 |
Rachel David got the week-end off to a thought-provoking start with her talk on Friday evening about her life-long passion for recycling, upcycling and reinventing textiles. Increasingly, we are being made aware of the adverse effect of textile waste on the planet, and encouraged to buy fewer items, making them last longer.
Rachel’s philosophy has long been to avoid buying new clothes and she works her magic on second-hand garments by bringing many textile techniques into play: appliqué, embroidery, dyeing, reshaping among many. |
Rachel also makes wonderful characters, combining doll-making techniques with wire structures and her love of unusual materials.
There was a huge amount of food for thought, and many of us probably went home to raid our stashes …
Saturday was also a fun, and relaxed, session learning to do ribbon embroidery with our own Warwickshire Stitchers member, Susanna di Milo as tutor. The day got off to a great start when we arrived to find our kit of materials packed into a lovely handmade box.
Susanna showed us how to prepare our ribbons and the various techniques used to create different flowers. It was very satisfying to see how various flower effects can be created by adapting basic stitches, and how much more quickly results are obtained than with thread. Thank you, Susanna, for an inspiring day!
Some practice blooms:
