Refashionista: Using Old Clothes for New Garments with Annie Clifford

Saturday, May 31, 2009

Do you have a closet full of clothes but nothing to wear? Are you concerned with a sustainable wardrobe? Then we have the perfect solution to your wardrobe woes. Join Annie Clifford, artist, musician, and refashionista as she shows you how to “refashion” your wardrobe with a snip here, a tuck there, and a little dash of found fabric treasures. Refashioned clothes are recycled, reused, and remade items. Each piece is unique and should be heaps of fun to make and wear. You will leave this workshop having transformed one, two, maybe three wardrobe items using any and all of your favourite bits of recycled or reused fabric, jewellery, and other garments. Plan to arrive with a few items to refashion along with fabrics, accessories, or any other reclaimed materials to refashion with. You don’t need to have too much sewing experience to enjoy this; many fine things can be done with very simple sewing skills. We’ll also have a few sewing machines around for folks who already know how to use them without help, or feel free to bring your own. And if you’re a really terrible sewer, don’t worry about it. We’ll also have some strong glue!

Annie has fun making clothing. She aspires to create garments that flatter the human body and make people feel beautiful. Annie participates in fair consumption and promotes ethical sourcing and locally made products. Her quirky urban-meets-rural designs feature vintage fabrics, screenprinted linens and silks, and upcycled wool and cotton. Upon returning to her native city of Kingston after an extremely useful degree in Contemporary Theory, Annie became deeply involved in the Kingston art scene, and soon found her place among the NGB Studios, a popular artist studio complex on the banks of the Cataraqui River, and became a founding member of Made4You, an artisan collective and store in downtown Kingston. When not creating unique and stylish clothing, Annie hangs around with her superband and ambient folk collective, The Gertrudes.