The artist known as Guerilla Embroidery led a recycling workshop recently at a British grammar school. Her approach:

I was given free rein to decide on what to cover. I thought that my ‘fabric collage’ idea would be a great starting point, and would allow me to show them quite a lot of basic skills which they could then utilise later on. I gathered a load of clothes/ sheets/ etc from charity shops, and the girls bought their own bags too. We started the day by talking about how to deconstruct clothes, and things to look out for (like great buttons, plackets, details like ruffles, embroidery, etc.) and they then deconstructed things and made their own piles to work with. During the morning I taught them:

• hand embroidery for line and texture
• cut work
• suffolk puffs
• reverse applique
• facings

And look at some of the absolutely brilliant results! Needlework, upcycling, and improvisational art–the perfect workshop for luring unsuspecting young people into our world! Well done. See more photos at Guerilla’s blog post.