Welcome to Rips, Tears & Reinforcing, part of our Repair and Renew series of workshops that guide you through the stitches and techniques that will help you deal imaginatively with some of the more common repairs you’ll need to tackle.

Book one at a time, or three Repair & Renew classes over the year for a £10 reward to spend online.

In this class we look at a broad range of repairs from a split seam too bringing the two edges of a tear back together. We’ll look at using patches in a traditional and a more contemporary fashion to reenforce weak areas and learn the amazing things that can be done with the fishbone stitch and the arrowhead tack.

Others in the series:

Visible Darning – Saturday 14 September 2024
A new take on darning using colour and pattern to visibly darn large and small areas in knitted textiles. This is a stylised approach to darning, no invisible repairs in this class! You don’t need to be able to do traditional darning, just bring an open mind and some creativity.

Tutor Becky Davies-Downes is fashion designer by training and costumer in the television industry for many years. She’s a specialist in 1940s fashion who takes a contemporary approach to the essential skills brought to the fore by the Make Do and Mend Movement that swept Britain in the War years. Re-discovering tips and tricks from the past and bringing them up to date for modern fabrics and designs is her forté. This is slow-crafting that’s for your pocket, good for your well-being and good for the environment.

Skill Level: no previous experience required.

Each participant receives a 10% off voucher to spend online or put towards another workshop.

Access notice: there are two flights of stairs to the workroom in our medieval building at 32 Coppergate, York YO1 9NR. We sincerely apologise if this prevents anyone attending.