I hope that you are all well and have been able to reach this point in the Pandemic relatively unscathed. I think it has affected us all in one form or another, its a very strange time. So now it is time to plan the final expedition- back to some sort of normal. The aim is that we will be able to re-open on June 15th. We have all our fingers crossed that this stays on target.
We have been busy behind the scenes with the Ebay shop and local orders etc and I cannot thank you all enough for the support we have had. Over the last 3 months we have been able to provide 6 care homes with some form of PPE (masks, bags etc); 3 hospitals with the same sort of items; Clitheroe District Nurses; both the local Doctors surgeries; a Veterinary surgery; Clitheroe Ambulance teams; local vulnerable people …. so well done all volunteer stitchers and crafters you are amazing!!!
Along with the PPE we have run out 4 biro pens, used a ream of paper for orderslips, used up 4 rolls of brown paper, cannot tell you how much I have spent in postage – oh and that is another well done…our local Post Office must be on their knees… they have worked like Trojans! I think we have supplied most of Wales and an awful lot of parts of the rest of the UK with interfacing and bias binding in order that they all can make their PPE contributions. We have contributed heavily to the national shortage of elastic, overlocking thread and navy blue cotton fabric! All this has made sure we have ticked along quite well and we are now ready to emerge from the
First project in crochet
cocoon of ‘lockdown’ in a strong position.
I did hope that over the last 3 months I would have the time to work on this website and to get my online shop working etc… alas no – but in a good way; we have been so busy with Ebay orders its been impossible to get everything done. What has been lovely to see is the amount of projects my customers have been able to complete or even actually start to make! Several of our customers learned new crafts and even taught their children some new crafts.
All in all this is a good news message and we hope to see you all very soon.
Last year the Tour de France cycle race stages that happened in the UK brought massive enthusiasm and community spirit to small towns across the country. This year the annual Tour of Britain is making its way through my home town and we are seeing a similar reaction from the community.
Once the dates and route were published there was a team of enthusiasts organised to generate some displays and activities to put our town on the map. I say town, we are indefinable really – too large for a village but not really a town. Over the years the area has grown to a point that some of the older residents don’t recognise it as the village community it used to be. There are those that will inevitably drum down some of the efforts made by local groups by stating that ‘there is no community spirit any more’ well I have always disagreed with these type of comments and this Tour of Britain event is definitely proving me correct!
Longridge Does Tour of Britain
For the last few weeks there has been a steady stream of yellow cycles being installed along what will be the route of the Tour. They are old bikes, unloved and battered but they are now seeing a new life – loved and enjoyed by entertaining the visitors and residents with their quirky positions on walls, in flower beds and parked against fences. As business owners we have been encouraged to decorate our windows. Yellow themes and more cycles seem to be popular so we sat down here at Oh Sew Crafty and got our thinking hats on. Several cups of tea later we came up with a plan!
Planning meeting
As a craft shop our window needed to reflect our whole mission. Of course – the only option was to be a little bit crafty with our window… after a small appeal for some extra help we embarked on our project. Whatever our volunteers could provide; knitted pieces, crochet pieces or even some spare odds and ends of wool…have you guessed yet? What a reaction we have had – lots of volunteers came forward to help. We cracked on with our project for about a week, then we needed a little meeting to reflect on our efforts so far… When we checked the box of items we were a little bit amazed! This calls for an extended ‘covert’ mission as part of the project!
Oh Sew Crafty
We spent last Saturday in the shop checking the progress and adding to the stash of woolly pieces. As we worked away and customers came into the shop they were fascinated – in fact we gained a few more volunteers along the way. The response has been amazing – I still maintain that there is a deep community spirit in our town. We spent last Thursday adding the first part of the project to the shop window. There is also some knitted bunting and crochet flower garlands in the window. What a reaction we have had to this! It has been lovely to have people pop into the shop and tell us how much they love the bike. One little boy needed to come into the shop just to check it was a real bike! I have seen people cross over the road just to have a closer look – it feels really good to get a happy and positive response.
– and so to our ‘covert’ mission… well we cannot say too much at this stage but suffice to say it involves yarn, volunteers and a bright moon!!!!
We are in the middle of the glorious English summer right now… I promise!! The children have had a few weeks off school and the parents and grandparents are already counting down to the return in September. The weather has not been at its best so far but the memories of good holidays do not rely on just good weather, surely! Here at Oh Sew Crafty we have seen a lot of children getting crafty things organised to take on their holidays – its lovely.
For these school holidays we have organised a whole plethora of crafty activities that are being enjoyed by the local community. Some of the activities need only a little imagination and hopefully the children will take ideas away and create some activities for themselves when the weather turns bad. With the weather being so changeable it has been very important for those groups of children to have activities to keep them occupied but I have often worried about the prescriptive nature of so many activities…and therein is the debate!
Do we need to keep our children SO organised, can they develop their own activities, do they not have imagination? I think that as parents and carers we are a little frightened to allow them to be creative. Everything today has to be completed with such accuracy its scary…. where is the creativity? One of my favourite sayings with the young crafters is ‘there is no such thing as getting it wrong in craft – it is just redesigning!’. If only life was so simple…
We introduced a Knit and Natter session for the young crafters this summer. They have been learning to knit at school and we thought it would be nice to keep the skills ticking over whilst they are on holiday. On top of that the adults have a Knit and Knatter so why not the children? SO instead of coffee and cakes we have juice and fab biscuits. The chairs are pulled up around the table in the shop and the parents/grandparents get a couple of hours to get their shopping done – and it works! There is no real structure, they just bring along their knitting project and crack on with it. I am there to help them if they drop a stitch or gain too many…. The conversations are hilarious – I love the child aspect to the way they see the world. It is lovely to hear them chat about things they consider to be important – no moaning about politics or the price of bread. No debate over the best way to cast on or off – or even the colour of buttons to use. They have much more important things to discuss… the lack of after school clubs through the holidays as they love going to them so much. The new class that they are entering and the new teacher that they are encountering. Life is good. If you could see them, clicking their needles and tutting over dropped stitches. They are influenced so much by the adults around them. They try so hard to be like us – children are like little sponges and take all sorts of gems of memories around in their heads. I would suggest that all adults should spend time with children and listen to what they have to say – it is enlightening!
And there are the seeds of memories about a long crafty summer, looking back will they remember what the weather was doing? I doubt it… they will chuckle and remember being able to chat, socialise with freedom and creativity, on their terms…
I don’t know about any of you, but I know I have times when I would love the world to stop so I could get off for just a wee while. I am a very busy person by my nature, I cannot just sit down, I detest having nothing to do and I love being able to potter around creating crafty masterpieces (not that I ever really achieve the latter very often). Even when sitting in boring meetings I have doodled my agenda in the most fascinating ways. Recently someone created the ‘Zentangle’ phenomena that has made colouring and doodling a fun activity for adults and children alike. Art therapy is now widely recognised as having major benefits to illness recovery.
I remember being in hospital when I was about 10 years old (a very long time ago) and the most awful thing was the boredom – but the best time was when we went to ‘school’. This was a room in the ward where a teacher was employed to work with us. It wasn’t like school really – we did a lot of drawing and painting and making of things. My crafty recovery carried on when I left hospital and I spent time with a family friend who taught me to crochet. Over my month of rehab I became very proficient at making glitzy skull caps! (Well it was the 70’s!).
I have many customers that call into the shop for craft kits or project resources when they are about to set off on holiday. The rest, the peace and quiet, the time to absorb themselves in a craft means they feel refreshed and revitalised when they return. There are those that search for a craft for someone else to do whilst they are laid up with illness or injury. So many times people turn to craft for their therapy and this makes me think that we all have a need to be creative or constructive at times. Why is this? I know there is a great sense of achievement when that project is completed. I know that a knitting or crochet project allows for some thinking time whilst wielding the pins or hooks. I know that most crafts can be achieved whilst relatively immobile. Is this just twitchy fingers or is there something that our soul needs?
There are many quotes out there that suggest this is an age old state of mind…
“Methinks it is a token of healthy and gentle characteristics, when women of high thoughts and accomplishments love to sew; especially as they are never more at home with their own hearts than while so occupied.” ~Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Marble Faun, 1859
Sewing mends the soul
Stitch your stress away
May your bobbin always be full
Any day spent sewing is a good day
All of these are credited to the ‘Unknown Author‘ but how right they are!
How about this one? – “The innocent sleep, Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleave of care…”
~William Shakespeare (was he a crafter?)
I have a customer that has had a rough time with illness over the last 18 months but all through this time she has had her crafting skills to see her through. She has managed to knit, sew, crochet and other crafts even at the most tiring time of the treatments and it has helped her to mend. This week I had a young customer in with his mum, he was suffering with a rotten bug and was quite weary. Obviously school was not going to feature in his day but he still wanted to do something (I don’t think he was old enough to have caught man-flu!). He settled on creating something with felt and bright stranded threads, and of course the googly eyes.
So from this I have to extend my intended thoughts to the whole craft world and not just the sewing world. Quite definitely, Crafting mends the soul….
I remember the first series of the Great British Sewing Bee with mixed emotions. I had spent all summer doing extensive market research in my local town and in other places across Britain with regard to setting up my dream business – Oh Sew Crafty was moving from being a tiny little thought seed into a whacking great big business venture! Well that is how it seemed when the roller coaster started.
At the time we had been enticed back into the ‘make do and mend’ attitudes by the lack of disposable cash and the throwback to the glorious vintage era that made it trendy to be crafty. The lovely Kirsty Allsopp had shown us that being thrifty or crafty was achievable by any one of us… that we could create, mend, adapt and re-use items that were previously discarded recklessly as we shopped relentlessly for the next fashion piece. My research showed that people were starting to miss having easy access to sewing essentials and good knitting yarns. This was a re-assuring aspect to my plan.
We opened in October 2012, and by the following spring we had started to feel our feet, just in time for the pilot series of the Great British Sewing Bee. I was new to running a business and knew that I would need to be guided by my customers where stock was concerned. I was not prepared however for the mad rush that ensued when in the first episode the ‘bias binding’ machine, demonstrated and positioned perfectly, encouraged people to dash to the nearest haberdashery to purchase one of their own! We sold out in 2 days… the tool famine that followed lasted for weeks! Other items to take us by surprise that season included invisible thread (thank you Ms Allsopp), hessian and ribbon.
And so we were hooked – all summer the customers chatted about this lovely mini series of craft. “would there be another series?” was the most asked question. “Did you see that lovely dress that Ann made?”. Everyone saw something different in the series. Some people were dismayed at the way the stitchers created their garments, preferring the security of traditional working with its regimented and sometimes soul-destroying perfection, whilst others saw the breath of fresh air that was being demonstrated with relaxed techniques and a definite smile on the contestants faces as they proudly completed their tasks.
When the announcement came that there would be another series my customers were so excited! I had 3 customers that applied to go on the show. One of them got through to the 3rd round and she was very pleased with herself. The second series did not disappoint… once again there was a great effect on the buying trends. This time however there was another, deeper, effect that was starting to emerge. Many of my customers had repeatedly voiced their opinion that sewing, crafting and knitting were dying skills and that the ‘young people’ were not interested. Well, that certainly changed in 2014. Many of those young people emerged from the shadows and showed that actually they had been having a go for quite some time but had not been admitting it. Suddenly my shop was being visited by timid and nervous young mums and teenagers that braved the doorstep and came along to learn better sewing and knitting techniques. My workshops filled with new blood – those ‘young people’ have gained confidence and produced some fantastic projects.
Over the year the interest has gained momentum. My husband works with me at the weekend and he is a very useful asset when it comes to engaging with the menfolk as they accompany their partners into this ‘stash’ containing emporium. Once they see him, there is a distinct relaxation of shoulders! Often the conversation turns to the ‘Great British Sewing Bee’ and surprise surprise… the menfolk quite like this programme…
And so to series 3 – so far we have run out of rotary cutters, princess seamed dress patterns and some vintage style fabrics. In fact the reach now includes children and more openly the men – thanks to great contestants! The Children in Need celebrity specials were very entertaining and the challenges are discussed at every possible moment in the shop. It is lovely to hear the conversations with my customers and their opinions about who is good and who is not.
This week has been filled with ideas for costumes for the World Book Day that the schools take an active part in each year. The ideas have proved to be more adventurous this year. What started 2 years ago with a bit of felt in a mask format has now bloomed into a full costume with embellishments as people have allowed their imaginations to be supported by their growing confidence. I love that there is a rise in those revisiting their sewing and knitting skills so that they can create better garments for what is essentially fancy dress. Well done everyone!
Thank you to the BBC for trusting the nation and providing us with a fantastic opportunity to revive some of these creative skills. What will series 3 bring to us? Who will win? Who will provide us with the ‘memorable’ garment that we will talk about for months to come? One thing is for sure – it is all good. The craft business is benefiting from a raised interest, and confidence, from the nation.
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