Old clothing took on new life in teaching artist Alyza DelPan-Monley’s summer session at Woodridge. Students used recycled cardboard boxes as looms, drawing strips of fabric over and under one another until their weavings took shape.
Soft floral prints nestled against bold stripes, with rich hues and varied textures running through. But when the weaving was finished, one student wasn’t happy with what he had made.
With Alyza’s help, the group then decided to begin connecting their individual pieces. They introduced a sewing stitch that built on the over-and-under movement they had already practiced. Separate edges became places to join.
Alyza had been working with the Woodridge group for a year through New Futures, which brings our arts programming into affordable housing communities alongside Southwest Youth & Family Services and Geeking Out Kids of Color. Their work with the youth ranged from theater, dance and movement to hands-on visual art.
Their teaching moved between small, precise actions and big, expansive thinking. Working with their fingers and hands, youth practiced detailed techniques. Through storytelling, performance and movement, they could bring their whole bodies into the creative process.
“They get to imagine, come up with stories,” Alyza said. “They get to move their bodies and think.”
For the weaving activities, Alyza began teaching with paper so students could learn the patterns. They moved to plastic lanyards and made keychains before turning strips from old garments into yarn. Each material gave students another way to explore the same idea and discover what their hands could do.
“That skill can translate and expand,” they explained.
Alyza offered enough structure for students to begin, with room for the work to become something unexpected.
By the end of the class, hands reached in from around the table to rest on the connected finished weaving. Each individual piece was still visible.
For the student who hadn’t liked his piece, seeing it as part of their shared work brought a new excitement about what he had made. His work helped transform theirs, and theirs helped him see the value in his own.
What began as disappointment had become a reason to keep creating— together.
