Making Something Weird at Deluxe Thali

My Patch Bar @Laguna, Mumbai

There is something particularly satisfying about bringing a sewing machine to a party.

You get all the usual things you might expect at an event people, music, food, clothes, conversations and then, sitting somewhere in the middle of it all, there is a sewing machine humming away.

For Deluxe Thali at Laguna, I brought mine along with a collection of handmade eye patches and turned part of the event into a little patch making station.

I was working with the Rmemory team for the weekend, and the whole thing came from a fairly simple idea: make something you can actually take home with you.

 The sewing machine was part of the experience,so was the head lamp.

The patch bar

I had been making a collection of eye-shaped patches, each one slightly different from the next.

Rather than bringing a complicated workshop menu, I wanted the experience to be easy to understand.

You could pick a patch that already existed, or make one yourself.

And then came the important part: I would sew it onto whatever you brought.

A jacket.  A bag.  A shirt.  Something that probably shouldn’t have a giant embroidered eye on it.

That’s part of what I like about patches. They don’t require you to start from scratch. You can take something you already own and change it.

The making becomes part of the object.

 A Ruchi’s Atelier menu T-shirt alongside handmade patches at the pop-up.

Making at an event is different from making in a workshop

When I teach a workshop, people usually arrive knowing that they are going to sit down and make something.

At an event, they might be walking past.

They might stop because they saw something weird.

They might say, “What’s that?” and five minutes later they’re choosing fabric.

So the experience has to work differently.

There needs to be enough structure that someone can understand what they’re doing without needing a twenty-minute explanation, but enough freedom that they can make something that feels like theirs.

That’s why I like these little making stations.

They’re not quite a workshop.

They’re not quite a shop.

They’re somewhere in between.

 Making a cat keychain, one questionable decision at a time.

The sewing machine becomes part of the experience

One of my favourite things about doing this kind of work is that the tools don’t have to disappear behind the finished product.

The sewing machine is right there.

You can see the patch being attached. You can hear it working. You can watch something go from a loose piece of embroidered fabric to something that belongs to your jacket.

There is a small amount of magic in that.

Not because sewing is mysterious, but because we don’t often get to see the making of the things around us anymore.

At an event, the machine becomes a little bit of theatre.

People stop and watch.

Someone asks what you’re doing.

Someone else wants to try.

And suddenly you’ve got a conversation happening around a piece of fabric.

 Somewhere between fabric scraps and a finished thing.

 A finished thing, or at least finished enough to take home.

A little something extra

I also brought along some AYC iron-on patches—not as something to sell, but as little extras for people who made multiple purchases.

I like the idea of rewarding people for getting carried away.

You came for one patch.

Then you made another.

Then somehow you’re leaving with an embroidered eye on your jacket and an additional patch you didn’t expect to get.

A little something extra.

That’s the kind of experience I want to create around making: playful, participatory and slightly unpredictable.

Participants eyeing the "AYC eddition" iron on clothing patches made in collaboration with Aahaa, The illustrator.

Why bring making to a marketplace?

Because buying something and making something feel very different.

When you make something even something very small you leave with more than an object.

You remember what you were doing.

You remember choosing the fabric.

You remember getting something slightly wrong.

You remember the person sitting next to you.

You remember the sewing machine.

And maybe, the next time you look at that jacket, you remember the strange little afternoon when you decided it needed an eye.

That’s why I like bringing making into events.

You don’t just take something home. You make something to take home.

off the Menu Choker

_____ case/Keychain