Come learn creative patching techniques from textile artist, mender, and fashion designer Jessamy Shay. This class will focus on how to repair holes, tears, and stains in clothing using fabric patches and hand embroidery techniques. Participants will learn about tools and materials for patching, and how to combine fabric patches with simple hand embroidery stitches to create eye-catching visible mends. Leave class with a sampler of techniques that you can refer back to when tackling your own mends at home. Suitable for beginners with little or no sewing experience.

 For adults and crafty teens. All supplies will be provided. Registration required.

Jessamy Shay Kilcollins is a textile artist, mender, and fashion designer whose work focuses on sustainability and handcraft processes. She holds a BFA in Fibers and a Certificate in Fashion Design from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. In January 2020, she was one of eight designers from the Northeast selected to participate in a sustainable fashion design competition called Project Upcycle, and she was awarded second place for her gala look sewed from repurposed secondhand clothing. Her current project is AMENDED, a collection of creatively mended vintage garments that would otherwise end up in the textile waste stream.

Jessamy has taught mending in the Boston area at the The Eliot School of Fine and Applied Arts, Make & Mend, the Cambridge Public Library, and the Somerville Public Library. She also participates in sustainability-focused mending pop-up events in and around Somerville, where she co-owns High Energy Vintage with her partner. They live with two cats and way too many chairs in an old nut factory.