This Sunday we’ll be raising our needles again to make, mend and softly interrupt the unconscious compulsion to buy new. Please come and join us outside Primark on Bromley High Street. We’ll be sitting in the Stonehenge cafe opposite from 1pm lapping up tea. Bring a chair, a Stitchitdontditchit banner, and something to repair. X any questions, please message me x
Yesterday’s plan at @edfringe was to meet up with the @edinburghstreetstitchers to mend with them in the glorious sunshine. I arrived an hour early - or so I thought- but turns out I was 23 hours late as they’d met the day before and I’d misread the date. Gutted! However Mary @mvm13 and Sarah @sarahg10w kindly came and met me anyway to exchange stories and ideas. It was such a pleasure to finally meet them. Mary has just co written a book with Jeanna @thepeoplesmending on garment repair called Stitch It Don’t Ditch It, which is almost the manual to the Street Stitching events they do, as it shows in beautiful clarity everything needed to repair garments. It’s a really well crafted little book and helpful whether you’re a complete beginner or an experienced mender who wants to pick up a few more tips. Thanks for a lovely afternoon ladies xxxxx
Often when I write about Street Stitching I share images of peoples’ lovely #stitchitdontditchit banners or details of the garments they mend, but I almost never remember to document what is perhaps the most important part of the event - the exchanges that take place with the public and the interest that is generated by repairing in public. So this time I clicked away for the first 20 minutes or so when I noticed a conversation taking place. But admit I was soon so pleasantly lost in my own stitching and my own conversations I forgot to record much more. Yesterday couldn’t have been a more perfect day ☀️ for striking up a chat. Everyone seemed to have all the time in the world. Thanks to everyone who came. See you again soon xxx
Street Stitching is back on sunday afternoon along Bromley High Street. Meeting at the Stonehenge Cafe at 1pm for sustenance and natterings before forming our line. Bring a chair, a mend and join us x
CANCELLATION. Blooming ‘eck. Another cancellation I’m afraid. Those Lionesses have got entangled in our plans for an afternoon’s Street Stitching in Bromley. So we’ll fix it for another day. And in the meantime….. COME ON ENG-ER-LAND! x. Also, if you are in the area that day, The Hub in Bromley’s Glades shopping centre is hosting a really enjoyable and enriching workshop from 11.30-2.30 called Textiles Untangled. Part learning, part making, part problem solving. For more info, get hold of Charlotte @funkymakers . And @breaks_and_joins if this is you Sue, (which I believe it is), thanks for the lovely image.
RAIN STOPS PLAY TODAY. It’s all looking a bit too iffy out there weather-wise, so today’s Street Stitching in Bromley will be postponed to next Sunday instead. That’s 27th July at 1pm outside the Stonehenge cafe. See you then instead x
NEXT STREET STITCHING IN BROMLEY - 20TH JULY
We’ll be meeting outside Stonehenge cafe at 1pm for a cuppa and a sarnie before parking ourselves in a line along the highstreet to mend our clothes.
Please feel free to join us in Bromley or in spirit if you want to form your own lines in your local shopping areas.
It’s an enjoyable way to spark little changes in peoples’ thinking about buying new stuff. And it’s a great way to find a tribe.
You just need some mending, a chair and a #stitchitdontditchit’ banner to hang over the back of it. Any questions please message me.
Seasoned pros and total sewing novices all welcome. (Yes, I am looking at you Ian!) x
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SEND ME YOUR MENDS. Something that I have not paid attention to documenting with Street Stitching are the things that people mend while sitting on the highstreet.
There are sections of the website for how to start a line and how to join one, and I delight in showing off the #stitchitdontditchit banners that hang
from the backs of peoples’ chairs, but the central occupation around which this whole little movement is based……I have never thought to show it.
So, this is a call out to all Street Stitchers……could you please send me images of your mends or those of the people around you?
They don’t need to be recent either, as I’d like to open up a new section of the website as a gallery of repairs created whilst being on the street.
The best way to do this would probably just be to DM me them. It may be a while before I have time to compile them all, but I’d love to make a start. The things I’ve seen people do are so beautiful and skilled, it seems nuts not to have a place to display them. Thanks to @deborah_harobed for having the wherewithal to snap some hands at work x
The next event in Bromley should be taking place in a few weeks. I’ll announce it very soon.
Thanks everyone x
STREET STITCHING
An Easy-peasy afternoon in Bromley, absorbed in our work. Patching jeans, fixing pockets, darning holes, pimping hats, turning hems and telling people why we chose to do these domestic tasks in the middle of a busy high street.
A bit of wind, a lot of sun, a little busking background music and a lovely chat in the park afterwards, made this all really fab.
Hope to go again in about a month. Plenty of room for more people - it’s a loooooong high street! x
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STREET STITCHING
A reminder about tomorrow’s Street Stitching line along Bromley High Street.
Meeting in the Stonehenge Cafe opposite Primark at 1pm for a bolstering cuppa before arranging ourselves decorously along the high street to mend our clothes.
The weather is set to be supportive of our outdoor shopping intervention, so please come and join us for a while to help spread a bit of calm energy.
If you are sewing alongside us in your own area, please let me know.
Huge thanks to @jencable for the yumptious chair banner. (Sorry for the low res image.) Hope to cross needles with you again soon my love.
xxx
STREET STITCHING - BROMLEY HIGH STREET
We’ll be gathering in the Stonehenge Cafe opposite Primark at 1pm on 25th May for a little snack before forming a line of menders along Bromley High Street.
Please come and join us, These events are always met with such enthusiasm and curiosity from shoppers and there is nothing so powerfully peaceful as stitching in a spring breeze alongside others intent on useful repair. People who rock up to sit alongside each other become friends despite the fact they rarely speak.
I can’t recommend it highly enough for it’s unity and purposeness. As I wrote before, this is ‘Therepairapy’ - the therapy of repair.
Bring your friends, your children, your partners and join the line. You’ll need a lightweight chair and a little banner for the back of it, #stitchitdontditchit. (Please look at the gallery of chair banners on @streetstitching for inspiration.) I can supply QR codes that link to a free library of online tutorials demonstrating all aspects of clothing repair, alteration and up-cycling for you to share with interested passers-by.
We usually mend for a couple of hours. The time goes in seconds. Then we head to the park for a natter or to the charity shops for a little nosy.
If you can darn a few socks, change a few minds, make a few friends, give a few hours…..you’ll have helped alter the mood of the highstreet and lent your energy to shifting the zeitgeist.
Visit streetstitching.com for all other info and background on the massively positive impact of needing less. x
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