In Stitches

Welcome to the New Year!

It’s a New Year and a brand new you. Have you been signing up to all sorts of new promises to be a better version of you that you can? Well, sewing could be a big part of that. The Great British Sewing Bee is great, for us who like nice, homely sewing. For those of us wanting something a bit more upbeat and fashionable challenging, BBC3 will be introducing The Drop. As I write this, it has only just finished filming in Manchester, presented by Miguel, a high stakes competition to find the next Best Streetwear Designer. Sounds promising and hopes to encourage more slow fashion. Helping to save the planet and prevent the pile high overstocks, Scrap Stores and Thrift Shops are making a return. They’re fun and fabulous and not the old crummy, stale smelling, infested with creatures places we believed they were. Bramhall Thrift Shop is just one of those, a wonderful ‘Aladdin’s Cave’. Situated in Bramhall centre next to the shopping precinct, The Thrift Shop takes donations of all sorts of goodies, and they have an extensive display of haberdashery and fabrics. I picked up quite a few new pieces of fabric when I visited, and almost new haberdashery at a fraction of the cost I would normal be expected to pay. I always leave with a positive feeling of doing my bit for the environment as well as my community, but the proceeds raised in the store go to a worthwhile cause. You can have a look at the long list of charities the Thrift Shop has supported and continue to support when you visit. I visited Bournemouth on my recent travels. There I found a wonderful Scrap Store (ReUseful UK), from a national chain of over 50 in the UK. There I found all sorts of glorious objects donated by well know businesses. From wooden spindles destined to make toy cars, to tubing, foam and fur (not real of course) and even male bed pans. A young boy was there with his mum collecting all sorts of thing to go in his £5 bin bag fill. He told me he was making himself a burger costume! Lettuce, relish and sesame seeds for the bun. Creativity is unfettered by the restraints of cost, so the more Scrap Stores and Thrift Shops we can encourage, the better for our communities in the long term. In the meantime, make little changes in how you shop. Stop choosing to buy items sold in blister packs. Do we really need to buy bobbins and scissors presented so neatly in a coffin of plastic? Choose to sew natural fibres. Avoid petroleum-based fibres such as acrylics, polyester, viscose, lycra and nylon. Consider natural waddings in quilting. Soya as well as cotton batting is now becoming a popular alternate to polyester. Shop wisely and look to make a difference. If you have any great ideas to make positive changes, let me know. Happy Sewing!

Abi x

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