Back on 1st June this summer, the Woven in Kirklees Festival kicked off with World Stitch Day at Oakwell Hall in Batley. Among the attractions of stalls from local community groups, textile artists, workshops and an interactive fabric 'Time Machine' was The Red Dress on display in West Yorkshire for the first time.

The Red Dress is an award winning collaborative embroidery project which was conceived by the British artist Kirstie Macleod. It took 14 years to complete and features the work of 380 embroiderers from 51 different countries, many of whom come from marginalised communities. The dress is currently in the middle of a global tour and was on display for the whole of June at Oakwell Hall in Birstall.

The 'Woven in Kirklees' textiles festival first launched in 2019. The community festival celebrates all kinds of textiles and related crafts with yarn bombs, textile art exhibitions, workshops and talks.

The biennial festival runs for a whole month and this year had 130 different events happening throughout June. Initiated in 2019 by Kirklees Council, the festival "is owned by everyone, including community groups, textile businesses, cultural and educational organisations, artists and heritage sites across the district".

I went along to World Stitch Day and spoke to a number of the exhibitors, the festival's curator, Nat Walton as well as Kirstie Macleod about the amazing Red Dress. 

Here are some useful links to discover more about the events and groups featured in this episode:

• Woven in Kirklees Website
• The Red Dress Website 
• The Campervan Collective 
• Six Million Plus

And to find out more about the appeal to make crocheted hearts for the North West & North Wales Paediatric Transport Service, please click this link.

For full show notes for this episode, please visit this page on the Making Stitches Podcast website.

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The theme music is Make You Smile by RGMusic from Melody Loops.

The Making Stitches logo was designed by Neil Warburton at iamunknown.

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Making Stitches  Podcast is supported by the Making Stitches Shop which offers Making Stitches Podcast merchandise for sale as well as Up the Garden Path crochet patterns created by me & illustrated by Emma Jackson.

Making Stitches Podcast is presented, recorded and edited by Lindsay Weston.