If you love collage, collecting treasures, and adding beautiful hand stitches to your work, join textile artist Suzette Smart for a creative retreat at the enchanting Château Dumas in the south of France.

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During this immersive week, you’ll explore the art of fabric collage and hand stitching — creating something entirely unique and personal to you. Suzette’s workshops are known for their warmth, storytelling, and inspiration and this retreat offers the perfect blend of creativity, relaxation, and community.

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In The Class

Suzette will gently guide you through her creative process, sharing the techniques that appear throughout her own stitched stories and textile books. You’ll have the chance to see and handle some of Suzette’s favorite works and cloth books, full of layered fabrics, delicate hand stitches and storytelling.

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Using a mix of old and new fabrics, lace, and vintage paper, you’ll learn how to create collaged “fabrics” using Bondaweb, my brand for iron-on adhesive interfacing. These newly made textiles can become a base for your stitched compositions or be used with one of Suzette’s templates featuring her signature naive animals, birds and houses.

Whether you choose to work from a template or design your own imagery, Suzette will be on hand throughout to guide your creative decisions, helping you with composition, texture, and story in your work. She’ll also share ways to create “windows” within your piece — small openings that might hide or frame a personal memento that you’ve brought from home, such as a charm, key or scrap of fabric with meaning.

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You’ll also have the opportunity to find vintage treasures to include during a visit from a local vintage linens dealer, a highlight of every Château Dumas retreat.