Mending Workshop with Jody Alexander

Join book and fiber artist Jody Alexander (on view in Stitches & Wiggles) at NUMU for an afternoon of learning all things mending. In this 3-hour workshop, the artist will teach a variety of mending techniques. Mending techniques are used to repair and strengthen garments and other textile items. But, when left visible, the repairs are also decorative and add texture, line, color, and can be quite charming! The techniques can also be used in paper and textile art pieces.

In this workshop students will create a sampler of mending techniques seen in Japanese and French textiles. After learning the techniques, attendees will proceed to repair or embellish a garment or other textile item of their choice. Some materials will be provided, but each student will bring an item that needs repair, or embellishing and will apply one or more of the mending techniques learned in the class.

The instructor will bring items from her collection of mended textiles for inspiration. Students should bring a textile item that has a worn area that needs reinforcing, a hole or tear that requires repair, a stain that needs covering, or an item that simply could use some stitcherly embellishment. This can be a pair of pants, a dress, a shirt or skirt, a tablecloth, a curtain, or other textile item.

Students should bring the following:

• Threads you may want to work with: embroidery, machine thread, sashiko, pearl cotton, etc.
• Scraps of fabric to use as patches
• An item to repair or embellish
• Needles to fit your threads
• Pins
• Scissors
• Thread snips (optional)

The instructor will provide:

• Fabric for sampler
• Fabric scraps for patching
• Threads

Exhibitions, programs, and operations are made possible by NUMU’s Board of Directors & Circle Members, the Michael & Alyce Parsons Art Endowment, Peggy & Phil Koen, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Borgenicht Foundation, the Flick Family, Jan Schwartz & Bob Baden, Ranae DeSantis, The Poncetta Charitable Fund, the Town of Los Gatos, and SVCreates, in partnership with the County of Santa Clara.

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