The Nettle Dress (Film) + Craft Session

Bring all your crafty friends and your craft to watch this beautiful film, followed by a craft session. Bring your crochet, knitting or any other portable craft and join us in the Arts Room after the film.

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Textile artist Allan Brown spends seven years making a dress by hand, using only the fibre of locally foraged stinging nettles. This is ‘hedgerow couture’ , the greenest of slow fashion and also his medicine. It’s how he survives the death of his wife Alex and how he finds a beautiful way to honour her.

'Grasping the Nettle' is at the heart of this story. The challenge of making zero carbon clothing means relearning ancient crafts: foraging, processing, spinning, weaving, cutting and sewing. Making a dress this way becomes devotional and healing.

‘While making the dress over all these years, I felt like I was being transformed by the nettles rather than…