Workshops
We organize a series of free public workshops where different designers share their textile repair ideas, knowledge, and skills. The workshops are centered on different themes and techniques, most of which are very accessible. They can be used by anyone, so you can continue to repair more of your clothes at home or at any other place.
All workshops are free, but it is necessary to register.
Location: Stijlkamer, Hoog Catharijne, Godebaldkwartier 54, 3511 DX Utrecht. Entrance from the side of the Vredenburgplein. The location is accessible by a wheelchair.
Marijke Bongers Workshop: What on Earth happened to my shirt! Friday 24 Sep 10:30-13:30
https://www.instagram.com/ecotextilestudio/
During this workshop Marijke will help you to bring new life to your old garments using embroidery and applique. In these 3 hours you will add shapes and words that matter to your clothes.
Please bring a piece of clothing that you would like to repair or refresh. You can think of a word, phrase, quote that is meaningful to you. You can also bring an image/photo, which outline you would like to place on your clothes.
During the workshop we will also discuss and collectively map the future possibilities for clothing repair.
Naaierij Workshop: Sew it Up! Friday 24 Sep 14:00-15:30
Naaierij is a sustainable fashion initiative started by designers Roos van Soest and Isabel van der Meijde which aims to reconnect people with their clothes. Apart from organizing educational events about sewing, repair and sustainability they also create an inclusive space where people can repair and upcycle their own clothes. In their Sewing café in the Hague, they can lend you a workspace, equipment, and a helpful advice so that you can breathe a new life into your old garments.
You can easily drop by with a pair of ripped trousers or an old pullover that have been laying at the back of your wardrobe for years, and fix of transform it yourself in a couple of hours, all the while enjoying great company and good coffee.
https://www.denaaierij.nl/
In this workshop Roos and Isabel will help you to refresh and personalize your clothes in a playful way. The only thing you have to do is to bring a ripped pair of jeans, a blouse with a hole, or another garment that needs fixing. The Naaierij will show you how to repair your clothes and to turn them into small pieces of art. At the end your will get a garment with a story, which you have written yourself.
During this workshop we will also discuss and collectively map the future possibilities for clothing repair, particularly looking at the role of repair startups, fashion brands and policymakers.
Maartje van Dijck Workshop: Playing with Machines Saturday 25 Sep 10:30-13:30
Maartje’s van Dijk is a textiles researcher and designer combining embroidery techniques and digital design methods. In her work she often plays with the balance between freedom and structure. In the times of ubiquitous digitalization Maartje seeks to connects the digital and handmade and to explore the new ways in which humans and machines can work together. Using digital embroidery, she turns used and damages garments into unique wearable pieces of art.
https://maartjevandijck.com/
In this workshop Maartje can help you to repair or personalize your clothes with abstract machine embroidery.
You can bring a piece of clothing that you would like to fix or embellish and Maartje can turn it into a unique object.
During the workshop we will also discuss and collectively map the future possibilities for clothing repair.
Extinction Rebellion NL Fashion Action Workshop: Guerilla Repair Saturday 25 Sep 13:30-15:00
XRNL Fashion Action is a group of activists that fight the toxic, underpaying and irresponsible fashion industry. With their Guerilla Repair workshops they want to show that there is an alternative to constantly buying new clothes, and that creatively repairing what you already have can be much more fun.
https://extinctionrebellion.nl/en/community/xr-nl-fashion-action/
They invite you to make playful patchwork repairs that express your personality, views, and values.
Luice Chaptal/ We Made Together Workshop: Life Crisis/Repair Therapy Saturday 25 Sep 15:00-18:00
Luice Chaptal is an artist, mender, and a creative connector. Her socially engaged projects are often focused on practices of care, such as repair and mending. They are motivated by ecofeminist ideas and the exploration of paths towards the ecological transition. Her poetic work looks at the psychological dimension and the therapeutic potential of repair.
https://www.wemadetogether.com/
This workshop invites you to explore the connection between repair and psychological healing processes. Here the act of mending becomes a symbol of personal recovery and the overcoming of difficult experiences. While our hands repair clothes and textile objects, we compassionately discuss some challenging experiences that we had in our lives. This activity connects material and psychological restoration.
Bell Poort/ Blazinbell Workshop: Freestyle Sashiko & Boro Sunday 26 Sep 11:00-14:00
Blazinbell is a fashion designer with an interest in the restoration of damaged garments and the evolution of clothing items over the course of their use. She provides continuous repair service for her own creations, encouraging her clients to bring them back for creative retouching. She works with different mending and patchwork technics. Her designs, made from used and leftover textiles, have rebellious street aesthetics and inclusive democratic spirit.
In this workshop Bell will help you to fix and embellish your clothes with the use of Sashiko and Boro techniques. This freestyle combination of patchwork and embroidery creates a lot of space for artistic and personal expression. The stitching patterns that you chose can mean a lot. For example, you can translate the drawings of your children to your clothes, to keep them close to you for a long time. In this workshop you can make your clothes much more valuable, unique, and long lasting.
Painted Series Workshop: Golden Joinery Sunday 26 Sep 14:30-18:00
Painted Series is a hybrid fashion collective, led by fashion designer Saskia van Drimmelen and performance director Margreet Sweerts. It explores new ways to develop and distribute clothing and blurs the lines between fashion and performance, expanding the idea of what a garment can be. They have initiated a non-commercial, collaboratively developed clothing brand - Golden Joinery. Touched by the Japanese technique Kintsugi, it invites people to repair dear but broken garments with golden threads and patches. Celebrating the story of garments with golden scars, it adds a second layer to their meaning, and questions the monopoly of fashion labels.
http://www.goldenjoinery.com/
In this performative workshop Margreet and Saskia invite you to repair your clothes with gold. Please bring with you a garment that you would like to repair.
Slowly and through playful interventions, this workshop will lead you out of your mind and into your hands. It will encourage you to let go of a pre-determined result and to work together with others.
Spending time on our garments will bring us a number of questions: Who determines value? What’s new? When is something finished? Can there be beauty in a flaw? Can I contribute to a bigger whole while doing something for myself?
Every participates will take part in both creation and spreading of the Golden Joinery brand; the collection will swarm immediately into the world, being worn again by their owners.
It is important that you follow the workshop from the start at 14:30 until the end at 18:00. Please be on time for the beginning. Unfortunately, it will not be possible to join in later.
