Soothing Stitches CIC

Soothing Stitches CIC aim is to bring quality art, stitch, craft and holistic workshops and projects to different communities in the West Midlands. We have a focus on supporting and assisting members of our community to learn a new skill, develop creativity, increase confidence, and improve their physical and mental wellbeing, making new friends and learning from each other.
We have three directors who offer a wealth of knowledge in creative and holistic approaches, making our workshops diverse and exciting and designed specifically for the groups of people who participate.

Creativity & Wellbeing Day
Stechford Leisure Centre

Our first event for Soothing Stitches CIC offering creative and holistic workshops.
An afternoon of wellbeing – making candles, painting bags and participating in sound relaxation, the event was accessible and inclusive for all, offering participants the chance to come and relax and enjoy a safe space.

A Visual Language Project

The project promotes and celebrates the use of BSL (British Sign Language) within the deaf community, highlighting the use of this beautiful but often overlooked language using imagery and text to create a mixed media artwork. We wanted to celebrate BSL Awareness week in March 2024 (supported by British Deaf Association) We worked on the project over 12 workshop sessions, each offering different textile techniques to develop and produce parts of the final piece.

Nature & Healing:
A Creative Wellbeing Project.

A project to inspire, develop skills and to promote wellness.

Nature is so important to ground our energies, so we incorporated a holistic element into this project to run alongside creative workshops. We developed workshops to incorporate natural materials and encouraged using recycled materials. We created natural mirrors, pressed flower jewellery, candles and enjoyed some sound relaxation.

Arts Carousel Project

This project was to extend one off sessions we delivered to a group that met regularly at The Deaf Cultural Centre in Ladywood for their community café every week.
We wanted this project to extend what was offered to support deaf and hard of hearing people within the local community. Since the pandemic many of the vital services to keep people connected had been cut and regular attendees to the centre weren’t accessing as frequently.

Sole 4 Soul Project

A project for people to help other people.

Using recycled blankets and throws to create slippers/ shoes and slipper kits for people in crisis or in need. The project was a great success, as participants learned how to make different styles of slippers including moccasins, mules and baby boots and donated them to local food banks in Sparkhill which were added to weekly boxes and to the premature baby unit at Heartlands hospital.

Trash to Treasure Project

The aim of the project is to reach out to adults 50+ members of the community that may be isolated or lonely and engage them in a group activity, to enable them to feel part of a group.
Sally will do this by providing weekly makes and interactions through face-to-face workshops and craft kits.
These kits would be created, distributed, and workshops led by Sharper Arts. For the people not attending the workshops Sally will be offering advice and help to create the items from the kits through social media, WhatsApp and by email.

Handmade Artwork

A selection of items handmade by participants.

Together

Projects are all about coming together, making friends, combating isolation and loneliness, and enjoying working together to experience different ideas.

Environmental

We use as much recycled fabric, materials, threads, and trims as we possibly can. Materials have come from donations and from local scrap stores rather than buying new fabrics we can re purpose and redesign to use materials destined for landfill.

Sharing

To empower and celebrate everything that is created. There is no right or wrong to this project and it would be great to share lots of different ideas that have had the same starting point. Social media and WhatsApp will enable us to share with those not attending the sessions but might want to give the ideas a go in the future.

Up skill

Everything we make will be very simple. No need for a sewing machine or fancy gadget or materials, Sally has designed the sessions so that they are easily accessible to a wide range of people. The hope is that once the participating attend the workshops, they will share with family members and friends.