Skip to content

Calendar

  • 09
    09.October.Wednesday

    19:30 -21:30
    2019/10/09
    The Meeting House, Riverdale Farm
    201 Winchester Street, Toronto, Ontario, M4X 1B8

    This month we welcome James Fowler as our guest speaker.

    He is currently an adjunct faculty member teaching Design and Colour, Fashion History, and Contemporary Fashion at the Toronto Film School and Ryerson University’s Chang School. He has a long history in textile, Fowler tested his skills at Marilyn Brooks, Inc. before setting out on his own, and then spent over a decade as a noted Canadian fashion designer. He joined the Academy of Design and Technology: first as an instructor, then as the first Chair of Fashion, and finally as the Director of their School of Fashion in 2002. Fowler started “TEXTI’LL” in 2005 and has exhibited and sold through numerous group and solo shows in Ontario. He is currently working on several pieces for a future exhibition. 

    Fowler also collects Vintage Ken dolls (1961 – 1966) and has exhibited his collection at the Fashion History Museum in Cambridge and the Markham Museum. He also wrote and produced the show catalogue, “Ken and Me”, in 2016. You can find more of Ken and James at www.jamesfowlervintageken.com.

    He is also an avid fan of Canadian Fashion and its backstory, which he researches, collects, and archives on his web/blog site www.clothingcanadafashion.com.

     

REGULAR MEETINGS

MONTHLY GUILD MEETINGS Beginning April 2023 we will resume holding  in-person meetings at Riverdale Farm. We will continue to hold some meetings virtually. Our Member’s Meetings are held from September-June, with a break for the summer. Check out the Calendar for up-to-date information.
If you are interested in spinning or weaving, you are welcome to join us as a guest at one of our monthly meetings.
When: 2nd Wednesday of the month, 7:30 – 9:00 pm for in-person meetings; 7:00 – 8:30 pm for virtual meetings
Where: In-person meetings are held in the Meeting House at Riverdale Farm- come in the gate and keep going past the sheep.

TEXTILE/SPINNING DROP-IN 
Guild members join Riverdale Farm staff to host textile drop-ins at the Farm once a week in the afternoons. All are welcome to watch, chat, learn, or bring a project to work on– it’s totally free! Occasionally we have themes, such as a regular Spinning Clinic. At some of the drop-ins, the Farm provides some equipment, including Lendrum spinning wheels, for visitors to use. If you want to take your yarn home, bring a Lendrum bobbin. Equipment is not available to borrow at all drop-ins.
When: Summer 2023: Tuesday afternoons, 1 – 3 pm (through September 2023) at the Simpson House Porch.
Where: Riverdale Farm, 201 Winchester St., Toronto, M4X 1B8

IN THE COMMUNITY

The Guild generally participates in the following Riverdale Farm events , demonstrating fibre processing, spinning, weaving, and other textile skills to the public. After a hiatus during the pandemic, we look forward to resuming these events this Spring.

FAMILY DAY
Riverdale Farm is a great place to spend Family Day, with lots of fun activities taking place, including weaving and spinning demonstrations and activities that the whole family can enjoy.

SHEEP CELEBRATION
Riverdale Farm opens its doors with the farm’s popular Spring Festival at which Guild members use the fleece shorn from the farm sheep to demonstrate the skills needed to wash the wool, prepare it for spinning, make yarn, dye it, and weave it into cloth. Come and watch the process, from sheep shearing on!

FALL FESTIVALS
See the Guild in action on the second weekend in September at the Riverdale Farm Fall Festival, and at the Cabbagetown Festival too!

More information on Riverdale Farm.