Sir John Lawes School Harpenden

We talked hats and make do and mend - a whole new generation of Newnsight viewers. The school invited me to give a talk and to bring along my hats too, so it was a real dressing-up box moment! Interestingly, when I asked who mended clothes, only couple of hands went up - but when Miss Richardson, the textiles teacher asked them who made their own cards, nearly every hand in the room shot up. So not much mending, but lots of making going on here! The school kindly paid my petrol money and donated £20 for my talk - they're going to make the money back by having a sale in school of things that they craft themselves - jewellery, corsages, bags etc. I donated a turban for the raffle! The money paid for my travel onto Nottingham, my next port of call.

Sunday - day of rest and all the rest!

I am staying with my wonderful Aunt Kate in Nottingham. She's in her early eighties, but you'd never believe it. I arrived last night, imagining a cosy chat and a glass of wine after a very busy day. But far from the peace and quiet I'd imagined, I was completely taken aback to find her kitchen packed with people! There were ten women sat around the table nursing various bevarages about to tuck into homemade lasagne! My Aunt started a charity called Muzika Romania many years ago working in the orphanages there, and the ladies(of all ages) were in Nottingham for a meeting to plan the charity's next project. I tried to persuade them to go on camera, but frankly, we were all too tired. Many of them professed to an interest in sewing, knitting, crochet and the like. One in particular said that as a younger woman, she'd made all her own clothes, as well as her childrens' - but that it was simply cheaper nowadays to buy everything. Another thought the new Make Do And Mend was indeed just a fashion, and that it probably wouldn't last. Lots of them bought clothes in charity shops, and hated big high-street chains largely because everyone ends up looking the same. There were also concerns about ethical issues and the manufacture of cheap clothing. My Aunt Kate's father used to work in the lace industry in Nottingham and she has a fabulous photograph of herself dressed in a pale blue lace dress - modelling for the company in the 1950's! I'll see if I can persuade her to let me put the photo on my blog...she looks beautiful!

WEEK ONE

Well it’s nearly the end of week one, and I’m preparing to head off up to the Midlands in my damp-averse Micra. I’ve been at home for the first few days, as I received alot of requests from the London area where I’m based. Firstly I had my market stall in Greenwich, then an invitation to the Knitting and Stitching show in Alexander Palace, a call to see the inspiring Make Do And Mend exhibition at the Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery, and a lesson in darning from the fabulous Sybil Goodfellow who grew up during the Second World War.

But now, home comforts will be left behind as I head up to the Midlands via Harpenden, where I’m talking to Year 13 textile students at Sir John Lawes school about my trip. They asked me to come – so I’m heeding the call! They’re paying my petrol costs and a small fee of £20 for the talk. That will help me move on to my Saturday gig – a millinery workshop at The Harley Gallery in Wellbeck, Nottinghamshire, where I’ll receive board and lodging in exchange for my labours.

I’m currently surveying with sinking heart the amount of stuff I need to bring with me. Not only my tent and a sewing machine, but a suitcase full of hats, another of possible materials to make do and mend, a small video camera which I have yet to learn how to use, clothes, a duvet, a blanket, a newly acquired head torch, and the all-important wellies purchased after a downpour the other day. How I’ll fit it all in I just don’t know, but I feel I need to be ready for any eventuality and any request.

Speaking of requests, I’ve been overwhelmed by the generous response of Newsnight viewers and web browsers from all over the country. Over two hundred e-mails so far and increasing by the day. The Make Do And Mend idea has clearly struck a chord. I’ve been moved by peoples’ open spirit – offers of accommodation for help with curtains, halloween costumes, and of course hats! I’ve been asked to help make trousers for a stilt-walker in Sheffield, and to repair costumes for a drag queen in Manchester.

Sadly I can’t visit everyone, so please forgive me if I don’t come to you, and as I’m on the road, I’m afraid I can’t reply to all the e-mails either. They will however all be read, if not by me, then by someone in the Newsnight team.

Thankyou too for your tips – don’t worry, I will pack my sewing machine properly! And yes, I agree with Emily in Glasgow, haberdashery IS a wonderful word!

On my way to knitting and stitching show

You know - I could get into this!

Offers so far

Amongst others.....

Helping make curtains in Derby in return for board and lodging.

Helping with a wedding headpiece in Bradford.

Meeting an interesting couple in Leeds who don't buy new any more.

A lesson in mending - Bury St Edmunds

Whilst at Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery, I had the great fortune to meet 83 year old Sybil Goodfellow who grew up during the Second World War, and is therefore one of the original Make Do And Menders. Being something of a darning novice, she took me in hand, and gave me an on-the-spot lesson! As a girl she would make blouses out of parachute silk as well as her brother-in-law's RAF shirts. The RAF's undies(yes we're talking pants) also came in useful as aprons! She assured me that the pants were only used as backing fabric - the front of the apron would be patch-worked cottons. Sybil even knitted entire jumpers out of the small lengths of yarn you'd buy to mend woollens with, by knotting them all together. I cannot imagine the patience needed for that. This was an era when Make Do And Mend was not only a necessity, it was seen as a duty. Her message to the youngsters of 2009? Slow down. Appreciate quality. Do what your parents tell you.

Onward to Bury St Edmunds

Thanks to an invitation from Liz Cooper who saw the BBC Newsnight piece on my project, I had the pleasure of visiting the Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery and its exhibition on Make Do And Mend. Nine artists are taking part - their work inspired by the concept of making something out of the broken and disposable. They've all re-worked the old-fashioned concept of thrift and domestic economy. I especially enjoyed seeing what Hilary Jack has done with objects that she's found on the street, taken home, mended and reworked to produce something new and fresh. She took an old and damaged tennis racket that someone had chucked away and created this artwork by re-stringing it completely differently. Also inspiring was Armchair Politico, a joint project by Stephen Dixon and Alison Welsh, which reworks found textiles. And I'd love to take part in Kai-Oi Jay Yung's sock exchange where people are encouraged to bring in their old socks for reinvention. Here you can see the tent she's constructed out of second-hand textiles.

There's a certain irony for me in seeing Make Do And Mend make it into a gallery! But it also makes sense. Finding beauty in the ordinary. Mending as a form of healing. Political messages about our throw-away culture.