Leggi questo post in: Italiano
Good morning, everyone! As you’ve probably already noticed if you’ve followed me at all, I truly love sewing and teaching others how to in my tutorials and my free Learn to Machine Sew beginner’s course. I know that my lessons and tutorials help a lot of people learn the techniques they need to sew garments and items, but there’s no hiding the fact that it’s not always possible to show everything over a computer. It’s a lot easier to explain and show others how to do something in person. So I’m super excited because this September, Cucicucicoo is finally going in the direction that I’ve wanted it to go for a while: teaching sewing in person!
I am working on finding a place where I can hold sewing lessons in or around Naples, Italy, where I live, but my first experience will be in Bolzano, in northern Italy, at the Kreativ Fair in September. I’m teaming up with my friend Sandra, from OrloSubito, for three days of of sewing workshops, with an emphasis on refashioning and upcycling. (I’ll tell you more about those below.)
Sandra and I want to spread the love for sustainable sewing, showing people that refashioning can be easy and fun, even if you’ve never done it before, and to help people understand why it’s better for everyone to move away from the fast fashion trend. However, we are both very small businesses and we need your help. This is why we’ve created a crowdfunding campaign on Eppela, so that we can finance our stand and other costs stemming from it. Let me tell you about it.
All it takes is €2 to help support us, but if you donate at least €5, we will thank you with all sorts of great goodies, which you can either pick up at the fair or get sent to your home. (So even if you live far away from Bolzano, it’s worth it to help out!) Here you can see Sandra (a little nervous… isn’t she adorable?!) explaining our project.
We named our main workshop at the fair, which will be continuously ongoing the whole three days, “The Reborn T-Shirt” (in Italian, La maglietta rinata). We chose t-shirts as the main character because 1) pretty much everyone has an old unused tee hanging around somewhere and 2) t-shirts are incredibly versatile and easy to transform because of their knitted structure.
Anyone can stop by our stand with a t-shirt from home (or get one from us) and we’ll show you all sorts of ways to transform it into different types of shopping bags or accessories, such as scarves, necklaces, bracelets, headbands, belts, etc. Or you can keep it as a garment and embellish it with any of a series of techniques we’ll help you with, such as appliqué or stamping. The great thing is that sewing is optional for most of these upcycles, so you don’t need to have any experience!
We will also offer two-hour workshops with sewing machines. Sandra will teach courses sewing either a change purse or a bag organizer with prepared kits, and I will teach how to sew either pajama pants or a ghost costume from an upcycled sheet with my own Cucicucicoo patterns (which you can take home to make as many times as you want).
So in addition to participating in the course to make something cool, you can get first-hand help sewing with a sewing machine and, in my workshops, learn how to use a sewing pattern!
In addition, we’ll offer free refashioning advice. Bring in your garment in need of changing, and we’ll brainstorm together the best ways to transform it! You can read more about our activities in the fair (in Italian) here.
Everyone loves getting something cool, so let me tell you a little about the rewards we’re giving for helping out with our crowdfunding campaign. The more you donate, the more you get back from us! We’re offering:
- public recognition on our websites along with any links you’d like to share (or you can be anonymous, if you prefer)
- reduced or free entrance to the Kreativ fair
- a 15% discount on the OrloSubito and Cucicucicoo shops (I swear, my pattern shop is just about ready to open. It’s getting held up by my new bank account! The discount will also be valid for the products in my Etsy shop.)
- a fun t-shirt bracelet
- a reusable shopping bag sewn from an upcycled sheet or t-shirt
- free participation in our “The Reborn T-Shirt” workshop
- free participation in our two-hour sewing workshops
- sponsorship for your business in the fair and/or on our websites
You can find out more about the crowdfunding campaign and donate on our Eppela page (in English). Thank you so much for helping us realize our dream and spread the love for making things by hand with respect for the environment!
I will be back next week with a great summer tutorial, so see you soon! 🙂
