Saturday Make & Learn: Visible Mending with Cotton

Repair your clothes. Learn a skill. Add your own creative touch.

April 25 · 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM
CoLab at YWCA Manchester, NH
Suggested $5 Donation (To Help Cover Material Costs)

What This Is

This session in Queerlective’s Make & Learn series is all about learning how to mend your own clothing in a way that feels creative, accessible, and empowering.

Cotton will guide participants through the basics of hand sewing, including simple stitches, darning techniques, and decorative approaches that turn repairs into something expressive instead of hidden.

You’ll leave with practical skills you can use again and again, plus a repaired (or newly embellished) piece of clothing.

What You’ll Learn

• Basic hand-sewing stitches
• How to repair holes using darning (woven thread technique)
• Decorative stitches to creatively mend and personalize clothing
• How to approach mending as both a practical and artistic practice

Participants will vote during the session to go deeper into either:

• darning techniques, or
• decorative stitching and embellishment
• Printed guides for both will be available so you can explore at your own pace.

What to Bring

• A torn, worn, or fraying piece of clothing you want to repair
• Curiosity and willingness to try something new

No prior experience needed.

What’s Provided

• Needles, thread, and fabric for practice
• Embroidery hoops and stitching tools
• Accessibility tools like needle threaders and thimbles
• Practice squares for learning before working on your own clothing

Why Mending

Mending is a way to take ownership over what you wear, reduce waste, and save money.

It’s also an accessible form of creative expression. You don’t need expensive materials or formal training to make something meaningful.

This kind of skill-sharing is especially important in communities that are often navigating financial barriers while also building spaces for identity, creativity, and care.

Hosted By

Cotton, a community member passionate about teaching practical, creative skills that help people feel more confident and self-sufficient.

What’s Next

If there’s energy coming out of this session, we’ll launch a monthly mending night at CoLab so people can keep building skills, sharing techniques, and working on projects together.

This first session is about getting people in the door and seeing what grows.

Save Your Spot

Spots are limited so everyone can get hands-on support.