if there is fabric you have that you’ve wanted to add as a patch, please bring!

There is limited time – Ursula can advise on larger or more complicated projects, and has some resources for other options but we do not expect that 2 hours is enough time to learn and fix everything! Small holes are fixable during the workshop.

Additional Details:

Know how to do some mending? Please keep in mind that what works for you may not work for everyone, there are a lot of different techniques. Please come in the spirit of solidarity and communal problem solving.

Want to start before the workshop? A basic darning technique here and DC Public Library books on mending, including darning, here (my favourite is Mend It Better).

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This event has priority registration for those who live in public housing or are low-income. IF there is space available in the workshop 48 before its scheduled time, we will release additional tickets for those who do not fall into a priority group.