“I love talking to the people that give us the items. Sometimes it can be quite a sad story if somebody’s died or had to go into a home and they don’t have space for all their crafting materials so they’ve had to give them up. There are a lot of stories around all the stuff we get in, people often want to talk about it and they love giving to us because they feel it’s going to go to a better place instead of getting thrown away or just into landfill. Often textiles mean a lot to those people, if it’s come through their family, or even if it’s their own stuff and they’ve just had to de-stash or get rid of stuff, they love to talk about it and that’s really nice.”

Textile Collective take everything down to the tiniest scraps, so they have to work out the best way to offer them for reuse. Fat quarters are made only from fabrics that can’t be sold by the metre, and scrap cakes from tying together small bits of wool to make bigger balls with a sort of patchworky effect for knitting and crochet.

Run by textile artist Kirsta McSkimming, resource-led making is at the heart of Textile Collective, where the outcome is determined by what they have. This isn’t a shop that tries to predict buying trends and stock what they think people will want, they take what is donated and make it available. Customers are encouraged to be more imaginative with their resources, looking at how they can use what’s there rather than buying new just because they have their mind set on a specific outcome.

Donations come in many different forms, from contemporary items like balls of wool that someone’s bought too many of, vintage pieces and things that are unfinished. “I wonder why they haven’t been completed. It takes you off on a bit of a journey, thinking about the reasons why they were making it and what happened to stop them from finishing the project.”

We don’t want to make things for the sake of making things, or products that are hit and miss as to whether they’ll sell. We want to make things that are wanted, so we try to keep what we make to things that have lots of potential, that can be used by people in their own projects.” That can be quite difficult for people to understand, and volunteers are often keen to make things like bags and dolls to sell, so rather than making lots that might not be bought, they encourage making just one as an example and taking orders for more if wanted.

It's about changing mindsets. “We get a lot of people asking if we will do repairs for them and I have to explain, well no, I can show you how to do it but we don’t do it for you. Then people run away because they’re a bit afraid! But out of all the people that do that there’s a couple that say ‘yeah okay, I’ll get involved and do it’ and that’s really great because it’s just that slow changing of people’s way of thinking.

We’re not aiming to replace mending services, that’s something different. Sometimes there are things that you can do yourself, taking up a pair of trousers or sewing on a button, nice simple skills that we’ve lost a bit. It’s trying to get people to realise they don’t need to be scared to have a go, or the worst thing, throw it away and buy a new one. It’s happening slowly.”

Kerry is a volunteer now but she started coming to Textile Collective as a visitor. “I was using it almost as a community centre, when my husband passed away, somewhere to go and be around people. I was helping right from the start, even as a visitor, but then gradually I think my role’s evolved a bit more now because Kirsta’s happy to leave me alone in the shop while she pops out and I can take money and serve people with cards etc. as well. I started coming regularly in January 2024. I had been a couple of times before, from 2020 when it was in Community 360. I was caring for my husband then and I couldn’t stay very long, but Kirsta helped me change an apron that I’d got, so I knew that she existed. Then, when I wanted to make a headpiece with a veil for my husband’s funeral I went to 360 to find out where Textile Collective had moved to, and I started coming regularly."

"I love the colours, the textures, I think it’s very mindful, sorting through fabrics, buttons. I love that everything is new (to us) all the time, because it’s donations and you have no idea what’s coming in."

"In January Kirsta had a donation with lots of vintage textiles and it was so exciting because they still had the labels from the haberdashery. I could see that it was in shillings and old pence and I knew it was definitely old, pre1970, maybe World War II. Then we found labels that showed they were from 1948. The fabric was still folded up with the labels on so there was this whole set and we didn’t know where it had been. It’s just interesting thinking of all the old stories of where everything’s come from."

As a community interest company, any income that is made through sales goes back into providing free and low-cost workshops in the community, often working in collaboration with local artists. During the summer, artist Angenita Teekens worked with Textile Collective to deliver cyanotype workshops using plants from the nearby Meanwhile Garden.

Each participant created a cyanotype, with the individual pieces later sewn together to create a large banner that was displayed for the public to enjoy, first in a city-centre café, and later in a nationally acclaimed garden.

The Textile Collective’s upstairs resource space has sewing machines, overlockers and looms that are available for use, so more people can have the opportunity to make and repair clothing or be creative with textiles without having to spend a lot of money.

"I love seeing Kirsta’s vision blossom into the emporium it has. She was talking about this idea about 7 years ago and it’s wonderful to see it become such a resource for the community. Colchester is really lucky they’ve got it. "

"The feeling of it being permanent is wonderful too. Where we used to be, we’d have to rush in with all the sewing machines, set everything up and then pack it all away again at the end of the session, it’s wonderful to see everything all set up and ready to go here."

"I love it because it’s make do and mend, trying to stop things going into landfill but I like the continuity of things, the link with the past, I find it comforting and soothing, rather than fast fashion and consumerism, which I don’t like."

It's great for mental health, too. “Many of our volunteers are unable to work for whatever reason, which might mean that they can’t work for a whole day or for a whole week, they couldn’t be in permanent work, so they come to us. With textiles I think the slowness and wellbeing of it all really helps them."

"We don’t run it like a conventional shop as such, it’s not about making money so there’s not that pressure to sell. Obviously it’s nice when we do make a bit of money because it keeps us going but that isn’t the aim, the aim is to be a safe, calm space for people to come in and feel that they aren’t judged or under pressure or anything and I think we achieve it."

"People often say ‘it’s so calm in here’, ‘I just love walking around and being in here’, and I like hearing that, that it feels like a safe space for people."

Kat started coming to Textile Collective when it was based in the Community 360 Hub in 2021 or ’22. She was looking for something related to textiles and joined Sally and Anne’s workshops, playing with textiles, a bit of patchwork, a little bit of weaving. Sally remembers Kat making a shoulder bag with her Granny’s scarf for the lining.

"It’s nice that there’s no fixed structure like a course, you could just sit and watch and slowly join in step by step. Being part of the group, learning."

Candy joined in 2022, when she was looking for a group to join that used textiles in some way. “I like textiles, I did textile design at college and I happened on the weaving group. It was a nice sort of group and they were all friendly so I stayed.”

"The Company around doing something with each other makes things comfortable as well. It’s a good combination. You’re busy doing something so you’re not just sitting there thinking about chatting, but you chat at the same time, it’s good."