With Karen Arthur 7PM to 9 PM
Sew Social
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Sew Social is a monthly gathering on the first Tuesday of the month. We invite you to bring your handheld creative pieces or your mending pile, bring your knitting or your crochet creation- BEGINNERS WELCOME. Sew on some buttons, come with a crafty dilemma or begin afresh! Knitters, sewists, quilters, artists and everyone in between.
This new class came about from a mutual love between Karen Arthur and Afri-Co-Lab’s Lilly on a chance meeting in the Lab before Karen had moved to St Leonards. Fast forward a year and here we are. An upcycle of Karen’s Tuesday Thrills Craft Circle circa November 2015, where crafters, creatives and enthusiasts brought projects that had been sitting idle for years or new ones that they could never find the time or space to start. Gradually it grew to a small community.
Sew Social is the next iteration of that dreamy space, a space to enable like minded crafters to meet and chat and to help alleviate loneliness and promote positive mental well being through craft for Global Majority folks local and those just passing through.
Welcome to Sew Social a new class for Global Majority people here at Afri-Co-Lab
The session
WHEN?
First Tuesday of the month
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WHERE?
At Afri-Co-Lab, 3 Marine Court, St Leonards-On-Sea, TN38 0DX
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WHAT TIME?
Doors open at 7pm and close at 9pm. You can come any time in between
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HOW?
Incidental peer-to-peer tuition happens at members discretion.
No experience necessary. A willingness to do or start something crafty is all you will require.
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EQUIPMENT?
We will provide sewing machines, overlockers, threads, scissors, tailors chalk, buttons, trimings, scrap fabric, tea and biscuits.
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WHAT ELSE?
We provide positive energy in a calm, safe, non-judgemental space.
And lots of laughter.
Photography by Rich Barr
Karen was raised in Oxfordshire, studied Performing Arts as a Dance Specialist in Leicester, trained as a teacher in Bedford and moved to London in the mid-eighties where she started teaching in the East End.
Karen’s Barbadian mother passed on her love of sewing when she was 15 and this passion for creativity accompanied her throughout her teaching career.
Karen taught dance full time, then headed up KS3 Performing Arts for 17 years before a foot injury led me to teaching Textiles. From there she moved across to become a Pastoral leader, finally settling at a local Boys Secondary School as a Head of House.
Karen left teaching behind after 28 years when the onset of the menopause brought with it a diagnosis of anxiety and depression which threatened to floor her. She could no longer do her job. After turning the spotlight inwards, a few years later Karen was able to move into Fashion, working exclusively with women to create beautiful bespoke clothing that made them feel good and stand tall.
Since then Karen has worked as a private stylist, textiles workshop leader, hosted live events and taught private clients to sew. Karen has created public textiles arts for Sky Arts and the Migration museum.