As more of us are waking up to the negative impact of cheap and fast fashion and trying to make our clothes last longer, new challenges are faced. How do we extend the lives of our clothes? How do we revamp a wardrobe we may be becoming a little tired of wearing? One solution is customisation and accessorising. The easiest way of doing this is by changing the buttons on your cardigan, dress or shirt.

In this workshop The Virtual Thread founder, Jane Grimshaw, will teach you how to make a set of unique hand decorated buttons to revamp even the most tired and boring of garments. The workshop is a friendly and informal place for everyone from the novice stitcher to the seriously obsessed. We chat, we laugh, we make connections and have fun whilst being creative.

Jane is highly trained in the art of wielding needles and pins. She comes from a long line of tailors that goes back three centuries. When not delivering online sewing workshops to the discerning masses, Jane makes costumes for stage productions in London’s glamorous West End, for the likes of the Phantom of the Opera and Lion King. You’ll also have seen her work on many films and television series. Teaching is in Jane’s blood: she has taught pattern cutting and costume construction in higher education for more than 25 years.

To fully take part in this workshop you will need the following easy to obtain supplies

*fabric to use as the base of your buttons, plus other fabric scraps to use for decorating.

*Cover buttons, these are easily obtainable on line, or from any good haberdashery store and come in a variety of sizes. ( the ones in the pictures range from around 1 cm to 3.5 cm)

* embroidery hoop

*stranded embroidery threads in a variety of colours

*Needles

*pencil

*ruler

*small scissors