NEC’s National Stitchcraft Show opens showcasing DIY ‘green’ ideas

• Mar. 26 by Katie Fox (0)

Birmingham’s NEC opened The National Stitchcraft Show yesterday (Thursday) with many exhibitors voicing their ‘green’ concerns.

The three-in-one exhibition, featuring Sewing for Pleasure, Hobbycrafts and Fashion Embroidery and Stitch, held stalls selling supplies, showcasing innovative designs and hosting workshops.

Workshops included sewing machine demonstrations, card-making, embroidery and much more.

One highlight was Alison Smith’s Dress Makers 30-minute sewing classes. Alison’s ‘School of Sewing’ was established in 1992 and is the biggest of its kind in the UK. Alison taught visitors some of her ‘tricks of the trade’ for use when sewing their own garments.

The show, running until Sunday 28^th March, also played host to the popular ‘Customisation Station’ where designers explain to show-goers how to customise their clothes to get the most of them.

The purpose of these workshops was to show visitors how to be eco-friendly and make and mend clothes rather than buying into ‘throw-away-fashion’. Their message was:

‘Why bin it when you can swap or customise it?’

Charlotte Liddle, a designer from Coats Crafts, is running a customisation workshop within the show. She said:

‘We’ve been really busy actually; from about half past nine this morning we’ve been non-stop. We’ve been talking to people about different ideas and how to make things with our samples.

I think people are getting more and more interested in how to make things for themselves. They’re amazed at what you can make with just small scraps of fabric.

It’s nice not to be chucking things out and not always thinking you have to go out and spend ‘X’ amount of money on a brand new piece of clothing or acres of brand new fabric because you don’t generally, you can just make a small embellishment and add it on to something to make it completely different. It saves money but as well it means we’re not just throwing things out all the time.’

Charlotte, along with her colleague Sally McCollin, is a lecturer at Middlesbrough College in the Visual and Performing Arts faculty where recycling materials and reusing items is promoted within the curriculum.