We’re thrilled to welcome Eleanor and Sarah from London-based Fast Fashion Therapy to help us explore two creative and visible mending practices – darning and Boro patching, a technique inspired by a Japanese craft.

Visible mending allows us to repair our clothes with a personal and creative touch. Instead of hiding away the damage, we can make a feature of the mend.

This is a sew along workshop – below is a list of things to gather so you can join in and try out the techniques during the workshop. Don’t worry, most are readily available basic sewing tools and patches of fabric you likely have at home already and we’ll send a reminder of the list to you by email before the event.

This event is part of our Celebration of Mending in Belfast 2021, supported by Belfast City Council as part of European Week for Waste Reduction. Check out our full programme: www.wordpress.repaircafebelfast.com/mending.

List of materials:

– Knitted fabric to work on – either a knitted item of clothing with holes in you might want to fix/add decoration to or a swatch of knitted fabric cut from an old scarf/jumper/sock

– Yarn to darn with – something not too thick, from a ball of wool that you might knit or crochet with, we won’t need more than around 1.5m for practicing with during the workshop

– Something to darn on – you might own a wooden darning mushroom or egg, if not a lemon or orange can work just as well, also see our ‘Find-it-at-home Darning Mushroom’ blog

– Fabric for patching – 2 x woven fabric scraps (ideally around 15cm x 15cm in size), could be taken from an old shirt/pillow case/pair of jeans, or use an item of clothing with holes in you want to patch up and 1 fabric patch

– Sewing thread – either a hand sewing thread, like a thicker embroidery cotton, or a normal sewing thread on a reel you could use on a sewing machine

– Needles – can be normal hand sewing needles or longer darning needles, just make sure that the eye is big enough to fit your thicker yarn for darning through

– Scissors – sharp enough for cutting fabric with

– Pins – either dressmaking pins or safety pins