If you’ve been to one of our open days you’ll know that we like to lay on some refreshments and always have tea, coffee and some lovely cakes for you to nibble on. We know people can travel quite a distance to see us and we also know it’s always very welcome to get a brew when you arrive. Everybody is rather glad of the hospitality but so many people are surprised that it’s free and it’s been suggested that we should have a charity box so people can make a donation if they wish.

I thought this was an excellent idea and reached out to the lovely Sharon at “Dressability” who we’ve supported a few times with fabric donations. Dressability is a charity that really resonated with me and I always try to help them out wherever I can and it seemed a logical step for them to become our first supported charity on this venture, so all donations given towards the refreshments will be sent to them.

Dressability do amazing work making bespoke clothing and other items for elderly and disabled children and mostly they also convert ready to wear clothing to make it easier for those with limited mobility in their hands to get dressed themselves.  They take zips out of trousers and replace them with velco, or add zips to bras, all sorts of rather ingenious customisations to help with tricky fastenings which give more independence to the recipients. Could you imagine needing  help every time you got dressed? I know I’d absolutely hate that. The charity also make items from scratch like craft aprons for disabled children along with a whole host of other projects.

I recently sent a huge bag of craft bits and bobs from my personal stash to them and know I’m not alone in my hoarding tendencies. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and de-stash some of the fabric and notions you know you’re not going to use so if you have any bits you’d like to donate to Dressability and are coming to an open day then please bring them along and we will send them on. If you can’t make an open day and have some items you’d like to donate then get in touch and we’ll send you a postage paid envelope to send your donations to us.

We hope to see you at an open day soon and you can enjoy some lovely cake with us!