South Philly Sala / April 12th / Mindful Mending

​South Philly Sala is a community gathering space in South Philadelphia that functions as a living room, community kitchen, workshop space, and mutual aid lab—a place where people can connect, create, share resources, learn across differences, and practice solidarity in everyday life.

​This month, join artist Julie Woodard in exploring some foundational methods for creatively extending the life of items in your closet. Bring along a garment with a hole, snag, or stain that you'd like to repair (non-stretch heavyweight cotton or wool is ideal).  Julie will provide an overview of visible mending techniques, tools, and tips for getting started, from understanding different types of fibers, to practicing basic stitches, to the art of designing a patch. This workshop will explore how mending can be an essential component of a mindfulness practice. You'll go home with a calm mind, a visibly mended garment, and the skills and creative inspiration to continue repairing and revitalizing items in your wardrobe. Basic hand sewing experience is helpful, but not required.

​Participants should bring:

​A garment to mend (non-stretch heavyweight cotton or wool is ideal)

​Favorite fabric scraps (optional)  *A big part of Julie’s textile practice centers around repurposing items that belonged to her loved ones or were salvaged from interesting places. If you have any textiles from home that you’d like to integrate into your repair, please bring them along. We’ll share stories as we create.

​About the Artist:

​Using salvaged textiles, found objects, pigments and thread, artist Julie Woodard creates impressionistic landscapes, multimedia installations, functional sculptures, and wearable pieces that convey her passion for nature, memory, and creative reuse. Current incarnations pay tribute to her late mom and repurpose family heirlooms, as well as feature vintage goods, cutting room remnants, broken furniture, and street debris.Julie’s artistic practice incorporates elements of collage, animation, applique, embroidery, quilting, painting, printmaking, songwriting, ceramics, and sculpture. Every piece has a story. Every material is repurposed with purpose. Learn more at www.juiceboxworkshop.com and @juiceboxworkshop on Instagram and Facebook.

​What to expect:

​The vibe will always be warm and welcoming. We create an environment each month that kicks off with a workshop, demonstration or skill share activity that you can choose to come early and participate in which will take place from 1:30-3pm. Otherwise, you can come anytime to hang out between 1-5pm.  Kids are welcome. Think of this as your neighborhood cafe. Stop in for a few minutes or hang with us the whole time.

​We want to bring people together, eat good food, share what we know and get through these wild times with a deeper connection to our neighbors and a few more tools in our survival toolbox.

​The ticketing system is an experiment to see how we can sustain the space, and also have an approximate head count of people for food and materials. It's a sliding scale from $0-$10 but no one will ever be turned away!

​You're always welcome to contribute however you'd like- or just come as you are!

​See you at the Sala!