COMMUNITY STORIES – TEXTILE COLLECTIVE
In a busy shopping street in the middle of Colchester, overflowing with colourful fabric, haberdashery and ‘bits and pieces’, Textile Collective is a second-hand textile shop and community sewing studio stocked exclusively from donations, which are sold to people in the community at low prices. Their upstairs resource space has sewing machines, overlockers and looms that are available for use and they run free and low-cost workshops so more people can have the opportunity to make and repair clothing or be creative with textiles without having to spend a lot of money.
Run by textile artist Kirsta McSkimming, resource-led making is at the heart of Textile Collective, where the outcome is determined by what they have. This isn’t a shop that tries to predict buying trends or stock what they think people will want, they simply take what is donated and make it available. Customers are encouraged to be more imaginative with their resources, looking at how they can use what’s there rather than buying new just because they have their mind set on a specific outcome.
It’s a place where people love to be. Digging through the jars of buttons, hunting for fabric for a new project, asking for advice or just spending time with people as you work on something. It’s a safe and calming space to spend time and where reducing waste is a natural part of the process.
Kirsta McSkimming, Textile Collective Founder and Project Co-ordinator.
Wool, thread, fabric, magazines and knitting needles for sale in the second-hand textile shop and haberdashery.
Unfinished lacemaking, a donation now on display in the shop. The bobbins and equipment are now used by a lacemaking group.
Thread available for use in the community sewing studio.
Kerry Hine, volunteer, wearing the headpiece she made for her late husband’s funeral.
Donations come in many different forms, from contemporary items like balls of wool that someone’s bought too many of, vintage pieces and things that are unfinished. “I wonder why they haven’t been completed. It takes you off on a bit of a journey, thinking about the reasons they were making it and what happened to stop them from finishing the project.
I love talking to the people that give us the items. Sometimes it can be quite a sad story if somebody’s died or had to go into a home and they don’t have space for all their crafting materials so they’ve had to give them up. There are a lot of stories around all the stuff we get in, people often want to talk about it and they love giving to us because they feel it’s going to go to a better place instead of getting thrown away.”
Textile Collective take everything down to the tiniest scraps, so they have to work out the best way to offer them for reuse. Fat quarters are made only from fabrics that can’t be sold by the metre, and scrap cakes from tying together small bits of wool to make bigger balls with a sort of patchworky effect for knitting and crochet.
It’s about changing mindsets. “We get a lot of people asking if we will do repairs for them and I have to explain, well no, I can show you how to do it but we don’t do it for you. Then people run away because they’re a bit afraid! But out of all the people that do that there’s a couple that say ‘yeah okay, I’ll get involved and do it’ and that’s really great because it’s just that slow changing of people’s way of thinking.”
Kat, a member of the weaving group, setting up for a new project in the community sewing studio.
Tying fabric scraps together to make twine.
Making bunting for a community festival on a sewing machine in the community sewing studio.
Candy, a member of the weaving group, in the community sewing studio.
Candy checks the tension on the loom in the community sewing studio.
Reducing waste is a natural part of the process here but other, less tangible benefits are plentiful too. “Many of our volunteers are unable to work for whatever reason, which might mean that they can’t work for a whole day or for a whole week, they couldn’t be in permanent work, so they come to us.
With textiles I think the slowness and wellbeing of if all really helps them. Also, we don’t run it like a conventional shop as such, it’s not about making money so there’s not that pressure to sell. Obviously it’s nice when we do make a bit of money because it keeps us going but that isn’t the aim, the aim is to be a safe, calm space for people to come in and feel that they aren’t judged or under pressure or anything and I think we achieve it.
People often say ‘it’s so calm in here’, ‘I just love walking around and being in here’, and I like hearing that, that it feels like a safe space for people.”
Kerry is a volunteer now but she started coming to Textile Collective as a visitor. “I was using it almost as a community centre, when my late husband passed away from Lewy body dementia, somewhere to go and be around people. I love the colours, the textures, I think it’s very mindful, sorting through fabrics, buttons. I love that everything is new [to us] all the time, because it’s donations and you have no idea what’s coming in.”
For the weaving group who meet on Tuesdays it’s an important permanent home for the equipment they use to keep traditional skills alive and they echo the mental health benefits, too “The company around doing something with each other makes things comfortable as well. It’s a good combination. You’re busy so you’re not just sitting there thinking about chatting, but you chat at the same time, it’s good.”
This feature is part of a longterm documentary project on cultural community groups in Colchester. Additional images and interviews are available on request.
If you would like to find out more please get in touch:
Email: jayne@jaynelloyd.co.uk Tel: 07751233292
Find out more about Textile Collective on their website.