Visible Mending with Katrina Rodabaugh

Description

Visible Mending

with Katrina Rodabaugh

Online workshop

Saturday April 25, 2026

10:00-12:30 Pacific, 1:00-3:30 Eastern

Join award-winning artist and author Katrina Rodabaugh for an online Visible Mending workshop with Botanical Colors. Katrina is the author of Mending Matters and Make, Thrift Mend, joyful and practical guides to slow fashion. Visible mending is a hand-stitching technique that combines patches, stitches, and design elements. The class will consider the creative opportunity in mending woven fabrics through careful consideration of materials, design, and stitching techniques. All mending will focus on hand-sewing on woven fabrics like denim, linen, cotton, silk. Mending is a wonderful way to practice hand-stitching and sustainability by extending the life of our textiles. Simple stitches transform torn or distressed garments and homewares through thoughtful repairs. 

Special Offer

Purchase a seat for Katrina’s workshop and receive a naturally dyed scrap bundle for mending with your registration for free.  The scraps consist of cotton, linen, silk and other woven fabrics from our dye library.  Each bundle is unique and quantities are limited to the first 20 workshop purchases. Offer good for US shippping only

Class Overview

This workshop will lead participants through an overview of basic stitches and patching before turning to a garment that needs mending. Katrina will discuss how best to repair garments considering fabric, thread, utility, beauty, and more. Students will leave the workshop with various resources, a mended garment (in-progress), and a class handout. Basic sewing and stitching skills are required. Please note: We will focus on woven fabrics like denim, linen, cotton, silk, hemp, etc. We will not cover mending stretchy fabrics like leggings. We will not focus on darning on knits like sweaters, socks, hats, etc. though some techniques can be used across fabric types. 

Materials to Bring to Class 

• Textile to mend—Garments made of denim, linen, or cotton are great choices. Household textiles like quilts, tea towels, and tablecloths are good too.
• Patches of the same fiber and weight as the textile to be mended—midweight denim is best patched with a midweight denim patch; light linen is best patched with light linen patches; and quilts with quilting cotton, etc.
• Thread of a similar weight to the chosen textile, similar content if available. (I typically like cotton Sashiko thread for denim and linen; silk thread for silk; a finer cotton thread like embroidery floss or all-purpose thread for fine cotton; wool thread or very thin yarn, like lace-weight, for woven wools. If available, linen thread for linen textiles. If in doubt, opt for 100% cotton Sashiko thread.)
• A needle of corresponding size to fit your thread.
• Snips, scissors, or shears.
• A ruler. 
• A fabric marking tool like Clover’s Chaco Liner, or tool of choice.
• Straight pins and/or safety pins
• Optional: thimble, iron, ironing board, and pinking shears.

Download

Please download the document from Katrina once you have purchased the workshop.  If you have an account with Botanical Colors, it will be in your downloads section of your dashboard.  If you check out as a Guest, you should see the download links in your order confirmation email.

Scholarship Opportunity

We have a scholarship opening for two students for the online Zoom workshop.  To apply, please fill out this Google Form.  We will notify all applicants by February 15, 2026.

Minimum Class Size

Minimum class size to hold this workshop is 14 paid sign ups.  If Botanical Colors cancels this workshop due to low enrollment, you will receive a refund within 30 days of the cancellation date.  Please note that otherwise all sales are final and we do not offer refunds or exchanges for workshops except in event of Botanical Colors cancellation.

Teacher Bio

Katrina Rodabaugh is an artist, writer, and teacher working across disciplines to explore environmental issues through craft techniques. Mostly, she rethinks the relationship between fiber art, sustainability, and fashion. She’s the author of three books including Make Thrift Mend (2021) and Mending Matters (2018). Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Boston Globe, Martha Stewart Living, Selvedge Magazine, Sunset magazine, Taproot magazine, and more. She earned a BA in Environmental Studies and an MFA in Creative Writing though her fiber arts training started in childhood. She’s taught thousands of students to mend online and in-person. She writes a weekly newsletter, Love Letters, hosts a summer retreat in her barn, and designs products for her online shop. She lives with her husband, two children, chickens, cats, and many dye plants in the Hudson Valley of NY. www.katrinarodabaugh.com