Crafty Chat Costumes

The Wind Energy Museum at Repps

On Tuesday 17th February our chat centred around the activities of our members.  Last year the C&TA were approached by the Wind Energy Museum at Repps, on the Norfolk Broads, to provide expertise in helping to recreate a period costume for a traditional Broads marshwoman, to be shown in an upcoming exhibition at the museum.  We approached Jane, a member with enormous experience of making historic costumes, and at this meeting she updated us on her progress making the outfit and explained that she is planning to visit the museum in the summer to help prepare the it for display.  Once we have details of the exhibition, we will share them with members so that you can go and see the results of Jane's hard work.

Julia also told us about her historical costume making: she is a member of the Sutton Hoo Interpretation Textile Group in Suffolk, and volunteers regularly with the Textiles Team there, modelling Anglo-Saxon clothes that they have made themselves and helping visitors to understand more about the daily life of Anglo-Saxon people.  She showed us the dress that she has made from nettle fibre and linen, decorated with beautiful embroidery, and it really inspired us all to visit the wonderful museum at Sutton Hoo to see both the site of the ship burial there and also the full size re-creation of the original ship which is currently taking place in nearby Woodbridge.

There was lots of other chat too - we admired Jane's sheep bunting (yes, bunting made of tiny sheep!) and Jackie's beautiful dragon quilt, and also heard about the UNESCO-backed initiative called 'Living Heritage in the UK'.  This is a government supported project to record and preserve 'intangible' aspects of heritage in the UK, and covers many arts and crafts.  Further details can be found on their website at ​https://livingheritage.unesco.org.uk/ ​