Tamworth Castle Clothing Exhibition

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Sat 10 Feb 2024 - Sun 31 Mar 2024

A historic clothing exhibition is taking place at a medieval castle in Staffordshire to teach visitors traditional techniques when it comes to mending or improving garments. Tamworth Castle is to play host to Debbie Murphy from Missfit Creations for her clothing exhibition, which runs from 10 February to 31 March. Debbie is returning to the castle following her popular clothing repair workshop last September, where she demonstrated techniques such as sashiko stitching, darning, and upcycling old clothing to create a new look. As part of the exhibition, the castle will be displaying a selection of costumes from Debbie's Missfit’s vintage clothing collection which will be shown along with replica historic costumes from the castle collection.

The clothing repair workshop forms part of the half term activities at Tamworth Castle from 10 – 18 February. Children of all ages can find out about contemporary and historic fashion and try on replica historical dresses, coats, hats and bonnets from the medieval and Victorian periods. Visitors are encouraged to take photographs or selfies in the dress-up fashions within the period setting of the castle. Children are also invited to take part in a historic costume quiz and have a go at paper doll making. Debbie will also offer drop-in fabric craft workshops on 10, 14 and 18 February for visitors of all ages; making a range of finger puppets from fabric remnants to . Rosa Brown will demonstrate paper doll crafting.



Councillor Andrew Cooper, Portfolio Holder for Entertainment and Leisure at Tamworth Borough Council, said: “Tamworth Castle is always a great place to visit, and this half term we have family activities and a new clothing exhibition. It’s wonderful to have Debbie Murphy returning with her exhibition highlighting the amazing work she is doing with repurposing, repairing and reusing fabrics and old clothing. We hope this exhibition will help explore creativity as a way of engaging audiences with our wonderful history and we look forward to welcoming visitors back after our short winter break.”

Missfit Creations was set up in 2002 by Debbie, a dressmaker and clothing restorer specialising in vintage and costume. She is also the founder of Tamworth’s Mending Circle which meet fortnightly at The Community Café in The Castle Grounds. Debbie has worked for entertainers of all descriptions, dressing tribute acts, pop bands and drag artists for several years before focusing entirely on keeping clothing from landfill. In 2022 a Case Study on Missfit Creations carried out by the Energy & Bio-Products Research Institute at Aston University found that the businesses’ zero waste policy and sustainable practice amounted to savings of approximately 3 tonnes of CO2eq each year.



Debbie said: “With enough clothing on the planet currently to dress the next six generations, I have made a business out of recovering and refashioning old clothes. It will be an exploration of continuity and change around garments over time regarding changing needs, social mobility, and improvements in production. I employ traditional tailoring along with a variety of mending techniques to keep vintage clothing in circulation. Specialising in visible mending, I keep a zero-waste policy ensuring that all aspects of a garment are restored or reworked into new designs.”

Whilst at the castle, visitors can call in at the Battle and Tribute exhibition and download the app for the virtual reality world via the Augmented Reality Trail. Visit www.tamworthcastle.co.uk to find out about all the activities and book tickets. (Prices may vary subject to event).

#crafts
#castle
#educational
#history

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