The Skipsisters in Lockdown

Once a Skippy always a Skippy! Even though we have not exhibited together in a while, we are all very busy and would like to share our projects with you. From repurposing fabric for the NHS to creating usable textiles for the home from scraps, we have been busy. And of course, we have all taken to Zoom like ducks to water during lockdown.

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Fabric Scraps by Skip Sister Edori

What do you do with your collection of fabrics that are too small to do anything with? They may be a piece saved from a favourite dress or a trim from a market that caught your eye. In 2019 I took a workshop with the international textile designer Lauren Shanley in her Oxo Tower studio and shop. She has since closed the studio down preferring to work from home in her Brockley studio in South London. She  taught me how she constructs her amazing fabric utilising small pieces of overlapped fabric sewn together using a zig zag stitch.

Bed cover by Edori

Cotton scarf remnant by Edori, and below, two beautiful cushions

She then machine embroiders over the top, and creates another fantastic dimension. a technique I now use in my work. My sewing skills are so basic that I have to keep referring to my machine manual! However, I have managed to create scarves, cushions and a bedcover. Lockdown has given me a chance to finally do something with my suitcases and boxes of cherished scraps that I have collected for years, starting as a teenager when I would prowl the second-hand clothing outlets in the Bowery, New York City.

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Ready, Steady Sew by Skip Sister Lizzie

I was in the middle of getting ready for Jack Absolute Flies Again at the National Theatre...got furloughed....came back to a panto! Dick Whittington only made a few performances and now can be seen online. Check out liz.kitchensink on Instagram for photos.

So/sew...I've spent a lot of my time sewing using up lot of scraps in true Skip Sister fashion. Here's a few photos...

An Emoji quilt for my friend's new baby.

Pending the birth of Amelie I stitched an emoji themed quilt . Receiving a text from her mum is always a joy to read as it’s liberally sprinkled with upbeat emojis.

Gowns, Hats, Aprons and Scrubs ...My sister did a call out and gathered together an outstanding amount of sheets etc, which I cut and sewed into all of the above.

The scrubs came ready cut in new fabric and involved a lot of sewing and swearing, but I finally got it and can now do a pretty nifty mitred corner!


And lastly . . .Masks..WASH AND REUSE!!

I’ve sewn 100s and given them away. I can’t bear to see the abandoned disposable ones and I figure it’s good karma to give them away. Any I did sell bought me more thread and elastic.

I’ve sewn 100s and given them away. I can’t bear to see the abandoned disposable ones and I figure it’s good karma to give them away. Any I did sell bought me more thread and elastic.
 
So here’s a few I’ve made - mistletoe ones for Christmas, text based ones using textile signage from the NT Costume exhibition and a special reflective one for my stepson who travels to and from work in the dark.

Sew there we are..roll on 2021...
 
Ps just thought I’d share this last photo of my furry granddaughter Ella with Ratty..which I made for her from very tough cotton scraps.

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Finding Your Community by Skip Sister Helen

My abiding thoughts about the series of lockdowns we have endured is that despite them (or because of them?) the tentacles of our communities have reached out to embrace us all in small and nuanced ways.  For example, people on my street started collecting food regularly and its still going, for the Southwark Food Bank.  I am also lucky to be a very small part of an amazing project, For the Love of Scrubs- FTLOS (set uo by nurse Ashleigh Linsdell in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic) for which a huge, skilled and not so skilled group of people, mostly women, made patients' scrubs out of repurposed sheets and duvet covers, and used old scraps of fabric to make masks for nursing staff and patients.  It's still ongoing! Watching more TV (how I miss cinemas!) meant I had plenty of time to hand sew several patchwork cushions using leftover fabric scraps from the FTLOS project.  Lockdown also meant walking, seems both essential and a luxury, and an opportunity, last spring to forage for wild garlic to make pesto; and in autumn I made quince jellies and sloe gin from what I found on my walks.

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Repurposed Vintage Towel by Skip Sister Julia

When I was a child my mother made a beach changing robe out of bathroom curtains. It was something you could slip on when you got out of the cold sea at Broadstairs (where we spent many of our holidays) and while wearing it you could get completely dry and slip out of your wet, clammy costume and no one could see! I was shy so it really appealed. When my sister and I cleared my parents home for the last time, we searched high and low for it, but never found it, very strange as they threw nothing away! I decided that I would make one for myself fashioned from old towels. Fellow Skip Sister Edori came across a lovely large vintage towel, knowing that I was on a mission.
 
So in between lockdowns I fashioned this and I can honestly say, it’s changed my life! I love it, no more scrabbling about with knickers and bras on crowded beaches, I smugly slip it on and hey presto. Not the most accomplished piece of sewing, but works a treat!

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Unfinished business by Skip Sister Pia

After we closed the shop shutters for the first lockdown last year at Stag and Bow, the haberdashery in Forest Hill where I work, the kitchen table became home to the sewing machine and I joined the many volunteers making scrubs for the NHS. So many repurposed duvet covers, sheets, dresses and spare ends of donated fabric, so many laundry bags, masks, aprons and caps, and so many fights with pleats, mitred corners, French seams and top stitching!

A pile of laundry bags for the NHS

Many many masks later, some for the NHS, some for the shop, and some for fun, the sewing machine and I parted company.

Between lockdowns I tried but failed to finish a quilt, it's only been 10 years in the making so far, so I'm in no hurry to finish, and now of course it includes mask off-cuts.

I also almost finished restoring a 1950s rug, undoing and washing each section by hand to keep the original colours used when it was first made in the 50s. Still ongoing.

Seth, Zeb and I painted a mural for a neighbour - and then built a  shed, in true skippy style, using only skip finds to make it. The roof leaks and there's no door yet, but its a nice, peaceful space to sit and take time out from it all....

One day, one day . . .