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Working with Volunteers - Sewing

Circle

Organisation(s) Involved: Fife Council Museums, Sewing Circle (volunteers)
Location: Kirkcaldy Museums & Art Gallery, Fife
Contact: Iain Clark (Outreach Officer)
 
The Sewing Circle are a group of volunteers who meet fortnightly at Kirkcaldy Museum & Art Gallery. At present there are nine members.They are made up of (mostly) elderly ladies, who have an interest in or experience of costume repair/making and needlework skills in general.They have been carrying out a range of projects since 2001 under the supervision of the Outreach Officer based at the museum in Kirkcaldy.
 
Some projects:
  • Making replica costume for loan boxes / handling collection / exhibitions.  Examples include a Victorian wedding dress, costume relating to paintings on display in our collection (eg Granny costume from McTaggart’s Helping Granny) and an Adam Smith outfit.
  • Carrying out essential repairs to replica costume and costume used in loan boxes.
  • Working with costume designer, Margaret Moffat, to create a fantasy Cinderella dress for display on Fife’s Mobile Museum (MAC) in its current touring exhibition Making Sense.
Most recently, the Sewing Circle has been involved in two projects, which have included training elements from RDCF and Museums Galleries Scotland (at that time SMC).  The first involved training for the members in mounting and framing a collection of samplers (gathered from museums signed up to the East of Scotland partnership).  This was provided by the costume conservator, Tuula Pardoe, from the Scottish Conservation Bureau, based at Hopetoun House.The mounted samplers went on show at Kirkcaldy Museum & Art Gallery, before touring other venues in East of Scotland.
 
More training from Tuula Pardoe (this time through Museums Galleries Scotland) was secured on the conservation and storage of hats. The Sewing Circle repacked Kirkcaldy’s hat collection and, as a spin off from this, curated its own exhibition of hats which ran for seven weeks from the end of June 2007.
 
As evidenced above, the skills and experience of this group can be used for a variety of project work.  As well as remedial work on costume, they have produced some highly creative work of their own (learning new skills along the way), creating valuable resources for the museum. Although they are always willing to take on any challenge, it would be easy to abuse this and overload them with too much.
 
It is very important to plan ahead and make sure you do not end up in high-pressure deadline situations, which might cause some members distress. The social element to the group meetings is as important as the valuable work they carry out.  Arranging outings from time to time is a good idea, the costs of these being covered by an outreach budget. Working with volunteers is a rewarding experience, and should be an arrangement from which both parties benefit.