Sewing2gether All Nations – helping refugees learn creative skills

Heather Flood heads to inspiring local collective, Sewing2gether All Nations, that brings individuals from around the world together

Created in 2018, Sewing2gether All Nations was devised as a community group with the aim of helping refugees learn creative skills and within the last few months, has recently become an active charity.

But make no mistake, Gabi and Corrine offer more than just creative workshops for the refugees. “We had the idea to create a sewing group for the refugee community to sew together with us,” remarked Gabi. “It’s good to teach creative skills as they are so visual which is where we started off.

“We carry out sewing workshops on a Wednesday and a café on a Thursday between 10am until 12pm in Mossvale Hall. We’ve met so many people from around 30 different countries. The majority of people that come along are from Iraq, Nigeria and Ukraine.” 

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Members of the charity travel from Renfrewshire and surrounding areas to take part in the workshops. Not only that, Gabi and Corrine have a pop-up library where people can choose books to read, as well as joining in on the informal English classes. 

“We set up a donations table and there is a food pantry that the church supplies. We then gather together with the electrical sewing machines and we then introduce everyone to the group. We supply pre-recorded video tutorials about sewing and we use up-cycling materials as well.

“We normally make something useful like tote bags which people can leave with on the same day,” she continued. “Once the sewing has finished, we all have lunch together which is made by the Mossy Café at Mossvale Community Church. Some people ask us for help with school letters, council tax or they may have some troubles going on personally, so we do advocacy work as well on the side.

“We wanted to create a welcoming atmosphere in a relaxed environment. Especially having the church as well, we have a lot of support and we want to show acts of love and service.” 

To find out more about the group and their classes, look for Sewing2gether All Nations on Facebook or email se*********************@gm***.com