Make New & Mend

Make New & Mend is a project focused on teaching you inventive and clever ways to repurpose, upcycle, and mend household items to prevent them going to waste. Funded by Hampshire County Council’s Waste Prevention Fund, the sessions have been heavily subsided making them accessible to all! Each three hour workshop costs just £3!

In every workshop you will learn new creative skills and gain knowledge and confidence! Tutors will teach, demonstrate, and provide helpful handouts so that after the session you can use the techniques you’ve learnt to complete projects and share the skills with others. Participants can access our FREE A Space To Make weekly sessions to work on their own Make New & Mend inspired projects.

Saturday 5 November | 10am-1pm
Kintsugi with Richard Walker

If you’ve got a beloved pot, vase or ceramic dish at home that has broken but you can’t bear to part with it, then you must book onto this Kintsugi course with resident gilder Richard Walker! Kintsugi or golden joinery started in Japan around 500 years ago. Instead of hiding any cracks and repairs, the art (and idea) of kintsugi is to celebrate the damage as part of the journey and history of the piece by drawing attention to it by using gold! Using contemporary materials, this session will teach you the basics of how to repair an item using gold. Once you’ve mastered the skills you can further explore the potential of this craft at home or in our FREE A Space To Make weekly sessions. Participants should bring along an item of broken crockery or pottery to work on.

Saturday 12 November | 10am-1pm
Tufted Rag Rugs with Louise Pitt 

Do you have an abundance of old clothes and fabrics that you don’t know what to do with and are considering throwing away? Why not learn how to transform them into a rag rug and save them going to waste! In this taster session Louise will talk you through how to prepare and utilise the fabrics scraps that you otherwise would have thrown away. Bring along your fabric stash and leave at the end with the knowledge, skills & understanding of how to make a rag rug and a few different samples! Now inspired and informed, you’ll be able to order the backing fabric and start making your very own rag rug at home! Don’t forget you can also finish the rag rug off during our free A Space To Make sessions!

Saturday 3 December | 10am-1pm
Upcycled Furniture with Richard Walker

Richard has years of experience upcycling furniture and turning the drab into the dramatic! If you are keen to learn more about upcycling furniture at home, then this is the taster session for you! Over the course of 3 hours Richard will share lots of tips and tricks to reinvent items. You will be talked through the various steps and stages needed to prepare the item for upcycling and get a chance to try a few different finishing techniques. After the session you will be full of inspiration and confidence ready to start tackling your first upcycling project at home. If you need a messier space to do the work in, don’t forget you can take advantage of our FREE A Space To Make weekly sessions

Saturday 17 December | 10am-1pm
Patchwork with Louise Pitt

Another brilliant workshop for anyone who has a fabric stash at home that they don’t know what to do with! Spend a few hours with Louise learning the traditional craft of Patchwork, making use of tiny scraps of fabric and transforming them into something beautiful! Learn how to prepare and join the fabric into patches ready to be sewn together. Patchwork has always been about repurposing old material to save it going to waste and we’re really excited to share this skill with you! Bring along your fabric stash and leave at the end of the taster with the beginnings of your own patchwork creation which you can finish at home or in our free A Space To Make sessions!

Saturday 7 January 2023 | 10am-1pm
Recycled Card Cards with Tanya & Bethany Wood (aka Wood & Daughters)

With Christmas approaching, we know that we are going to be receiving a lot of cards and paper over the coming months, which would normally just go straight into the bin come January… Why not save them and join us for this fun & relaxed workshop! Simple collage and mark making will be explored as you enjoy making a range of greeting cards for use throughout the whole year. Collect and bring along old cards, envelopes, wrap and interesting waste card and paper and give them new life. There is nothing nicer than making and giving a handmade card so you can treat yourself while getting organised for the New Year AND reduce household waste! Tanya and Bethany (Wood and Daughters), mother and daughter will be your hosts and bring their experiences as fine artist, graphic designer, jewellery makers and passionate craft enthusiasts to this decorative stationery session. If you feel inspired and want to make more, why not come along to our free A Space To Make sessions.

Saturday 21 Jan 2023 | 10am-1pm
Upholstery with Lesley Bushell

Fallen out of love with your dining chairs and considering taking them to the tip? Always dreamt of refreshing your tired dining chairs by re-upholstering the cushions but not known where to start? You’re in luck…
Lesley Bushell has a successful upholstery business called Hilda’s Lounge and she will be hosting a taster session to share with you all the tips and tricks you need to know to have a go yourself at home! Lesley will demonstrate and talk you through the various stages of re-upholstering a dining chair cushion, and you will get a chance to get hands-on at the practical elements such as stretching fabric over the cushions and nailing those precise corners! Leave at the end armed with all the information you need to tackle a project at home! If you need a bigger space to tackle this project, then participants are welcome to use our FREE A Space To Make weekly sessions to do the work!

Saturday 4 February 2023 | 10am-1pm
Applique with Kathryn Green

An annoying stain, or a hole in a garment/textile item can often mean it gets thrown out. In this workshop Kathryn will show you an inventive, beautiful and creative way of covering the damage meaning you can continue wearing / using the items. Applique is best described as ‘fabric collage’. You will be shown how to use bondaweb to fix the design and creative stitch to further embellish the applique. For this taster bring along a garment / textile item that needs some TLC and learn how to transform it. Leave at the end with all the information & knowledge to continue the transformation at home if you don’t finish it during the session. If you’re inspired by the craft of applique, don’t forget you can make the most of our free A Space To Make sessions to continue upcycling… it may be that you love the process so much you end up doing applique on other garments and home textile items!! Image source: thesewingdirectory.co.uk

Saturday 18 february 2023 | 10am-1pm
Reclaimed Jewellery with Sharon Justice

Do you have a mass of tangled jewellery at home? A necklace with a broken chain, an odd earring who’s lost its companion, or a bracelet that’s seen better days? You may think it’s all destined for the bin, but this workshop will show you another option… Learn how to pick the components apart and then reuse them to make new jewellery items that you’ll love! In this taster session Sharon will show you how to use simple findings and methods to make use of pieces otherwise destined for the bin. Once you’ve learnt some skills and tips & tricks there will be no stopping you, you’ll be able to continue upcycling at home, or you can come to Making Space and use our tools during our free A Space To Make sessions. Image source: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/101612535326558398/

Saturday 4 March 2023 | 10am-1pm
Shibori with Kathryn Green

A faded, stained or tired looking textile can often be thrown out by the owner thinking there is no other option for it, but in this taster session we will show you some beautiful ways of transforming your textiles using shibori dyeing techniques! Kathryn is a master of this artform and in the session she will show you various techniques to get different patterned outcomes. Bring along a garment or textile item (pillowcase / cushion cover etc) that you’d like to dye and leave at the end full of items and inspiration to continue experimenting at home! Don’t forget you can always utilise our free A Space To Make sessions if you don’t want to risk the mess at home!! Please note, the fabric will need to be a natural fibre rather than synthetic or it won’t dye properly. Image Sources: Pexels.

Saturday 18 March 2023 | 10am-1pm
Silver Fork Bangle with Sharon Justice

Do you have an odd silver fork lurking in your cutlery tray that doesn’t match the rest of your utensils? Rather than throwing it out, why not bring it along to this special workshop and learn how to transform it into a beautiful silver bangle! Sharon will teach you how to reshape the silver handle and tines and create a beautiful wearable piece of art! We hope this taster workshop will inspire you to look at things differently and consider how you could reinvent things otherwise destined for the bin!