BIG MAKE 2026: From Waste to Worth – Stitching Sustainable Stories

Join us for the 6th Annual BIG MAKE, a free community event celebrating creativity, sustainability, and hands-on making.

Held during Earth Month, BIG MAKE invites you to explore how everyday materials can be transformed into something meaningful. Learn simple, practical ways to reduce textile waste, try something new, and leave with something you’ve made yourself.

Enjoy free, hands-on workshops where you can weave, stitch, and create using reclaimed materials—no experience needed. Connect with local fiber artists, explore a unique marketplace, and experience inspiring displays of upcycled textile work.

Registered workshop participants will receive a complimentary boxed lunch (limited to the first 200 registrants)—so be sure to reserve your spot early!

This event is hosted by the San Diego College of Continuing Education (SDCCE) Clothing & Textile Arts (CLTX) Department, offering a glimpse into the innovative, sustainability-focused programs available to the community.

✔ Free admission
✔ Free parking at West City Campus (day of event)
✔ Ages 16+ welcome
✔ No experience needed – come make with us

⚠️ Workshop space is limited—early registration strongly encouraged.

Save your spot now and be part of the BIG MAKE community.

Info: Support SDCCE CLTX student and alumni creators while shopping upcycled textiles, sustainable goods, and one-of-a-kind handmade items—each with its own story.

Info: Step into a playful, hands-on weaving experience where color, texture, and creativity come together. Using a variety of yarns and cords, you’ll explore the rhythm of a loom while you create your own small woven piece on a wooden notched loom (yours to keep when participating in the workshop)—no experience needed and all supplies included.

Info: Step into a hands-on stitching experience where creativity and repair come together. Working with repurposed denim and mixed textiles, you’ll create an expressive patch using simple embroidery techniques—yours to keep. No experience needed and all supplies included.

Info: Step up to our large-scale loom and become part of a living textile installation. Using t-shirt materials leftover from the student installation led by Michelle Montjoy, you’ll contribute your own woven section to a collective artwork.

T-shirts are one of the most commonly discarded garments, with millions ending up in landfills each year despite their potential for reuse. By transforming these materials into yarn, this project gives new life to what would otherwise become waste.

Add your thread to the story—help build a shared work that reflects creativity, sustainability, and community connection.

Info: Explore a dynamic showcase of artists, organizations, and student voices coming together through textiles, creativity, and sustainability.
The San Diego Creative Weavers Guild will present an informative exhibit highlighting the art, history, and contemporary practice of weaving.
Presented in partnership with Visions Textile Museum, local fiber artist Marty Ornish (Marty-O) will share innovative work that explores material, form, and creative reuse.
You’ll also connect with the Associated Students Organization, representing student leadership and engagement—offering ways to get involved, build community, and support student-driven initiatives.
Together, these voices reflect the power of textiles to connect people, ideas, and sustainable futures.
Meet the makers, ask questions, and discover how you can get involved.

Info: Join us at noon for a special BIG MAKE general session featuring a keynote by visiting artist Michelle Montjoy, alongside voices from the SDCCE Clothing & Textile Arts (CLTX) community, with acknowledgements of the people who make BIG MAKE possible.

Michelle Montjoy will offer a thought-provoking keynote drawn from her multidisciplinary practice, exploring how making becomes a way of noticing—of responding to a changing world through textiles, process, and material exploration. She will also share insights from the collaborative student installation created during BIG MAKE week.

Complimentary box lunch (for the first 200 registered participants) will be available for pick-up at 11:45 AM for this session. Please arrive early for lunch pick-up.

This session invites you to pause, reflect, and consider how creativity, sustainability, and community come together—and how small acts of making can carry powerful meaning.

Info: Step into a playful, hands-on weaving experience where color, texture, and creativity come together. Using a variety of yarns and cords, you’ll explore the rhythm of a loom while you create your own small woven piece on a wooden notched loom (yours to keep when participating in the workshop)—no experience needed and all supplies included.

Info: Step into a hands-on stitching experience where creativity and repair come together. Working with repurposed denim and mixed textiles, you’ll create an expressive patch using simple embroidery techniques—yours to keep. No experience needed and all supplies included.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

Get App

Host or Publisher The SDCCE Clothing and Textile Arts Program