Blackheath Embroiderers Guild is working with Illuminated Arts, a South East London Community Interest company , on a project to get people stitching.

The Stitch Hub project, funded by the National Lottery Local Connections Community Fund, is designed to involve residents of care homes, primarily for the elderly in South London through a series of web-workshops to create a collection of stitched ‘Pockets’

The pockets created in this project are loosely based on those of the 16th-18th Century worn by women either under their skirts or outside their garments, tied around the waist and often beautifully stitched or decorated with applique.

We held an online open-access workshop in March to explore the fascinating social history and stitch opportunities in historical pockets. We were delighted to attract an international audience thanks to the online workshop facility which reinforces our desire to continue sharing our workshops online, even when we re-start our in person workshops!

Our members and online workshop visitors are taking part by creating examples of embroidered pockets which will be incorporated into the workshops and subsequently exhibited to the public. The pockets will also be incorporated into a planned fashion show in 2022! 

There is absolutely no pressure to create a perfect piece of technical embroidery – the most important thing is to take part, enjoy and use the medium to tell your personal story. We will guide you through the basic techniques of stitching a pocket and our workshop leaders will give some social historical background to the pockets and guidance for absolute beginners and experienced stitchers in creating embroidered pockets. The presentations will be by the Illuminated Arts team, Samina Sattar and Chris Solly .

If you would like to see our instructions on how to construct a simple pocket please look at our You Tube video

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