Collar Making with DIY Couture

By Sofia Niazi

As co-organizers of DIY Cultures us OOMKs were all too keen to get some of our favorite sewing ladies on board. From patch making with Hannah Hill to felt needling with Ceri May there were lots of great workshops throughout the day for people to get stuck into and learn new skills. 

One of the workshops I had been looking forward to was ‘Sew your own Collar’ by Rosie Martin from DIY Couture. I had done one of her workshops before at the Alternative Press Fair and was not about to miss an opportunity to learn from her again! Rosie is not only an incredibly talented woman she’s also a great teacher. She’s calm, helpful, encouraging and she definitely knows what she’s doing. During the course of the workshop she taught us how to make a collar, which could be worn as an accessory or sewn onto a garment, from scratch. She explained everything step by step and made sure everyone knew what they were doing at each stage. Rosie was well equipped and we got to use a sewing machine and an iron to help flatten out hems.

The only problem with having such a great workshop was the fact that lots of people wanted to join even after it had started. Rosie very kindly invited the eager beavers to join in despite there being no room at the table, but people didn’t mind, they were happy to sit on the floor or pull smaller tables up just so that they could take part. 

So after a lot of concentration and some team work with my friend Amy I managed to finish my collar in under an hour. Despite my best efforts my magpies didn’t come out the right way around, fellow OOMK Sabba commented that they look like dead birds, but i suppose it depends whose looking at them. From where i am, they’re still alive. 

We’ll be posting up an interview we did with Rosie Martin next week.