“Unfortunately, this has been a poor experience all round. The course was a £450 online swiss darning course to teach the invisible mending of holes in knit fabrics. I have since found other industry experts who provide this training at a fraction of the cost.
The course delivery was not advertised as the correct online tuition time prior to purchase.
The camera distance and choice of garments (guage size and colour) made it difficult to see properly what was being demonstrated. There were sections of the footage that were edited out and therefore the technique demonstrated was incomplete.
The tools were explained through a google shopping page. There was no explaination of the correct size of needle required for the type of project being worked on. The size and tip of needle could not be seen clearly on the video footage.
Colour matching of the yarn was explained but there was no explaination of where to source yarns.
Practice garments were sent but they had a foul smell, holes that had previous visible mends done on them and were stained. They felt unclean to the touch. When I complained about the smell I was sent 3 more garments which smelt less strong but still had the background smell to them. I suspect they just were sprayed with something and then sent to my address again regardless.
Tools were provided which were poor quality with cheap and tacky labels attached to them. The wrong type of needles were provided. A very sticky vaseline type of furniture wax was provided instead of tailors wax. Knitting yarn was provided as practice yarn for fine guage garments. Some tools demonstrated with on the footage were not provided at all.
The course was advertised as "free training" (i.e. £450 would be refunded) if the criteria was met to work with the company for 6 months. With this in mind I attempted to stick with it.
I sent the provided garments back to Scotland as part of the 1st assessment. (A line of swiss darning - 20 stitches)
I heard nothing back for a number of weeks as it appears the mender didn't book a DHL trip to send them back again from Scotland. Only 2 out of the 3 pieces sent were assessed by the anonymous mender.
The feedback was very unclear and it took weeks to find out what was meant by the mender who made the comments. (So no "personal guidance and support" as promised).
The only contact person I was given was an administrator despite the title of the course provider as "The Cashmere Circle Academy". There was a link to the "Cashmere Circle Comminuty" and a tag line that said "Join the community and introduce yourself". The link didn't work. When I brought this up with the company they said they do not offer this or assignment to a tutor at this time.
There were no handouts with diagrams (as is common in stitch related courses). There was only 1 handout which had a very basic explaination of what is a crochet hook for example.
There were no time stamps on the video footage which made it difficult to navigate through to find the section you wanted to view. The order was mixed up - for example an explaination of what knit and purl stitches looked like was in the 7th module from an 8 module course.
The music was quite loud in parts which ended up drowning out the speakers voice in the video.
This course was overpriced and undelivered. Despite being an advocate for sustainable practices the company spends a lot of time and petrol sending spent garments up and down the country.
I wouldn't recommend spending £450 on this course which is not fit for purpose. Think how many brand new Cashmere jumpers you could get instead for this price or it could be even be put towards a nice holiday.
Please do not waste your money on this company.
Just to add finally - I have asked the company several times to send me their complaints procedure, their terms and conditions including a refund policy, to speak with the owners and for evidence that the course had been beta tested. These questions remain unanswered and were completely ignored, which says a lot about their customer service, respect for consumers and their reputation management.”
“I bought a green and charcoal striped 100% cashmere sweater in apparently great condition for cheap online. After washing, it became apparent that the jumper had some moth damage. Rather disappointed, and thinking it was beyond repair, I considered donating it to charity and trying to find another, but really didn't want to as it defeated my entire reason for buying the jumper in the first place (reducing my carbon footprint). Thankfully I found Cashmere Circle online. Their prices weren't cheap (although overall I thought they were very fairly priced), but I decided to go with them to see if my beautiful jumper could be given a second life and also because I wanted to support a business that was upholding the dying art form of invisible mending. I've just received the jumper back and I'm SO thrilled - the craftsmanship is impeccable and I now have a beautiful jumper that I can continue to wear for decades. This is such a wonderful business and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them to anyone.”
“I looked out a cashmere jumper as I hadn't worn it for a while, sadly I found it had suffered from moths. So I looked for a place to recycle it. Cashmere Circle offered the chance to plant a tree in return for my old jumper. I received a free postage label and sent it away to them. All very easy and I received an email to say a tree has been planted.”
“Delighted to discover Cashmere Circle and have 3 treasured jumpers revived and renewed. One hole invisibly mended, a roll neck reattached and suede elbow patches to cover worn sleeves. Beautiful packaging with lavender bags was uplifting. Thankyou.”
“Fabulous in every way. My favourite cashmere jumper has been restored to its former glory. Communication was superb and I will certainly be sending more jumpers to be made perfect! The jumper was wrapped in tissue paper, had a lovely lavendar pouch and a clear plastic (moth free) re-sealable storage bag.”
“Very easy way to donate your cashmere items, many options available. Circular economy, supporting sustainable initiatives around the world, all very well conceived.”
“Although I didn’t have the repair done on my cashmere jumper, I as it wasn’t worth repairing a very old jumper., I was very impressed with the communication and the company kept me up to date”
“It was extremely easy to use the website and to package up my sweaters and send them off. Pam was very helpful and professional and coming back to me and talking through the proposed repairs. Thank you for all your help.”
“I was so pleased to discover I could recycle our cashmere that had been ruined by moths. What a terrible waste, otherwise!
I found this service very responsive and helpful.”
