Pegswood Recycling Socks Workshop

60 kids, Mums, Dads and Grandmas helped me to make these weird and wonderful creatures at Pegswood Community Project yesterday. All the toys were made out of socks using different techniques and each one was special but here are a few of my favourites

Make Do and Mend

Revitalising

Re-vitalising a £10 chair from Heaton Park Rd. Many people have donated men's ties to me to use in children's workshops. I have been endeavouring to re-cycle every part of the tie. The larger end is being used for pocket making with children , some of the middle section has been used for the chair's upholstery and the back panel and the small pieces that are left are being turned into a tumbling blocks cushion for the chair and petals for corsages.

I love being able to turn printed polyester into something else.

Slow Sewing

Quilted Cloth Kits Dress

Another recycled vintage quilt. This one has been made up into a dress using a 1980s Clothkits dress pattern. I have over printed and embroidered it and embellished the bodice with my trade mark suffolk puffs.

Unpicking

Harris Tweed

The basis of this skirt is a strippy quilt which has been unpicked to reveal different layers. I have intervened with the surface through embellishing with second hand Harris Tweed, needlepoint, buttons and have patched to mend. I am trying to photograph and catalogue all the work which will be included in my exhibition "Thrift and Thread".