About the visible mending:
Visible mending allows us all to squash those perfectionist fears by embracing bold and creative repairs that celebrate all of our hand worked and wonky stitches.
Mended is better than perfect and choosing to repair the clothes we love instead of buying new also shows the fashion industry that we care about the stories of our clothing from the textile farmers growing the cotton through to the garment workers who made the clothes. Visible mending can also turn your clothing into a wearable scrapbook, capturing the life you are living in them and making every garment uniquely yours.
About the workshop - Introduction to visible mending with darning:
Darning is a traditional mending technique used to create small woven patches to cover and repair damaged knit clothing. There are lots of different ways to darn depending on the kind of fabric and damage you are looking to repair, and we'll be mending in a creative and visible way to celebrate the wear and tear our clothing
collects!
In this workshop we will look at the best ways to repair knitwear using various darning techniques. We will look at all the equipment you need to start darning and cover tips and tricks to help along the way. I’ll run through the most popular darning methods such as plain weave darns, honeycomb darns and scotch darns which we’ll test out on sample fabrics before moving on to repairing your favourite knits.
This workshop is suitable for beginners and sewing enthusiasts alike.
All materials are provided: just bring your own item of clothing to mend or decorate; darning can be applied to woven items but works best on knitwear. I will have a selection of yarns and colours but if you think you’ll need a very specific yarn or colour match then please bring this with you.
⚠ It is recommended that you bring an item that has a small area to repair to start with or something that you are happy to practise on ⚠
About the artist:
Skye Pennant is the owner of slow stitch club; an initiative based around sharing traditional mending skills for visible mending. With a background in Fashion Design and several years spent working in a high school, Skye has developed a creative and gentle approach to learning visible mending techniques that enable us to get creative, slow down and feel empowered in helping to reduce the amount of textile waste currently being sent to landfill. Skye is also the author of Well Worn, a book designed to help you mend the most common garments in your wardrobe.
One day workshop 14th November 2026 10am to 4:30pm
£99 including refreshments. Please bring along lunch or alternatively, visit one of the two cafes on site or the award-winning farm shop.
BOOKING THIS WORKSHOP:
Bookings for 2026 are now open! You can keep up to date with new courses and info by following us on Instagram @hopeandelvis or subscribing to our mailing list at the bottom of our homepage.