Crafters are invited to take part in a free summer season of workshops designed to reflect the historic ‘fabric’ of Sunderland.
Conscious Stitching has been devised by the team at Seventeen Nineteen – formerly Holy Trinity Church and now a leading community events space – at Hendon.
And they hope makers of all abilities will come along to learn different crafting techniques and benefit from the mental wellbeing that comes from mindfully learning new skills.
The first of six workshops will begin on 5 April and participants will learn how to treat threads and fabric with natural dyes and pigments, such as madder, logwood and marigold.
Felting and working with hand dyed wool will form the focus of the second workshop on 19 April and, on 26 April, traditional weaving techniques, with hand dyed ribbons and lace, will be used to create a small woven wall hanging.
The 3 May session will feature darning- learning to fix and reinforce fabric using weaving techniques – while quilting will be the objective on 10 May and the series will draw to a close on 17 May with a session on embellishments such as fringing and beading.
Alongside Conscious Stitching, Seventeen Nineteen will also be holding a number of supplementary craft sessions, created and run by volunteers at the venue, which as well as being a multi-denominational church, was once the seat of local government and the city’s first public reading room.
Volunteer, Alison Myers, has gathered stories about ceremonies people remember attending at Holy Trinity and will lead a workshop on 21 April, from 1-3pm, creating textile collage stories.
“I love working with textiles, especially vintage and old clothing,” she said “and volunteering at Seventeen Nineteen has provided an opportunity to create an embellished, embroidered and stitched collage artwork to bring historic stories to life.”
On 28 April, volunteer Theresa Ballard will lead a workshop on Himmeli -Scandinavian geometric mobiles made from straws or reeds – while, throughout the summer, Verity Eggleston will lead intergenerational workshops to help participants make memory bears using meaningful textiles to remember someone.
And volunteer Pui Lee will hold online workshops to turn books into sculptures and make crepe paper flowers.
Lily Daniels, Participation and Engagement Officer at Seventeen Nineteen said the summer season was designed to have holistic as well as practical appeal.
“These crafts would have been commonplace in Sunderland at one time and not only will participants learn new skills but they will create items they can keep and discover how therapeutic it is to fully absorb yourself in creativity.”
Makers of all levels of ability are welcome and the workshops are offered on a Pay As You Feel basis to help contribute to costs without excluding anyone.
For more information about Seventeen Nineteen – which is cared for by national charity, Churches Conservation Trust (CCT) – visit https://www.visitchurches.org.uk/1719
