Visible Mending & Swiss Darning Workshop with Alicia Minaard

Guidance by Alicia Minaard

Location: Inner World Studio 

(Haarlemmerdijk 39 1013 KA // Future Days Shop)

Time: Sunday, Jan. 25, 2025 (11:00 AM - 2:00 PM)

Language: English

Materials & Refreshments Included

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No matter how carefully we treat our garments, life happens—rips, snags, and stains are part of being worn and loved. A simple repair can breathe new life into your clothing and extend its story for years to come.

Join us for a hands-on Visible Mending and Swiss Darning workshop guided by repair specialist Alicia Minnaard. Alicia will demonstrate how these traditional techniques can mend holes and reinforce worn areas in both woven and knitted garments—from jeans to chunky knits, cardigans, and wool blankets.

What You’ll Learn

During this 3-hour workshop, you’ll be introduced to the fundamentals of Darning and Swiss Darning, including:

• Understanding basic knit and weave structures, and when to apply each technique
  
• Assessing your own garment’s construction to choose the most suitable repair based on size, material, and placement
  
• Exploring colour combinations and yarn selection
  
• Learning various weaving options for darning repairs
  
• Strengthening worn knits and picking up holes using Swiss Darning
  

Bring yourself and the piece you’d like to repair—all other materials are included, and you’ll receive take-home instructions to build your stitching repertoire. This workshop welcomes all skill levels, but a little patience might be good to have.

The workshop is guided in an intimate group setting, allowing space for personal guidance and a calm, creative atmosphere.

About Alicia Minnaard

Alicia Minnaard is a dedicated repair specialist and co-founder of the open-source platform Fixing Fashion, who finds inspiration in garments that bear the marks of long-term love and use. She believes that through restoring and celebrating these worn areas, we can transform our relationship with clothing. Whether darned, reworked, or visibly mended, each piece begins to tell a richer story of how it is worn and cared for.

Since graduating from ArtEZ Arnhem in 2018, Alicia has been developing her imagined utopia Noeskwam: A Model for a Qualitative Society. Within the One Army collective, she founded Fixing Fashion, an open-source platform where clothing isn’t sold but reimagined—inviting a global community to repair, remake, and revalue what already exists.

Alicia’s work moves fluidly between play and purpose, creating new worlds from the old. Through one-off pieces, limited editions, and made-to-order designs, she continues to question how fashion is made, used, and loved.