Sow, Eat, Wear, Share, Dye, Rot, Renew

Tickets
Booking is essential due to the nature of the activities. The tickets are available for a donation, if you require concessions please contact us and we will be more than happy to put you on the attendance list for free.

Organised in collaboration with FoodFutures: Closing Loops we will be hosting a daytime event and lunch. Learn about how processes of growing and foraging plants are interwoven with caring for our clothes and our environment.

Join us for a day exploring the opportunities that local and seasonal eating brings - more than just a meal, we’re using plants to transform textiles that need a glow up. From foraging to growing our own, plants can be used for medicinal purposes, a tasty meal and we can even use our food waste to alter the colour of fabric before we put them in the compost.

Natural Dyes
Sewing Cafe Lancaster's own Enda O'Regan and Katrina Barnish will share their adventures in natural dyeing using locally grown and foraged plants and seasonal food waste to update and transform clothing in order to give our wardrobes longer life. Learn how to make a solar dye pot (stop in Friday night to see it all begin) and get some tips for doing food waste dyes at home.

Weeds for your needsA workshop exploring the medicinal and culinary uses of common "weeds" that you find growing underfoot, in pavement cracks and untended corners. Learn about the properties of these plants and how to prepare nourishing food and medicine from them. The workshop will use some of the plants highlighted in the dye workshop with a focus on nettle and dandelion. This session will be run by Julia Russell, a plant forager and a member of the Association of Master Herbalists ()

Lunch inspired by the seasons and food that can be harnessed for natural dyeing

Lunch will be prepared by a community chef from the FoodFutures network. The food served will use the plants and produce discussed in the morning workshops as well as drawing inspiration from the spring season.

Rot & Renew
We hardly think about what happens to our textiles when they are donated to charity shops but somewhere around 85% of all our textiles end up in landfill, whether in our home country or overseas. Dr. Laura Pottinger will be presenting some of her project for the Textile Biennial which explored the environmental legacies of cotton. Experimenting with various natural dye related processes, including burying large strips of cotton different kinds of soil and compost, the work draws on the multiple meanings of a – a universal, dye-based indicator of pH levels derived from lichen, and a social indicator proving success, impact or values.

We will also hear from FoodFutures about the Community Composting happening in our area.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

The Gallery, The Storey, Meeting House Lane, Lancaster, United Kingdom