Cold Hands, Warm Heart, our second workshop in the Do-it-Together series we are doing with Building Roots at their Moss Park Market location.  This time the series developer Kate Hamilton joined us as a participant, along with a couple of returnees and a few new people. The participants said they wanted to meet people, to return to sewing after failing out in grade 7 Home ec, to keep a friend company... it was a really good workshop.

We got people sewing fairly quickly after a quick introduction to the artists, to Works-in-Progress and then to some basic fabric types... after sewing and filling the hand-warmers, building Roots volunteer Leona brought our finished hand-warmers upstairs to heat up in the microwave while we enjoyed some blueberry muffins and burned stuff (for a burn test) to identify fabrics.

Printing things onto cloth with an ink jet printer for making labels, then tried this experiment with printing text and photo onto a square of cotton sheet and then top-stitched and attached other fabric on top to interact with the text.

Our first workshop in the Do-it-Together series!  We made sewing kits while learning some basic sewing techniques. Kate Hamilton started this series of 2 hour workshops last fall   and she has expanded the series to a weekly workshop that we alternate teaching. All are hosted by Building Roots at their Moss Park Market location @ 260 Queen Street east.

For this first workshop we had 4 participants, some first time sewing and some with more experience. We made sure there were enough little scissors and seam rippers that everyone could go home with these and some needles and thread to finish the project we started. We brought upholstery samples for the outside and flannel or cotton pj pants/cords for the inside, along with a little peice of felted wool to make a scissor pocket/needle and pin holder.

Participants were great and went home with extra material to finish these and start new projects. Some shared the finished projects with us after. The beautiful variety of upcycled fabric made for some unique and beautiful combinations. One change for next time... we didn't have enough time to complete the projects without rushing so either it could be a two part workshop OR we could bring a sewing machine to do some of the heavy lifting and move it along.

Thanks to the generosity of Building Roots and the Ontario Arts Council, all workshops are free to participants! Sign up via Eventbrite link.

crocheted trees, casting in milk cartons, fabric as texture in painting, fabric samples nailed onto a post, thread wrapped heart.  and of course, the segue riding tour group.