Alterations Workshop witih Lauren Taylor of Lladybird

Join us for a hands-on, one-day workshop with Lauren Taylor, where you'll learn the essential skills for altering and repairing your garments to fit your body and style. Whether you're a beginner or have some experience, this workshop is perfect for anyone interested in learning how to breathe new life into their wardrobe.

What You’ll Learn:

• Seam Ripping Techniques: Master the art of effectively removing different types of stitches—straight, serged finishes, and chainstitches—without damaging your fabric.
• Garment Fit Assessment: Learn how to evaluate a garment’s fit, style, and construction, and determine the adjustments needed to achieve a perfect fit.
• Pinning and Transferring Adjustments: Understand how to pin-fit a garment to your body and accurately transfer those adjustments in preparation for sewing.
• Disassembling Garments for Alterations: Gain insight into how to carefully take apart a finished garment and evaluate its original construction to determine the best way to approach adjustments.
• Basic Garment Repairs: Learn essential garment repair techniques, from fixing seams to mending hems, so you can keep your clothes in great shape.
• Alteration Feasibility: Discover how to assess whether a garment is worth altering or repairing based on its construction and condition.
• Trial-and-Error Troubleshooting: Learn how to work with existing garments, troubleshoot common issues, and embrace the trial-and-error process when making alterations.

What to Expect:

• No Muslins or Flat Pattern Work: This workshop focuses solely on finished garments—no muslin fitting or pattern alterations will be covered. If you're looking for pattern-based instruction, that’s a different class.
• No Specialty Materials: We’ll be working with standard fabrics, so please leave leather, sequins, fur, and other specialty fabrics at home, as they require different techniques.

Homework:

Select up to 6 Garments that you'd like to alter or upcycle. Bring the clean, pressed garments to class and Lauren will help you evaluate them and determine the best way to make them work for you and your body.

What to Bring:

A VARIETY OF GARMENTS TO ALTER AND REPAIR: Please bring a minimum of 6 garments (or more!!). Acceptable garments include both handmade and ready to wear.

Students may bring garments for themselves or anyone in their family/friends (men or women, adults or children). The best garments to bring are the pieces that you (or your loved ones) want to wear but do not. It is recommended that you bring a variety of pieces that require alterations ranging from advanced to very easy (including those pants that you’ve been meaning to hem but haven’t gotten around to yet). No formalwear, no leather. Please do not bring work-in-progress garments or muslins - completed garments only. If you are unsure whether a garment is suitable, bring it anyway! Bring all the garments!

SEWING MACHINE: You must know how to sew and use the machine you bring with you. Bring a serger if you have one. We’ll have a couple available for the class to share.

SEWING NOTIONS (SUBJECT TO ANTICIPATED REPAIRS AND ALTERATIONS):

Suggestions include fusible interfacing, extra fabric (matching or contrast - be sure to prewash before class!), buttons, zippers, elastic, patches

THREAD: Various colors + weights of thread to match your projects

BASIC CUTTING SUPPLIES: Fabric scissors, paper scissors, rotary cutters + mat (we do have shared mats in the classroom, but a small mat at your machine may be very useful.)

BASIC SEWING SUPPLIES: Safety pins (for fitting), straight pins (for sewing), extra sewing machine needles, extra bobbins, hand sewing needles, seam ripper, seam gauge or ruler, thimble, marking tools (Chaco liner, FriXion pen, tailor’s wax, etc.), Wonder Tape or fabric glue, thread snips or small scissors

SAFETY PINS: For fitting. I prefer the large ones but any safety pin will work in a pinch.

NOTEBOOK AND PEN: You will want to take lots of notes!

IMPORTANT: Due to costs involved in bringing Lauren from out of town for this workshop, no refunds will be allowed. We will maintain a waitlist and if you need to cancel, we will do our best to fill your spot. If your spot is filled, we will refund you minus a $50 cancellation fee.