Hi Tadcrafters,

Just in case you weren’t sure about what an amazing team you are part of, just have a look at what’s been going on over the last month.

Update

Here is a brief summary of the main things the Tadcrafters team have made, donated and been planning during January.

Since the last newsletter we have donated:
• 6 jumpers, 14 hats, 2 patchwork quilts to Leeds Baby Bank
• 23 Yorkits to Educate the Kids in Mombasa, Kenya
• 5 bags to St Leonard’s Hospice
• 10 hats, 4 scarves, 1 headband, 2 quilts to HomeStart York
• 4 hats, 1 twiddlemuff and 1 blanket to York Teaching Hospital Charity

 

Thank you

Thanks to Sandra, Barbara, Valerie, Lynne Wendy, Chris, Lynda, Edna, Wendy, Anne, Jenny, Linda, Eunice and Diane for all the blankets, bags, hats, hearts, twiddlemuffs, cardigans, scarves, daffodils and chocolate orange covers brought to the drop-in session. Thanks also to Julie and Carlee for the loads of Yorkits pads and to Angela for the big bags of donated fabric.
Heineken very kindly donated some ear plugs for the TadGrafters, Vanilla Interiors have once again given us huge amounts of gorgeous fabric suitable for bags and Simply A Party have given us lots and lots of yarn in exciting colours.
Apologies if I have missed anyone out.

The next drop-in session will be on Tuesday February 11th when we will be
Making Yorkits feminine hygiene kits, decorating Twiddlemuffs which are badly needed at York Hospital, knitting Daffodils for the Marie Curie appeal, discussing plans for the VE75 Day Commemorations as well as working on a papercraft project organised by some of our volunteers. It’s going to be busy!

The next TadGrafters session will be Wednesday February 12th where the group will be continuing to produce hedgehog lodges and bug hotels for local sites and The Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. If you are interested in joining our woodworking group, whatever your level of skill, please get in touch or come and have a look. Places are available but limited.

 

YorKits at York Minster.

Our very first meeting as “Bunting for Tadcaster” was held on the same day as the first workshop at York Minster making feminine hygiene kits on International Women’s Day in 2016. We are delighted to be supporting, what is now the YorKits group, for our fourth year. I can’t think of a more suitable way to celebrate our birthday and International Women’s Day. The workshops will be held on Thursday 5th March.
Between May and December last year 389 kits were sent to 12 African, and 5 Asian countries, plus refugee camps in Yemen and Lesbos, Greece (including Nigeria, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, Malawi, Cambodia, Myanmar, India and Pakistan). Each kit requires 10 sewn components, that means 389 kits required 3,890 items to be made by the Yorkits volunteers, many of which are cut out or sewn during the York Minster session. Each kit is expected to last for 3 years which represents around 150 extra school days for each girl. That means that 389 kits allowed girls to receive an amazing over 58,000 extra days of education!
Tadcrafters alone have made and donated 23 kits in the last month and we aim to send out another 30 kits to Kenya in March.
If you would like to help at the Minster event, what ever your sewing ability, please contact yorkitsrotaryainsty@gmail.com for a booking form.

On Sunday May 10th we will be taking part in the Tadcaster VE75 Celebrations (75 years since VE day) by having a stall at the market on similar lines to the Tadcaster Christmas Market but with a 40’s style theme. Dressing-up is a given but we aim to have lots of 1940s(–ish) crafts and practical environment-friendly items on our tombola stall. Our (mainly Lynne’s) ideas so far have included dolly pegs, head scarves, hankies, anzac biscuits, peg bags, covered coat hangers, lavender bags, jars of boiled sweets, victory pins, bags, aprons, beeswax wraps, and covered coat hangers. There will be many more suitable items that you can think of I’m sure. If you would like to choose one or two items and make half a dozen or so of each that would be fabulous. We’re hoping to be able to provide inspiration, instructions and materials at the Feb/Mar/Apr drop-in sessions.

 

TadCrafters Market

We still have a few tables available at our crafters market. If you have a stash of fabric, wool, card, stamps, paper-crafting kit, patterns, books, threads, trimmings, etc etc you would like to sell to clear some space (and maybe fund your next project) this might be just the ticket. If you love a bargain, collect vintage haberdashery, are on the look out for some cheap fabric to practice making clothes, cushions or curtains, make sure you put Saturday 16th May in your diary, 10am-4pm at The Barn. Tadcrafters have quite a store of top quality fabric and haberdashery that isn’t suitable for our projects but could bring in some funds to help us do what we do. Please tell anyone you know who might be interested and encourage them to come along.

Twiddlemuffs.

York Hospital urgently require twiddlemuffs as the demand from the sheer numbers of people living with dementia is getting ever greater. Twiddlemuffs can have a calming effect for patients living with dementia and this can be particularly important for people requiring hospital treatment. This is a great project if you want to learn to knit (or crochet) or you are just a beginner because if you go wrong it’s not a major problem. It’s also great for using up odd bits of knitting yarn. You don’t even need to do the fancy decoration if you don’t want to; give it to another member of the team who prefers to do the imaginative bit. See below for the link to a pattern if you need one. We have lots of suitable yarns you can use at the drop-in sessions.

Daffodils for Marie Curie

If you are a more proficient knitter (or crocheter) you might like to make daffodils for the Marie Curie daffodil appeal. Last year we helped them to double (or triple?) their usual donations in Tadcaster by making daffodil broaches for them to sell.

Tadcrafters in Sherburn and Selby.

We are meeting with people in Sherburn-in-Elmet and Selby with the aim of starting similar groups to Tadcrafters there. If you know of anyone who might be interested in coming along please encourage them to join our mailing list, follow us on social media or just make sure you pass on the latest news and dates when confirmed. The first session in Sherburn is expected to be at the end of February at the Old Girls School. If you would like to help show them there how to make bunting, twiddlemuffs or daffodils please come along.

List of Current projects

Please stick to these projects if you are making at home as other items can be hard to find homes for. Thank you for continuing to donate items of such excellent quality. If you need help, please ask.

 

Sewing

• Heart shaped cushions and drain bags for St. James’ Hospital. Templates, and fabric available at the drop-in sessions. Please email for instructions.
• Personal effects bags for St. Leonard’s Hospice. Please email for instructions
• YorKits: If you are interested in attending Saturday workshop dates (on the calendar) or the York Minster event please contact Issy Sanderson yorkitsrotaryainsty@gmail.com so you can be informed of any changes to the dates etc. Instructions and materials at the sessions

 

Knitting/crochet

• Twiddlemuffs for people with dementia. https://www.rdehospital.nhs.uk/docs/trust/pr/2015/Twiddlemuffs_Instructions_24-01-15.pdf (No deadline).
• Daffodils for the Marie Curie Daffodil Appeal (deadline February drop-in session). Please email for instructions
• No more big blankets please for the time being as Age UK have enough; please make twiddlemuffs instead as York Hospital are very short of them. Cot-sized blankets are suitable for HomeStart.

 

TadGrafters

• Insect hotels, Hedgehog lodges: instructions and materials at the sessions. Bird and bat boxes coming up soon.

 

Other

• Tombola: We are always on the look-out for suitable tombola prizes, especially crafty and 1940’s inspired ones for the stall on 10th May.
• School uniform: we are working in conjuction with Chalk’s at the Grammar School to supply “pre-loved” uniform. We’ll be carrying out minor mending tasks etc and preparing the clothes for “sale”.
• Most projects involve tasks that can be done by people with no special skills or experience.
Future events and projects
• Dates for your diary: Please see the calendar at the end of this newsletter for forthcoming events. If you haven’t yet put them in your 2020 diary now’s your chance.
• Tadcrafters Market: on Saturday 16th May we will be holding a market at the Barn, for crafters, £1 entrance fee. If you are interested in having a stall (£5) please email tadcrafters@outlook.com for a booking form, but save the items on our wish list for us!

 

Wish list and how to help

These are the things we currently require help with. NB Fabric or other items that are not suitable for our projects are donated to appropriate groups or sold to raise funds for us. If you have rags/ fabrics that are too tatty for us Oxfam shops will take them as they have their own fabric recycling plant.

• Display our posters, share our social media posts and encourage others to join in.
• If you would like to make a financial donation to help us do what we do you can do so on the Local Giving website which can be found at: https://localgiving.org/tadcrafters
• Sign up to Easyfundraising to raise extra money for us when you shop online, https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/tadcrafterscic/
• An ironing board and coat hangers for the uniform project
• Broken or unwanted beads and costume jewellery (for Adorn CIC who are a social enterprise that aim to challenge social isolation and exclusion by teaching people how to make jewellery. https://www.facebook.com/adorncic/
• Chicken wire for the TadGrafters’ bug hotels
• New or clean, nearly new polyester/cotton or other lightweight woven fabric
• New or nearly new knitting yarn. Any colour or weight.
• Fleece fabric, or sweatshirts cut into 2.5 x 20cm strips for snufflemats
• Items, especially hand-crafted ones, suitable for our tombola stalls
• “Gently worn” bras and new pants for “Smalls for All” http://smallsforall.org/

Please bring items to the drop-in or TadGrafters session. For larger donations please email to make arrangements.

 

Have a Look

For more pictures of the lovely things we make please have a look at the “What we do” page of the Tadcrafters website http://www.tadcrafters.org.uk or come down to the Barn (on the corner of St. Joseph’s Street and Leeds Road, Tadcaster, LS24 9HA) and have a chat with us to see if you would like to help.
To be put on the emailing list (wherever you live) please request it by emailing tadcrafters@outlook.com

See you soon, Su.
Directors Tadcrafters CIC: Su Morgan, Lynne Howard and Sandra Levitt

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