Visible mending : Darning – taster

Start Date: Saturday 24/10/2026

Time: 10:00am

Duration: 3 hrs

Price: £48.00

Ability: All Welcome

Tutor: Isobel Harrison

Tickets Available: 6

About this course

Join us to learn the craft of visible mending and give your knitted garments a new life. In this three-hour taster course, led by Isobel Harrison, you will learn to repair your favourite garments with love and care. We will be going over two methods of woven darning for knitted items, and will guide you through step-by-step instructions on how to darn a hole. This course is completely beginner friendly, and we will provide all the necessary tools and materials.

We recommend bringing a few garments, preferably 100% wool with varying hole sizes, though there will be items available to practice on if needed.

Darning is a mending technique that closes a hole in fabric or knitted items using woven stitches. Traditionally, darning was developed for necessity, to extend the lifespan of garments and other fabric items, and (with the notable exception of Japanese Sashiko mending) was meant to be as close to invisible as possible. In recent years, 'visible mending' has become a popular way to build character into clothes, with artists such as Celia Pym and Tom of Holland showcasing how to wear your mends in style.

So why mend? Aside from creating beautiful, unique additions to your garments, we seemingly don't have the same necessity to fix and mend items in the way we used to. Yet the fashion industry is responsible for 92 million tonnes of waste annually, with less than 1% of all textiles being recycled globally. These staggering statistics might sound overwhelming, but by choosing to mend instead of discard, you are joining a resistance against textile waste and contributing to sustainable, slow living. Mending also increases the emotional durability of your clothes — the more time and care we invest in a garment, the more attached to it we become, and the longer it stays out of landfill.

We hope that you will leave the workshop feeling satisfied, with a new addition to your wardrobe - and a mend - that you can wear with pride.

What to bring : a loved knitted wool garment in need of repair.

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Reviews

“Taking the time to learn in the inspiring environment of Colne Road Studios was such a treat! The group was welcoming and supportive and Rachel is an extremely talented and generous teacher, sharing her skills and knowledge to give us fresh perspectives and a wealth of useful advice and feedback. I felt my ability and interest in drawing had been revived after many years dormant, learning how to observe as well as how to draw. I would encourage anyone willing to pick up a pencil to have a go, and have already signed up to Rachel’s next course!   “CB  March 2025

‘I decided to do the Drawing for Beginners class at Colne Road Studios as I have recently started painting for the first time since school and felt that doing a beginner drawing class would aid me with this in looking at image and form.  That and the fact that I hadn’t picked up a pencil to draw since I was a teenager.   The course exceeded my expectations.  The group were lovely and from very different backgrounds – some beginners, some already dabbled, and a couple were professionals who used drawing in differing forms in their careers.  Rachel Labovitch is an exceptional tutor.  She is informative in her teaching approach bringing in examples of other artists as we went along meaning that new or well-known works of art were discussed and techniques explored.  She is positive, supportive and very encouraging.   I left each class feeling inspired and even did ‘homework’ during the week to practice what I’d learnt – something I didn’t do at school.  I would highly recommend this course to anyone and everyone – if you think you can’t draw, you’ll be proved wrong and you’ll start to notice the world around you with fresh eyes.’  LA Feb 2025

 

Can I park nearby ?

A CPZ is in force from Mon to Sat 8.30 – 6.30pm
Limited paid spaces available in surrounding roads with Ring Go cashless Parking

Max stay 4 hours during operational hours

Holly Road Car park, behind Marks & Spencer TW1 4HF

Mon to Sat – 8am to 6.30pm.
This car park is accessible and free to park in outside of these hours. Max stay 4 hours during operational hours – walking to the Studio approx 9mins

Are your courses just for adults or do you offer any courses for children ?

At the moment the courses at Colne Road Studios are designed for adults over the age of 18 . The aim is to create a relaxed  environment, provide  a bit of an escape and switch off from every day responsibilites. We are not able to accommodate children in our classes, nor do we provide children’s classes at this time.

Enrolment deadline

To secure a course, please book at least 8 days before the listed course start date.

Any course with no bookings 8 days prior to it’s start date will then be removed from the website .

Courses with fewer than 3 participants may be cancelled, with 5 days’ notice given to those who had enrolled.

You will be notified by email if this happens, unless you would like us to text you  instead, but please let us know.
A refund for the full course value will then be made.
Please bare with us .    This might take 5-10 days to come through.

Where is my course taking place ?

100 Colne Road Twickenham TW2 6QE. map ref

WHAT3WORDS : location kind.cook.honest

What is your refund policy?

All of our longer courses are exchangeable up until 28 days prior to the start of the course. After this, you are able to change your booking to a different course for a £20 admin fee. Please note that from 14 days prior to the start of the course, your booking is non-refundable and non-exchangeable.

Our refund policy is strict because it enables us to pay ourselves and our tutors a fair wage, and remain accessible as a studio.
Every time we are asked to to accommodate a refund request, we would be forced to lower our staff wages or increase our prices – both of which we really want to avoid. We hope you understand that this is why there are no exemptions to our refund policies.

What if the course is cancelled by Colne Road Studios ?

Courses with fewer than 3 participants may be cancelled, with 5 days’ notice given to those who had enrolled.

You will be notified by email if this happens, unless you would like us to text you instead, but please let us know.
A refund for the full course value will then be made.
Please bare with us . This might take 5-10 days to come through.