Andrea Belcham is a natural dyer living in Vankleek Hill, Ontario. She uses plants to bring colour to yarn, embroidery thread and fabric, which she sells – along with finished sewn goods like dolls, project bags, and silk scarves – in her Etsy shop, Indigo Hill Dye Studio. She teaches workshops on a variety of topics related to natural dyes and slow stitching, including eco-printing, visible mending, and yarn-dyeing. You can follow her colour-centric adventures on Instagram where she’s @foxprintfibres.

Andrea will be teaching a Visible Mending Workshop during the afternoon of our July 31st Frida themed day retreat.

Visible mending is a practical, accessible and aesthetically pleasing way to repair and add flair to your garments, extending their life span with style. In this class, students will learn how to assess a garment’s unique “wound” and develop a strategy for mending it.

We’ll use basic Japanese embroidery-style stitches in graphic patterns and whimsical stencils to attach a patch that will endure. Students are invited to bring in one or more denim garments in need of repair; needles, plant-dyed embroidery thread and patches will be provided. As we stitch we’ll talk about how visible mending contributes to the Slow Stitch movement and offers an alternative to fast fashion culture. Students will go away with the knowledge, confidence and tools to mend other pieces in their wardrobe: the possibilities are endless!

The class will provide each student with Andrea’s own plant-dyed sashiko thread, a 2-needles set of sashiko needles, and the patches – all of this you will also take home. For use in the class only, Andrea will have all the extra tools that students can try out that make patching easier: hoops, marking pencils, thimbles, stencils, etc.

There will also be a pop-up shop with a selection of mending-related products that you can purchase.