Approved Textiles

It’s already October, which means our Fall class schedule starts this week.

October originally had quite a few more classes on the calendar, but Mask Making absolutely gobbled them up. So, here’s what’s still ahead for Fall.

If last year is any indication, Fall and Winter are when people really want to learn a new skill. Projects and workshops absolutely have their place, but this is also the season when people want to learn techniques they can keep returning to—for mending, garment construction, or decorative textile work.

Each class is two hours, with just four people at the table and plenty of semi-private instruction.

We don’t want you getting lost in a large class where you’re struggling to keep up. And especially with hand sewing, we don’t want you sitting so far from the instructor that you can barely see what their needle is doing.

The full Fall schedule is in the carousel.

Mask Making Workshop next Wednesday at tattooed mom 😍 👹

6–9 PM
$108
Limited seats left
Reserve your seat in our link in bio

Matthew and I made three more examples mostly because we wanted to show just how wildly different you can go with the same prompt.

I stitched mine directly onto pantyhose so it stretches tight across the face, then added mother-of-pearl buttons for teeth, which somehow made it both prettier AND more upsetting.

Matthew went the complete opposite direction with one of his, building it on linen with stitched hair so it just lays across the face instead of forming to it, and then went somewhere else entirely with a long beak, feathery eyes, plague-doctor-ish, something-is-probably-rotting-nearby situation. :s

It’s all part of the point:
We’re not handing everyone the same pattern and helping 25 people make the same mask. (Precisely why we’re not offering an online offering) You’ll have access to a pretty ridiculous array of textiles, trims, notions, and materials, and we’re there to help you figure out how to actually construct whatever weird little thing you’ve decided needs to exist.

Because this workshop is bigger than what we can host in the shop, Haven DeAnglis (STITCH AND DESTROY ), Miss Thing (MISS THING ), and Ali Dworsack (CAMILLA MUSTARD ) are joining us so there are LOTS of hands around to troubleshoot and support you.

Your $108 includes three hours of semi-private instruction, technical support, materials, a substantial amount of prep on our end, and enough facilitator support that we can teach this well AND pay people appropriatley for skilled labor.

Food + drinks available throughout the night, not included in the ticket because of PA liquor laws. Strictly 21+ with valid ID.

Last Mask Making Workshop of 2026, and just a handful of seats left.

Making this post because I’ve had more than a few folks, after our classes and workshops, ask for a handout on The Path of Least Resistance.

So, here it is.

One of the weird things about pricing craft classes is that materials are easy to see, and teaching labor is so variable.

You can see the fabric, thread, needles, tools, all the stuff you take home. You can’t see curriculum development, prep, years of technical knowledge, troubleshooting, demonstrations, or the work of explaining the same movement three different ways until it FINALLY clicks.

Our Mask Making Workshop is $108 because it includes substantial materials, a ton of prep, and enough facilitator support that we can actually teach it well AND pay people appropriately for skilled labor.

Tune Up is 15.00

With four seats, a completely sold-out session grosses $60 for two hours, before materials, processing fees, rent, utilities, insurance, and all the other extremely glamorous costs of keeping a physical shop open.

That’s not a sustainable teaching model lol

It is also not what we think teaching is worth, and it is not a rate we would ever ask another instructor to work for.

This is what it looks like when Matthew and I choose to volunteer some of our own teaching labor, because helping people actually retain the skill feels important enough to us to do that here.

Part of our anti-fashion practice is resisting churn, including the idea that learning always has to lead to another class, another purchase, another NEW thing.

Sometimes the goal is just getting better at what you already learned.

Volunteering our time doesn’t make the labor free, it means we know what it’s worth and we’re choosing to absorb part of that cost ourselves.

We don’t just want to sell you the experience of learning to sew.

We want you to actually lean and use a new useful freaking skill

Philly Makers Tour rolls through on Friday, so we’re closing early to make room for a Korean Bojagi + Appalachian patchwork class.

There is a very easy way for “anti-fashion” to become just another kind of marketing:

Don’t buy *that* thing. Buy *this* more ethical thing instead.

We’re not especially interested in doing that.

We sell mending transfers. We think they are useful, beautiful tools, and we also think you should use the supplies you already have before buying more supplies from us. If the underlying behavior stays the same — constant novelty, consumption, replacement — then changing the product doesn’t really change much. It just gives consumption a different aesthetic.

So consider this post a friendly reminder that we sell these mending transfers inspired by our beloved Birds. The Eagles haven’t updated their logo since the 90’s but how many times have they updated color ways, fonts, jerseys, or their merch?? Come on now.

Fast fashion relies on making us feel like what we already have is somehow deficient, even when it still works perfectly well. Trends are really good at creating that feeling, because once something is “out,” it becomes much easier to treat it like its disposable.

The real work is learning to let enough be enough: wearing the same thing again, repairing it instead of replacing it, and not treating every new season, collection, colorway, collaboration or roster change as a reason to start over.

Sometimes our transfers can help with that. Thats why we make them. Sometimes all you need is a needle, some thread, and the shirt you already own.

And sometimes you dont actually need anything.
That’s anti-fashion, too.

Gotcha Day: The Third Anniversary with Misty Gish

We interrupt our regularly scheduled anti-fashion feed to celebrate the one and only Misty Gish.
Gish Mish.
Misty Gisty.
Miss Mish.
SqwamSqwam.

Likes

+ Slamming her head into your head when you’re least expecting it. We call this “Misty Smash.”
+ A FRESH bowl of water after every meal, no exceptions. She’ll let you know.
+ Kisses. She will find any way to give you face kisses. We call this “Misty Kissties.”
+ Parmesan. She will jump up on the counter to steal a whole rind.
+ Long walks. Seriously. If her walk is not long enough, there’s hell to pay.

Dislikes

- Squirrels. They must all be eliminated.
- Trash bags. Don’t open trash bags around her, it’s terribly upsetting. Open them slowly and without noise.
- Being away from her family. She has some co-dependency issues.

Special thank you to ACCT Philly via Doggie Style Pets for helping to bring The Gish into our lives.

We’re headed to tattooed mom 😍 to bring you a night of mask making, devious bites, and spooktacular spirits.

This’ll be the last offering we’re adding to the 2026 Mask Making Workshop calendar. To do so, we’re going big.

Tennessee, we’re coming to the Nash Yarn Fest Nash Yarn Fest, 2027!

Mark your calendars: March 12–13 at the Fairgrounds Nashville.

My love for Tennessee runs statewide. From Knoxville to Memphis, I’ve got a story and a BBQ recommendation dotting I-40.

But I need your help: I’m a Martin's Bar-B-Que Joint loyalist in Nashville and have had Pat’s Hot Dust shipped up to Philadelphia for years. Last time I was in Nashville, I didn’t have a car, so I couldn’t get to every BBQ place. Where should I be going??

Actually, let’s make this interesting:

Bring me your best BBQ rub at the booth and I’ll trade you two mending transfers.

I want to know what Tennessee thinks is the *best* rub. Local, regional, your auntie’s favorite, whatever. I’m open to being converted. Bonus points if it’s best on poultry. THREE mending transfers if it’s delicious AND low sodium 😂

One rule: it needs to be commercially packaged and sealed. I’ve got to drive this back to Philadelphia to share with Matthew.

See you in March. Go Vols!