Crafting
togetherness
by sewing together
SEWING COMMUNITY OF SOCIAL FABRIC
Social Fabric’s community is united in our passion for handicrafts and textile arts. Our craft is sewing. Textile arts are present in all cultures and free of stigma. In our atelier, it is the common thread that binds everyone together.
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Our community is diverse, inclusive, and cohesive. We are more than 190 people from over 30 nationalities. The meeting point is the Social Fabric's atelier, where we organise sewing sessions together and offer advice to one another.
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As a community, we encourage trust and self-organisation. Community members initiate independent sewing sessions or themed workshops with other members.
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For people with a refugee background, we offer an Open Sewing Course free of charge as an entry point. After completing the course, participants may join the community independently through a Stipendium programme.
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For those who are not interested in the community but would like to expand their sewing skills, we offer professional Private Lessons.
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What do we offer?
Sewing Community
It's fine to sew alone, but it's much more fun to sew with a community.
At the Social Fabric’s atelier, we enjoy the social atmosphere, get inspired by each other’s sewing projects, learn from expert teachers, and share our knowledge and tricks with others.
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The membership offer is accompanied by different community activities that run monthly. We encourage trust and self-organisation. Community members may open the atelier to initiate sewing sessions or themed workshops with other members on their own.
For people who have a refugee background, we offer Open Sewing Course as an entry to the community and Membership without a fee through our Sponsorship programme.
INCLUDED IN THE OFFER
Social Thursday
Thursday is the community day in our atelier. People from all over the world sew and laugh together, enjoy their self-sewn products, their progress in German, unprejudiced encounters, and new acquaintances. Community activities take place from morning to evening.
Open Sewing Course
Thu., 9:30 - 12:00 • Thu., 13.30 - 16:00
The Open Sewing Course is a good community entryway for people with a refugee background. During the course, participants work on several sewing projects and improve their German language level. At the end of the course, participants receive a certificate confirming participation and the knowledge acquired, which is valuable for further integration into society. The course aims at self-reliance, self-efficacy, and good self-confidence in order to participate in other community activities as soon as possible. The Open Sewing Course is free of charge. There are ten places per course and two additional places for those potentially interested in joining. Participants can drop in spontaneously and without registration to get an overview of the curriculum. Volunteer sewing experts support the participants and accompany them in the projects.
Social Sewing Course with Guidance
Thu., 18:00 - 21:00
The Social Sewing Course with guidance take place weekly on Thursday evenings. It is the main social meeting place for members of our community. Participants work on their individual sewing projects. An experienced teacher is present throughout the course to guide, support and help with any sewing questions. All sewing equipment is available in the atelier. Participants only need to bring their own project idea and fabric.
Self-organised in the atelier
The Independent Sewing and Weekend Workshops take place at irregular intervals from Friday to Sunday. They are initiated, run and of course attended by members of the community themselves.
Independent Sewing
irregularly from Fridays to Sundays
Community members can access the atelier with other members on a shared and self-organised basis. During Independent Sewing, everyone works on their projects independently. These sessions take place weekly on Fridays and Sundays.
Weekend Workshops
irregularly from Fridays to Sundays
The members initiate workshops to realise sewing-related projects together. In this way, topics can be explored in greater depth, such as specific sewing techniques, working with patterns or designing dresses and garments.
Private Lessons
Private lessons are a great way to build up your sewing skills with expert teachers.
Compared to a typical course, private lessons are more flexible: you choose the time that suits you best, you define what you want to learn, and you have your teacher’s undivided attention. It is also possible to join with a friend or two!
The Atelier
Our community's meeting point is Social Fabric atelier in Zurich Binz.
The atelier is bright and spacious sewing atelier, and comes with variety of equipment and sewing accessories. On Friday, Saturday & Sunday members initiate hosted sessions.
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Our atelier is located just around the corner from Zürich Binz station at Eichstrasse 29 (on the 3rd floor) and is just two stations away from the Zürich Main Station.
EQUIPMENT
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19 household sewing machines
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2 sewing machines with advanced features ( embroidery, buttonhole variations, quilting)
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4 overlock machines (Yuki)
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1 coverlock machine
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1 professional VEIT SG 66 ironing machine
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Access to the atelier includes the use of all equipment and sewing accessories (such as scissors, rulers, zippers, ribbons, etc) available on the site. It is also possible to buy fabric from our atelier’s shop.
As an option, members can rent a Creative Chaos Box on a yearly basis to store their unfinished projects in the atelier.
ACCESSORIES
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Waist-high tables for cutting and pattern making
Thread, scissors, pins, tracing paper...
Zippers, buttons, ribbons...
Plenty of ready-made patterns
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