Women in Bristol are building friendships across cultures while creating wonderful works of art, home-ware and clothing.
“We all share a stitch language. We might speak a different language but stitching is universal and happens all over the world.”
Dawn, Creative Connections Manager, Bridges for Communities.
Stitching Together is a project that runs weekly sewing classes in community spaces across Bristol. They are designed to be welcoming and creative spaces for women from different backgrounds to connect with others in their neighbourhoods.
“It’s lovely because we make a community, we connect, we sometimes laugh and are very lively, sometimes we cry as well. It’s lovely to have a safe space for women. We need more of those actually. I’m really quite blessed that I come to this group and share with other women.”
Yanet, Stitching Together Volunteer
The class featured in this film were able to collaborate with artist Alice Kettle, creating cushions commissioned by Christopher Farr, and have their designs displayed in Arnolfini, as part of their exhibition Threads: Breathing Stories into Materials.
“It’s a way of community building, making connections, and recognising the individuality of cultures but bringing them together in this collective act. Its a wonderful thing that stitch can do.”
Alice, Textile Artist
Top tips to use stitching to bring people together
Stitching has been used for generations to keep us warm, as a form of art, as personal expression and a way of preserving our cultural heritage. Today, community groups are using the shared language of stitching to bring people together, recognising that our love of stitching can help bridge the seemingly large divides between people of different cultures.
We’ve been running stitching groups for many years. Here are some of our top tips to help you use stitching to bring people together.
