Means of Measure

(A space dedicated to the growth of garment and the growth of self.)

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Workshop description:

Mend your holy hole-y garments.
Learn the art of visible mending through a variety of hand stitching and darning techniques. This workshop will teach you how to mend/fix/patch your beloved and worn items of clothing, while posing questions for group discussion about the state of our minds/hearts/bodies over the past year. Emphasis will be placed on the importance of extending the lives of our clothes through dedication to slow fashion. Fixing the fixes. As we sew, thread continues to mark the passage of time, the growth of self and the growth of garment.

All hand sewing levels are able to participate, but it is best to have a little experience.

#1: Patch

In this session students will simple but strong techniques to mend rips and tears of all sizes in a variety of fabrics. Group discussions will focus on simple things in life we may or may not spend time thinking about. Materials: Embroidery floss of your favorite colors, well-loved garment with a hole, fabric that is similar strength and weave to the garments (use scraps that you already have), pins, needles (with an eye big enough to get floss thru), and perhaps an embroidery hoop.

Questions:

Why do you dress the way that you do everyday, is it out of comfort? the love of looking and feeling like a bad bitch? out of necessity? do you dress to create different and specific selves for the outside world? for yourself? do you add accessory or place items in your pockets that hold value to you? Value in the sense of: a protective quality, a talismanic quality, the satisfaction of holding a secret, the ability to evoke a certain emotion or memory when seen or felt, sensory pleasure at touch/feel (worry stone or something of the like).

Is there something that you have started to do this year that you will carry into the rest of your life? have you created a routine or ritual that has changed your life, even in the smallest way, for the better during this year?

#2: Sashiko (inspired)

Building on the skills learned from the first session we step it up a notch and learn more complex ways of mending inspired by traditional Japanese Sashiko techniques. Group discussion will focus on shifts in our understanding.
Materials: Sashiko or cotton thread of your favorite colors, well-loved garment with a hole, fabric that is similar strength and weave to the garments (use scraps that you already have), pins, needles (with an eye big enough to get floss thru), and perhaps an embroidery hoop.

Questions:

Have you ever found yourself in the middle of an argument, so sure your point of view was the only one, only to realize the other persons point of view is totally valid? Where you able to slow down and acknowledge it?

Have you found yourself more or less interested in how others view you as we have gone through long periods of isolation and now are entering into a period of re-opening and public appearances again? Do you feel the pressure of a “re-birth” as it were?

#3: Sock darning (small hole darning)

For this session we learn the basics of darning by focusing on socks in particular. This will set us up for success when we attempt darning on a much larger scale for our last session. Since we are fixing smaller holes group discussion will focus on the little things.
Materials: Darning egg (or apple, orange, small hard plastic ball, any small roundish object that will fit in a sock and not catch a needle), embroidery floss or yarn depending on the thickness of the sock, sock with hole/s, needles that floss or yarn will fit through.

Questions:

What is the smallest thing you saw/witnessed/happened upon/took part in recently that made you bloom with joy? Why?

What is something small that upset you irrationally recently, and left you questioning why you got so frustrated? Where you able to take a step back and see yourself in that moment?

#4: Big hole darning

For our final session we will tackle darning a big hole. The only way to do so is by starting somewhere. Group discussion will focus on the big things.
Materials: Embroidery floss, or yarn depending on the garment, garment with hole/s, needles that floss or yarn will fit through, embroidery hoop larger than the hole.

Questions:

Have there been times recently or in your life where you have felt big overwhemling feelings that seemingly have no narrative, no word or story causing them? do you find yourself projecting them onto your environment, forcing them to fit into aspects of your life?

have you ever taken the time to just let these big feeling be, without assigning them places, or a label? (example: sometimes when driving in my car listening with music i am suddenly awash with an overwhelming sensation of love and gratitude, it is pure joy to live with that feeling for the moment and then let it pass)

label-less feelings are a gift.