As long as there has been cloth, there has been mended cloth, or cloth that has needed mending. Historically, the more laborious or time-consuming the making of the cloth, the more urgent was the desire to repair and preserve it. Today, where cloth is more easily procured, and not always made by hand, mending has often fallen by the wayside.

Recently there has been a resurgence in the interest in mending. Borrowing from cultures like India and Japan, where a mending practice is still part of daily life, techniques for the repair of torn cloth are abundant. Mending comes with the satisfaction of keeping our garments alive and well, and out of the waste cycle.

As we wear our clothes, they become naturally imbued with the stories of our lives. Memories become part of the experience of our garments. Tears or holes can sometimes be the evidence of the plot lines of our day. Some aberrations of the fabric come with a bold story, an event. Others are caused by the more mundane, habitual motions of our bodies as we move through our daily tasks. But all of these delicate, time-worn fabric events give us a recording of our selves.

What does it mean to mend in a narrative way? ‘Narrative Mending’ still retains its base in function – to preserve the usability of our garments. In Narrative Mending we take our repair work one step further – as we fix the broken cloth, we add consciously to the story, by either a more literal approach, adding pictorial elements or other decorative markers, or metaphorically, adding hidden layers of meaning through fabric and stitches. Over time, the story of our garment begins to deepen. Our garment becomes something of a visual journal.

In this workshop you will become a fearless mender. All of the techniques for structurally repairing your garment will be shown. Additionally, discussion in how to add design or figurative elements will be suggested and described, so that you will learn to see the holes and frays not simply as things to be fixed, but as opportunities to highlight your personal story.

Date
Thursday, November 6th, 2024

Time
12 – 2:30 pm ET

Location
Zoom, a link will be sent to participants the day before class

Cost
$65 for the individual class, $300 for the full series

*All sessions will be recorded. A link to the recording will be emailed to all those who register following the live session. This link is live for one month after the end of the series for you to watch at your convenience.

Class Materials:

• Woven article(s) of clothing that are treasured and in need of mending
• Assorted sewing threads
• Small and large pieces of woven fabric to use as panels and patches
• Embroidery thread
• Scissors
• Needles to match the sewing and embroidery thread you are using

Our Teacher

For the last 25 years, Karen Stevens has been a freelance CAD instructor, training textile and fashion designers to create knits, prints and wovens for the garment industry. But these days you are more likely to find her in her creatively cluttered studio than on her computer, adding one more vintage patch to a favorite pair of jeans or double gauze shirt. Her love of visible mending, natural fibers, hand dyed fabrics and slow stitching has recently turned into a small side business, creating one of a kind stitched curiosities.

“You repair the thing until you make it completely.” – Louise Bourgeois