This size- and gender-inclusive community class series is centered around updating a second-hand button-down shirt. You can choose to attend just one of the workshops to make a small change to your shirt, or all three to turn your second-hand shirt into an entirely new garment. The goal of this series is to inspire sustainable sewing and creative reuse of materials and garments.
This series builds on alteration skills and garment sewing skills to empower stitchers to view their garment sewing as a sustainable practice, and to utilize garments that they may already own—or garments that can be procured second-hand from friends or family members.
No garment sewing experience is required, but students should have basic sewing machine skills.
About the Instructor
Rebekah Joy is the founder and designer behind Flux Bene, a line of minimal waste, gender neutral clothing. Rebekah has been sewing since her age was a single digit, and has been designing and sewing professionally since 2013. Rebekah has taught workshops from beginner’s sewing to pattern making and surface design, and she loves empowering others to create.
In an effort to reduce textile waste, Flux Bene has set out to facilitate the reuse of 10,000 garments by June 2025. To reach this goal, Rebekah is releasing patterns for her designs, so that they can be made at home. Each pattern download is counted as one garment toward the goal. As of 5/7/22, Flux Bene has facilitated the reuse of 1,748 garments. All of the garments that we upcycle in this series will also count toward the 10,000 garment goal!
Rebekah lives in Pittsburgh, PA. with her lovely family of one man, two cats, one dog, three fish and a wild amount of houseplants. She is very excited to bring her skill set in sustainable design to our community at Stitch Buffalo.
Overview and Registration
There are three sessions in this series, each devoted to a specific aspect of alteration and construction. You can register to attend the full series for $150, or any single session for $55.
Full Series:
Complete Shirt Redesign
Saturday, July 30, 10am–12:30pm
Saturday, July 30, 1:30pm–4pm
Sunday, July 31, 10:00am–2:00pm
When you register for the full series, you will learn every step of the process for redesigning and tailoring your button-down shirt. This includes all content from each of the sessions listed below.
Session #1:
Adding a Decorative Collar
Saturday, July 30, 10am–12:30pm
In this session, we will update our button down shirts by cleanly removing the existing collar and creating a new collar using contrast or coordinating fabrics. The new collar can have either a traditional pointed shape or be a Peter-Pan style (rounded). If time allows, we will also explore creating simple appliqués for the purpose of covering stains/tears or for visual interest.
Session #2:
Adding Side Panels
Saturday, July 30, 1:30pm–4:00pm
In session 2, we will adjust the size and look of our button-down shirts by adding side panels in either contrasting or coordinating fabrics. In doing this, we are adding visual interest to our garments and we also have the freedom to increase or decrease the size of our shirts. If time allows, we will also explore creating simple appliqués for the purpose of covering stains/tears or for visual interest.
Session #3:
Adding Pockets and Decorative Hems/Cuffs
Sunday, July 31, 10:00am–2:00pm
In this session, we will add pockets and decorative cuffs and/or hems to our button-down shirts. We will choose the length that we would like our sleeves and hem to be, and use contrasting or coordinating fabrics to add cuffs and hem finishes. If time allows, we will also explore creating simple appliqués for the purpose of covering stains/tears or for visual interest.
