Make, do and mend
Cottoning-on to a growing demand for essential life skills and community building.
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In a society where fast fashion rules, more and more people are looking for ways to escape the racks of beige boringness and cheap scratchy fabrics that disintegrate after one wash. When it comes to clothing, we know that many customers want to save money, make sustainable choices, and express themselves in unique and exciting ways.
I am surprised it’s taken retailers so long to catch on that skills development might be a way to bring customers back in store - though I get their hesitancy. If you train your customers up to make their own clothes they might not ever come back.
The announcement by Liberty that they are running craft classes and expanding their haberdashery tells me that the demand to learn these DIY skills has grown enough that they can finally cash in (it’s only taken 12 seasons of Sewing Bee).
Putting my anti-capitalist tendencies aside, I’m really pleased to see Liberty exploring their potential as a provider of skills development, a space for learning and possibly as community builders.
I know from my day job in adult learning that, for the punters, this won’t just be about French knots and flat-felled seams. It’s also about the friendships and connections they’ll make along the way. And that’s what makes me love the idea even more.
Back in the depths of the pandemic, I ran an online embroidery course as part of the adult learning programme at the British Library. It was inspired by the 2021 exhibition ‘Unfinished Business: The Fight for Women’s Rights’, and by the long history of stitching and protest in the British suffrage movement.
I packed up 16 embroidery kits and posted them to the participants, and over 4 weeks we met online, learned 10 basic stitches with our lovely tutor Emma (The Making Room), and embroidered bunting triangles with feminist slogans.
Image shows an embroidery sampler of 10 different stitches including split, back, running, fish bone, French knot, stem, chain, woven wheel and lazy daisy.
Alongside the stitching, we had rich and beautiful conversation. We covered everything from the political issues of the moment to the joys and heartbreak of every day life. We stitched and shared and bonded. At the end of the month, Emma stitched together our bunting to create our finished piece - ‘Unfinished Bunting’. (I was rather pleased with that title).
What struck me most was how the embroidery eventually became secondary to the conversations over those 4 weeks. We found connection and solidarity with a lasting impact.
I really hope that Liberty cotton-on to the community they’re going to be building through their craft workshops and give it the resource to flourish. It could become something really beautiful.
