A sewing bee was formed, led by Carolyn Gardner to make costumes for the Magna Carta Events.
The team consisted of 34 volunteer costume makers, meeting twice a week at the ‘hayloft’, owned by Miriam Hill and kindly given over the to project, where materials and sewing machines were stored. Miriam advised on pattern making and costume construction. Over 100 villagers wore costumes at the Magna Carta weekend and other events leading up to the weekend.
A meeting was held in March 2014 to encourage villagers to join the sewing bee and help make costumes.
The volunteers would then regularly visit the hayloft for material, patterns, advice or support.
The archers were to play a major role during the Magna Carta weekend, so designing an appropriate costume was important.
Once the archery costume was decided upon, all of the archers were measured.
And work started on making the costumes
As well as costumes, an embroidery group was formed to produce the Tabard, which would lead the procession.
Some of the embroiderers visited the Royal School of Needlework at Hampton Court for advice.
The embroidery group of 9 volunteers, then met every week, under the guidance of Clare Wood.
In March 2015, the embroidery group shared their work and costumes at a display in the URC to increase awareness within the village of the Magna Carta weekend.
It took nine months of extensive work to produce the tabard. It is now on permanent display in St Mary’s Church. alongside a sewn book showing how the Tabard was made.
revealing the completed Tabard
