Fashion and Fiber

Serger Sewing Machine Certification

Manitou Art Center, Manitou Springs, Colorado - multiple sessions 2022

Learn the basic mechanics of serger (interlock) sewing machines, as well was how to thread, maintain machine and make stitching adjustments. Students will complete a small project during certification.

Radical Mending

Manitou Art Center, Manitou Springs, Colorado - multiple sessions 2022

Before you give up on ever wearing that shirt again, join us for Radical Mending--you’ll learn practical sewing skills including how to hem, patch, adjust the fit of your existing garments, and try new ways to customize your clothes to make them your own. That top that never quite fit? Bring it! That pair of pants that’s just too short? Bring it! Those jeans with the hole in the knee? Bring them too! Simple hand- and machine-sewing techniques will be introduced, and a variety of fabrics, buttons, and pre-existing garments will be available for you to deconstruct and use. Garments will also be made available for the teacher for practice. Learn new skills to help you repair, alter, and customize your clothes!

Radical Mending: Machine stitching and Light Alterations

Before you give up on ever wearing that shirt again, join us for Radical Mending--you’ll learn practical sewing skills including how to hem, patch, adjust the fit of your existing garments, and try new ways to customize your clothes to make them your own. That top that never quite fit? Bring it! That pair of pants that’s just too short? Bring it! Those jeans with the hole in the knee? Bring them too! A variety of fabrics and pre-ex-isting garments will be available for you to deconstruct and use. Garments will also be made available from the teacher for practice. This workshop will focus on using sewing machines for patching and repair, as well as changing the fit of clothing.

Radical Mending: Darning

Before you give up on ever wearing that shirt again, join us for Radical Mending--you’ll learn practical sewing skills including how to hem, patch, adjust the fit of your existing garments, and try new ways to customize your clothes to make them your own. Knits, sweaters, socks, and more! Learn to darn in this special edition of Radical Mending. Just in time for the cool months, repair and upgrade your favorite sweater, those wool socks, or even your favorite cozy throw blanket. Garments and fabrics will be made available from the teacher for practice. This workshop will focus on darning methods, so we will focus primarily on knit materials.

Radical Mending (with Kate Hampel)

Glouster Public Library, Glouster, Ohio - Fall 2019

School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Homan Square Campus - Fall 2017

Class Schedule

Weekend Fashion Workshops - Fall 2021/Spring 2022

Manitou Art Center, Manitou Springs, CO

Weekend Fashion Workshop (Middle Schoolers)

Weekend Fashion Workshop helps young designers focus on building specific skills in fashion design and construction. The theme for this month is: Hems & Finishes. Students will get assistance with finishing projects and learn about finishing hems and professional seams. Students will complete a sample of hems and finishing seams for different fabrics. Students may also bring in a project they’ve started to receive assistance from the teaching artist on project steps and completion.

Weekend Fashion Workshop: Aprons for Hosting and Gifts

Weekend Fashion Workshop helps young designers focus on building specific skills in fashion design and construction. The theme for this month is Aprons for Hosting and Gifts. Students will learn about two traditional aprons and select the apron they’d like to make in the workshop. The workshop will end with hand-stitching techniques, demonstrating hand embroidery for customizing and personalizing textile gifts. All materials are provided for this workshop, funded in part by the Manitou Arts, Culture, and Heritage Initiative.

Fashion Construction for Middle Schoolers - Summer 2021, Sessions 1 & 2

Manitou Art Center, Manitou Springs, CO

Fashion Construction introduces young designers to fashion with an emphasis on discovering their own style, learning foundational skills in garment construction, and exploring the materials of fashion and their environmental impact. Students build skills in fashion research and drawing, altering existing garments, pattern-making, and machine sewing. Activities guide students through the process of developing ideas, finding inspiration, responding to the work of other artists, and considering the impact of fashion design on their community and communities around the globe. As their designs develop, additional technical skills are introduced, including fabric printing, embroidery, and finishing techniques.

Class Page

Fashion Projects Online - Fall 2020/Spring2021

School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Explore activities that guide you through the process of developing original ideas, finding inspiration for fashion in the world around you, and respond to the work of other artists and designers. As your designs develop, you will learn to enhance your projects with technical skills such as hand sewing, embroidery, and draping. Virtual visits to the Art Institute of Chicago and Flaxman Library provide inspiration and supplement the studio experience. Open to students at all levels, lessons and projects change each term.

Fashion Design Projects Fall 2020

Fashion Design Projects Spring 2021

Fashion and Fiber Studio

(with Cate Breasley)

School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Homan Square Campus - Summer 2018

Fashion and Fiber Crafts Studio is the time for trying a new skill, completing a project, or beginning something brand new. Each studio day, the morning kicks off with a new project (fabric dyeing, block printing, jewelry projects). The follow up afternoon session is open-ended––a place to work on whatever you like. Bring in an existing project, or build on the project we started together. Short demonstrations are available in the afternoon in quilting and hand stitching techniques, crochet, and clothing reuse ideas. All skill levels are welcome.

T-Shirt DeLuxe

School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Homan Square Campus - Spring 2018

Class Schedule

Personalize and update your wardrobe in just one workshop. Learn no-sew and hand-sewing methods to create exciting new looks from simple t-shirts. Skills covered will include material manipulation, alteration techniques, and drawing and stenciling for fabrics. This is a BYOT (Bring Your Own T-Shirt) event, but we will also have additional tees available. No previous sewing or designing experience required.

Homan Fashion Studio - Fall 2017

School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Homan Square Campus

Schedule

Fashion Studio is designed for students interested in learning foundational skills in garment construction, and for exploring multiple materials and textiles for fashion and beyond. Students learn strategies for altering existing garments and will be introduced to pattern-making, machine sewing, embroidery, and more while discussing how fashion shapes and creates culture.

In order to develop a complex and broad view of possibilities for creating clothing and using textiles, explorations will focus not only the Fashion world, but on fashion in everyday life––how people communicate through clothing and how we use fashion to express ourselves.

Class Blog

Be You Fashion Studio - Summer 2016

School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Homan Square Campus

Schedule

In this course, students will develop skills in screen printing for textiles, fashion design, and tailoring/customization. Students will print on tees, and create wearables by altering existing garments and building accessories through sewing and print techniques in preparation for a culminating fashion show and sale at the end of the class.

The course is designed to give students options for altering and creating their own clothing, as well as foster critical dialogue about fashion and lifestyle advertising aimed at youth, building marketing and media literacy. Participants will create text layout or hand drawings for screen prints designs, learning both the shop processes for burning screens, and how to deconstruct and modify existing clothing and build simple structures with textiles.