I’m Teaching a Sewing Class at Makeshift Society!

I’m teaching a sewing class – Learn to Revive and Repair Your Clothes at Makeshift Society in San Francisco on Tues., Sept. 16!

I decided to teach this class for two reasons:

1. I’ve met people over the past year or so who don’t know how to do simple repairs, such as repair a hem or reattach a button. (They either have to pay (or beg) someone to do it for them or the item just sits in the back of the closet.)
2. Instead of throwing away clothes, I want to encourage folks to revive or repurpose garments so that they can continue to wear them. This motivation is partly inspired by the book Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion by Elizabeth Cline (see Book Review: Overdressed, which I read a couple of years ago).

I’ll be showing people how to identify whether they can easily repair a piece of clothing and how they can fix it. And if you have holes in your socks I demonstrate how I do it.

Plus I will bring a couple of things I’ve “refreshed” by adding trim. For example, I’ve had these two gray RTW (ready-to-wear) skirts for many years. Eventually I got bored with them but I didn’t want to throw them out because they still fit. So I’ve added trim to each of them on two separate occasions. The darker trey sported some wool lace I hand sewed a few years ago and later replaced with this big black rick rack. The other skirt is a lovely silk-linen blend. I attached a pleated trim to it several years ago but then that got old so I replaced it with this wide cotton lace.

I’ll also present a few ideas of what you can do to revive an old garment – whether it’s cutting it up to give it a new shape or adding some hardware or other embellishment to give it a fresh look. For example, there are some fun and easy things you can do with D-rings.

Everyone in the class will get a few needles and pins as well as a sampler of threads and a some buttons.

And if you have an old garment that you can’t bear to throw away or something that is wearable but no longer in fashion, bring it to class and we’ll see if we can find a way to revive it!

If you know anyone in the Bay Area who would be interested in this class please spread the word! To register, go to the Makeshift Society page here. The class will take place on Tues., September 16, 6:30 to 8:30 pm, fee: $25. Hope to see you there!