This piece named The Social Fabric is made by and for the people of Lewisham, documenting the thoughts and feelings of what it means to be a Lewisham resident in 2022. The artwork was displayed at The Hill Station Community Cafe for 3 months at the end of 2022.

Worked on by over 40 local residents over a 9 month period, the artwork unlocks local voices who speak on their community, environment and culture. The work is a series of 75cm x 50cm panels. Each panel has been contributed to by 2 or 3 or sometimes 4 different makers, who, during the process of creation have remained anonymous to each other. Using only the visual clues made by previous makers, one after the other they created a dialogue on the cloth.

The launch party and grand unveiling was the the first time many of the co-creators met each other and could see what else had been done to the artworks they started.

Make Mee Studio Co-founder Jaime said “ After not being able to be together for almost 2 years we wanted to offer a space for people to come and be social and get creative. The collaborative nature of the artwork means even people who were on the course at different times were interacting with each other in some way. Some of the best memories we have of our Social Fabric project are the chats over a cup of tea and a biscuit. We can’t wait to see what people think of the piece as a whole!”

 Since October 2021 Make Mee Studio ran 3 sets of 6 week creative textiles courses for the Lewisham community in Creative Machine Stitching, Textile Printing and Hand Embroidery & Fabric Manipulation, teaching participants new skills and developing their design ideas. The makers were encouraged to take inspiration for their designs from the themes of climate action, diversity and inclusivity from the We Are Lewisham Borough of Culture 2022.

The project was funded by The Arts Council Project Grant. It was free for contributors to take part in and priority was given to residents who were feeling particularly isolated or vulnerable. 1st New Cross Scouts and Make Mee after school students also contributed to the artwork.

Through the Arts Council funding we also offered subsided or free places on our Sewcial classes. The Sewcial was such a success that we have continued to offer this class bringing people from our diverse community together through sewing. People can come and make use of our facilities, equipment, range of fabric, get help on their projects from experienced teachers and most importantly hang out with other creatives.