Felting for Sweater Repair - A Sustainable Spinster Workshop

Mend Your Closet - Felting for Sweater Repair

Available to regional community spaces at a sliding scale of $175-$250 for a two hour program. All materials provided.

Do your woven wool sweaters have holes in them? Minor holes, if not addressed can unravel larger portions of the garment. Wool can be mended in a number of ways, through patching, re-weaving, and felting. Felting is the easiest method and requires the least amount of skill or practice. Participants learn how to use felting as a visible mending option for fixing your sweaters!

Participants are invited to bring 2-3 items from your own closet for repair. Please note that felting ONLY WORKS on woven wool. It will not be as effective on knitted or crocheted pieces, and does not work as well on acrylic textiles. Blended wool sweaters should also work well. 

This is a dry-felting workshop only. A second session could include wet felting to further secure the mend.

SPACE NEEDS: Chairs for all participants, table that all participants can work on.

Accessibility Notes: Open to ages 14-114. Presented in English. ADA accessible room. Requires manual dexterity, and ability to sit for 1 1/2 hours.

My original wool felting teaching kit and felting needles were purchased through a Sustainable Finger Lakes Neighborhood Mini-Grant awarded in the fall of 2024. I prioritize purchasing raw wool from Finger Lakes farms, and my yarns are mostly from second hand purchases. My felting pads are from a thrifted cushion pillow.

Upcycled woolen zip-up with moon and planet repairs.

——
Workshops led by Zoë Van Nostrand a.k.a. @sustainablespinster (Instagram). Zoë is an amateur, somewhat self taught, hand sewer and textile artivist from Mecklenburg NY.She has been mending her clothes (and her loved ones) for over 20 years. She considers mending a radical act against fast fashion and the global impacts of the textile industry, and a message of respect and reciprocity to the textile workers around the globe who make our clothes.

Dyed wool ready for felting.