Hello Pocketeers,
Come along and join us in September.

Everyone Needs Pockets is a network of people who have come together with all our skills and passion to make a change, based in Frome, Somerset. Inspiring community action and alternatives to the current unhealthy fashion and textiles systems. Join us locally in person or from afar on the internet, everyone is welcome.

Subscribe now

Here is what we have going on....

Network Meet Up

Friday 11 September
10am-12.30pm
at Edventure

Come along and join us this month our first meeting back after a summer break. We’ll be talking all things Sustainable Fashion Week and planning our next moves!

Everyone welcome.

Social Stitching

Tuesday 15 September
6.30-9.30pm
Palmer Street Bottle Shop

Everyone is welcome to join these drop ins. Come along to sit together, chat, have a drink and bring along a project you are working on. Some mending, knitting, crochet, sewing or any other project.

Sustainable Fashion Week 2026

26 SEP - 4 OCT

Follow this link for more info and tickets

Exciting fund raising news

Get Frome Mending

Claire and Sara wrote a fund raising bid to the National Lottery Community Fund for a project called ‘Get Frome Mending’. The project has been awarded the funding for the next two years. A project that carries on all the work we have been doing so far and testing out some of the ideas we have had in the past few years, but not yet put into action. This project is all about encouraging and teaching our community in Frome to get mending. With more How To Mend Your Clothes, more big Mammoth mend days, Stitch It Don’t Ditch It’s, reaching out to other groups in our community and going into schools! Let’s get everyone mending- for our health, our planet, our future and just for fun too!

Other events around Frome

Come along to The ForEm

Saturday 19 September | 10am-6pm | The Silk Mill Frome | Drop in | Free | All welcome

Part fête. Part exhibition. Part experiment.

The ForEm asks deceptively simple questions: What makes Frome, Frome? Who gets to decide what comes next?

Expect performances, films, artworks, games, community stories and a warm invitation to question ways of thinking, feeling, dreaming, sensing - and making sense - of the town we share.

The ForEm is the commissioned work of Frome-based artist Kate Keara Pelen, developed through her collaboration with the University of Glasgow’s Civic Imaginary Partnerships research project. The ForEm invites people to explore the stories they tell about the town: its independence, creativity and community spirit, and also its challenges, contradictions and changing identities.

Encounter the Community Loom designed by Claire Orpin and Tamara Jones, and see films made by Frome residents.

Free performances: Tom Spencer will guide an unconventional gallery tour and Martin Scott – bringing together Town Crier and Cheese Lord - will be spinning the Frome Roulette.

Drop in, disagree, contribute, play.

Click this link for further information https://civicimaginaries.gla.ac.uk/welcome-to-the-forem/

We hope you will enjoy being part of our shared desire to make change happen.
If you have a skill you would like to share or if there is something you would like to learn do let us know and we will see what we can do for future sessions.

Look forward to seeing you in September
Claire x

Hello Pocketeers,
A short and sweet newsletter this month.

Everyone Needs Pockets is a network of people who have come together with all our skills and passion to make a change, based in Frome, Somerset. Inspiring community action and alternatives to the current unhealthy fashion and textiles systems. Join us locally in person or from afar on the internet, everyone is welcome.

Subscribe now

Here is what we have going on....

Network Meet Up

No network meet up in August back again on Friday 11 September

Social Stitching

Tuesday 18 August
6.30-9.30pm
Palmer Street Bottle Shop

Everyone is welcome to join these drop ins. Come along to sit together, chat, have a drink and bring along a project you are working on. Some mending, knitting, crochet, sewing or any other project.

Save the date and come and join us in September for Sustainable Fashion Week. All event details will be released later this month.

We hope you will enjoy being part of our shared desire to make change happen.
If you have a skill you would like to share or if there is something you would like to learn do let us know and we will see what we can do for future sessions.

Look forward to seeing you soon and have a lovely summer!
Claire x

Hello Pocketeers,
Come along and join us in July.

Everyone Needs Pockets is a network of people who have come together with all our skills and passion to make a change, based in Frome, Somerset. Inspiring community action and alternatives to the current unhealthy fashion and textiles systems. Join us locally in person or from afar on the internet, everyone is welcome.

Subscribe now

Here is what we have going on....

Network Meet Up

Friday 10 July
10am-12.30pm
at Edventure

We will be planning and organising our events for Sustainable Fashion Week and we will be making some more banners for SFW and we could make some animal banners for the We Are Nature parade on Sunday 12 July.

Everyone welcome.

Social Stitching

Tuesday 21 July
6.30-9.30pm
Palmer Street Bottle Shop

Everyone is welcome to join these drop ins. Come along to sit together, chat, have a drink and bring along a project you are working on. Some mending, knitting, crochet, sewing or any other project.

What We’ve Been Up To

Frome River Festival

Hosted by Frome Families For The Future on Sunday 28 June. Many people came and made rope with our scraps of fabric. Well done and thank you to our amazing volunteers. Have a look at Frome Families For The Future’s website for ways that you can help our rivers. Helping the river

Year 5 community day at Selwood

A few volunteers took the rope machine, mini cardboard looms and the waste fabric mountain to Selwood School on Tuesday 30 June for a few sessions as part of their community day. The students had a go at making rope and weaving scraps of fabric on their mini cardboard looms.

Save the date for Sustainable Fashion Week 2026 Frome Hub

Saturday 3 October

A mending day and clothes swap

and more over the two weeks

If you would like to put on an event for SFW and be part of the SFW Frome Hub then get in contact with us here

We hope you will enjoy being part of our shared desire to make change happen.
If you have a skill you would like to share or if there is something you would like to learn do let us know and we will see what we can do for future sessions.

Look forward to seeing you in July
Claire x

Hello Pocketeers,
Come along and join us in June.

Everyone Needs Pockets is a network of people who have come together with all our skills and passion to make a change, based in Frome, Somerset. Inspiring community action and alternatives to the current unhealthy fashion and textiles systems. Join us locally in person or from afar on the internet, everyone is welcome.

Subscribe now

Here is what we have going on....

Network Meet Up

Friday 12 June
10am-12.30pm
at Edventure

Come and join us this month for a clothes clinic. We will collectively help each other and talk about what is next for items of clothing. Bring along any clothes that you don’t know what to do with next. Can they be mended? Can they be upcycled? Can they be used for anything at all or do they need to be thrown away? Can they be recycled? Where is the best place to throw them away?

We will be planning for Sustainable Fashion Week 2026 and talking about more projects and ideas in the meeting.

Everyone welcome

Social Stitching

Tuesday 16 June
6.30-9.30pm
Palmer Street Bottle Shop

Everyone is welcome to join these drop ins. Come along to sit together, chat, have a drink and bring along a project you are working on. Some mending, knitting, crochet, sewing or any other project.

Other events around Frome

We hope you will enjoy being part of our shared desire to make change happen.
If you have a skill you would like to share or if there is something you would like to learn do let us know and we will see what we can do for future sessions.

Look forward to seeing you in June
Claire x

Hello Pocketeers,
Come along and join us in May.

Everyone Needs Pockets is a network of people who have come together with all our skills and passion to make a change, based in Frome, Somerset. Inspiring community action and alternatives to the current unhealthy fashion and textiles systems. Join us locally in person or from afar on the internet, everyone is welcome.

Subscribe now

Here is what we have going on....

Network Meet Up

Friday 8 May
10am-12.30pm
at Edventure

This month we will be bringing our new rope machine to the meeting to have a play with it and test it out. Please bring along any lightweight long lengths of fabric you have to make some rope.

Everyone welcome.

Sanna Visser with her rope maker at Sustainable Fashion Week Make and Mend Day 2025

Photo credit Celie Nigoumi

Social Stitching

Tuesday 19 May
6.30-9.30pm
Palmer Street Bottle Shop

Everyone is welcome to join these drop ins. Come along to sit together, chat, have a drink and bring along a project you are working on. Some mending, knitting, crochet, sewing or any other project.

What We’ve Been Up To

Stitch It Don’t Ditch It for Fashion Revolutions Mend In Public

Saturday 25 April

Coat of Hopes

The coat was stitched, mended and tried on by many who are now coat pilgrims.

Wiltshire Council is looking for people:

• to run or co-run creative workshops for children with SEND

• who are artists or creatives who want to share their skills with those who face barriers to creative opportunities

• who are interested in working in Inclusive Arts

• That are able to create an environment that feels safe

• That are adaptable, and who can create adaptable activities

They are looking to commission workshops that:

• are inclusive and accessible for children with different levels of abilities and support needs (those with SEND)

• Are suitable for children 6-18 years of age

• feel safe and supportive

• invite collaboration, build skills, use process-led exploration and create community

What being involved might look like:

• skill sharing and bringing brand new experiences to young people

• co-creating with the children with new avenues of creative possibilities arising as a result

• being supported with training, planning and facilitation

• a potential long-term collaboration

• There are paid roles as well as volunteer ones. We are hoping to offer training to anyone volunteering on inclusive arts practice so that they themselves can become an inclusive practitioner

Please email heather.fox@wiltshire.gov.uk with a brief outline of:

• any experience you have with running creative workshops

• any work you’ve done with children or people with SEND

• your ideas for a workshop.

• Any imagery you have of your creative practice/workshops you’ve run

• A webpage and/your social media

Other events around Frome

Past, present and future Frome: us, our place, our climate

Thu 7 May 2026 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM

Rye Bakery, Whittox Lane, BA11 3BY

https://www.tickettailor.com/events/sustainablefrome1/2127504

Tickets now sold out but you can join the waitlist.

Frome International Climate Film Festival

Sunday 17th May

Cheese and Grain

https://climatefilmfestival.co.uk

People’s Emergency Briefing

Thu 21 May 2026 7:00 PM - 9:30 PM

Cheese and Grain, Frome

https://www.tickettailor.com/events/frometowncouncil/2174882

We hope you will enjoy being part of our shared desire to make change happen.
If you have a skill you would like to share or if there is something you would like to learn do let us know and we will see what we can do for future sessions.

Look forward to seeing you in May
Claire x

Mend In Public Day

Stitch It Don’t Ditch It

Saturday 25 April

11am- 12pm

Westway Shopping Centre

Come along and join us in the for an hour of collective action for Fashion Revolution Mend In Public Day. We will be meeting by the bridge in the Westway shopping centre.

If anyone asks what we’re doing, here are some explanations written by Suzi Warren, the artist who came up with the Street Stitching movement.

Our aim is to demonstrate that repairing something broken gives our brains a bigger dopamine hit than purchasing something new. Persuading people of the benefits of mending rather than making them feel defensive about their purchasing habits.

Mending isn’t a chore. It’s a mindful act of self soothing and relaxation. It promotes gratitude for what we have and a respect for how our garments are constructed. Our relationship with our clothes is like any relationship - it becomes more satisfying, meaningful and rewarding the longer it lasts.

WHAT TO BRING-

a banner saying #Stitch it don’t ditch it

a Chair or stool to sit on

a small amount of mending and mending kit

Bring as little as possible with you. The aim is to look neat and uncluttered. So a bag for your garment you wish to stitch, a needle and thread and not much else. Choose a bag you can store tidily under your chair or place over the back ofit.Don’tbring bundles of clothes to mend. The event is only an hour long and one piece of clothing should be enough. If you love bright colours, please wear them. Anything that makes us look approachable, friendly and non-intimidating. And which allows us to stand out in photos.

WHEN AND WHERE

Please meet at the end of the bridge in the Westway Shopping Centre outside the Cutting Bar at 10.30am on Saturday 25th April. This is half an hour before we start stitching so it will give us time to have a quick chat and make sure we’re all ready to start at 11am.

WEATHER

The weather is looking sunny! Please wear/bring appropriate clothing as it may feel cold sitting in the shade.

Hello Pocketeers,
Come along and join us in April.

Everyone Needs Pockets is a network of people who have come together with all our skills and passion to make a change, based in Frome, Somerset. Inspiring community action and alternatives to the current unhealthy fashion and textiles systems. Join us locally in person or from afar on the internet, everyone is welcome.

Subscribe now

Here is what we have going on....

Social Stitching

Tuesday 21 April
6.30-9.30pm
Palmer Street Bottle Shop

Everyone is welcome to join these drop ins. Come along to sit together, chat, have a drink and bring along a project you are working on. Some mending, knitting, crochet, sewing or any other project.

Network Meet Up

Friday 24 April
10am-12.30pm
at Edventure

* Please note the change of normal date. We have moved this months meeting back because of the Easter holidays and so we can bring the Coat of Hopes to our meeting

Coat of Hopes

Come to our meeting and have an encounter with the coat as well as sew it.

Embodying the hopes of people across the country who have embellished and added small squares of blanket to express their hopes, remembrances and grief for their landscape in climate crisis. It has currently been walked by coat guardians and pilgrims over 2,000 miles. Wren will be the coat guardian when it comes to Frome and will walk it from Hillfield Friary in Dorset. Everyone is invited to join any or all of that walk, it will take 5 days. Also the coat continually needs mending and can be added to if anyone wants to make a square (3 inches square on blanket) We are hoping we can change the date for our network meeting and gather for the April meeting on Friday 24th. The coat will arrive in Frome on 17th April and leave on 11th May and will be hosted in Christchurch and St Mary’s, Innox. If anyone would like it to visit anywhere else in Frome get in contact with Wren. You are invited to try on the coat to feel the weight of its hopes and there is an accompanying song, it was created by Barbara Keal.

Bring along sewing things if you wish to add and mend the coat.

Mend In Public Day

Stitch It Don’t Ditch It

Saturday 25 April

11am- 12pm

Westway Shopping Centre

Come along and join us in the for an hour of collective action for Fashion Revolution Mend In Public Day. We will be meeting by the bridge in the Westway shopping centre.

If anyone asks what we’re doing, here are some explanations written by Suzi Warren, the artist who came up with the Street Stitching movement.

Our aim is to demonstrate that repairing something broken gives our brains a bigger dopamine hit than purchasing something new. Persuading people of the benefits of mending rather than making them feel defensive about their purchasing habits.

Mending isn’t a chore. It’s a mindful act of self soothing and relaxation. It promotes gratitude for what we have and a respect for how our garments are constructed. Our relationship with our clothes is like any relationship - it becomes more satisfying, meaningful and rewarding the longer it lasts.

WHAT TO BRING-

a banner saying #Stitch it don’t ditch it

a Chair or stool to sit on

a small amount of mending and mending kit

Bring as little as possible with you. The aim is to look neat and uncluttered. So a bag for your garment you wish to stitch, a needle and thread and not much else. Choose a bag you can store tidily under your chair or place over the back ofit.Don’tbring bundles of clothes to mend. The event is only an hour long and one piece of clothing should be enough. If you love bright colours, please wear them. Anything that makes us look approachable, friendly and non-intimidating. And which allows us to stand out in photos.

WHEN AND WHERE

Please meet at the end of the bridge in the Westway Shopping Centre outside the Cutting Bar at 10.30am on Saturday 25th April. This is half an hour before we start stitching so it will give us time to have a quick chat and make sure we’re all ready to start at 11am.

WEATHER

We are hoping for bright sunshine! If however this changes we are hoping to go ahead whatever the weather. Please wear/bring appropriate clothing for whatever sun/rain/cold/hot weather we may have. Umbrella’s could be tricky to stitch with but they may be useful to bring just in case!

Let’s Mend!

a free clothes mending session for beginners, up-skilling or just mending in company

Holy Trinity Church hall (at end of Trinity Street) on Wednesday 29 April, 11am to 1pm

To coincide with the end of Fashion Revolution Week

A group of us are trialing this session, alongside the Digital Health team from Frome Medical Practice, and thanks to the Trinity Church team, with a view to offering them on a monthly basis.

If you are interested in getting involved, as a learner, to help others learn or just to mend do come and join us.

You can contact us at everyoneneedspockets@gmail.com and for the attention of Jill or through the Everyone Needs Pockets WhatsApp Group

What We’ve Been Up To

We are really pleased to announce that we have been granted £1000 from Frome Town Council Community Grant. This money will be spent on the admin side of the network and continuing work to build it up to be more sustainable for the future. We have worked with Sustainable Frome to be eligible for this grant.

Rope machine

Our new rope machine is nearly ready to use. We have picked it up from Star’s workshop, given it a test run and we just need to add a few things to it. We will be bringing it to our monthly meeting in May so we can all have a play with it. So save up any long scraps of fabric you have. Hopefully then we can take the rope machine to the Frome Families For the Future River Festival on Saturday 28 June.

Future Citizen

Future Citizen workshop at Frome College

On Thursday 19th March Tamara and Claire returned to the amazing textiles room in Frome College and ran a weave and mending workshop for students.

We talked about weaving as the way fabric is created, mend and embellished.

The students had bought some of their own clothes to mend while others had a go with small cardboard looms and weaving with scrap fabric.

We also took back the Fashion Reclaimed banner that the students made last time we were at the college in September for a @sustainablefashionweek_uk workshop.

Youth club

On Thursday 26 March Claire and Jill went to The Pod’s youth club at the Key Centre to help the children start making their own bunting. Some of the children were really keen to have a go and use the sewing machine for the first time and made a few triangles each for their bunting. One child went off and was making his own wall hanging out of our scraps of fabric!

We hope you will enjoy being part of our shared desire to make change happen.
If you have a skill you would like to share or if there is something you would like to learn do let us know and we will see what we can do for future sessions.

Look forward to seeing you in April
Claire x

What is Everyone Needs Pockets?

How and Why did it start?

What we did, What we learnt,

and What’s next?

Read The Story So Far

Everyone Needs Pockets is a network of people who have come together with all our skills and passion to make a change, based in Frome, Somerset. Inspiring community action and alternatives to the current unhealthy fashion and textiles systems. Join us locally in person or from afar on the internet, everyone is welcome.

Subscribe now

Hello Pocketeers,
Come along and join us in March…

Everyone Needs Pockets is a network of people who have come together with all our skills and passion to make a change, based in Frome, Somerset. Inspiring community action and alternatives to the current unhealthy fashion and textiles systems. Join us locally in person or from afar on the internet, everyone is welcome.

Subscribe now

Here is what we have going on....

Network Meet Up

Friday 13 March
10am-12.30pm
at Edventure

Come and join us this month, we didn’t get to do the mending and sharing last month so let’s try again this month. Bring along something to mend and also something you have mended that we can share to help inspire everyone else with their mends.

The steering group will be having their first meeting at 12pm at the end of the meeting this month.

Everyone welcome

Free refreshments provided, with a warm welcome.

Book your space

Social Stitching

Tuesday 17 February
6.30-9.30pm
Palmer Street Bottle Shop

Everyone is welcome to join these free drop ins. Come along to sit together, chat, have a drink and bring along a project you are working on. Some mending, knitting, crochet, sewing or any other project.

Photos from Mammoth Mend

Across the 3 years of the project, 364 items of clothing have been repaired during project events alone (differentiating here because lots of folks also went home from the events with plans to repair other items using their new repair skills!).

Based on research by WRAP https://www.wrap.ngo/resources/report/displacement-rates-untangled , we’ve calculated that’s an estimated 8,963.5kgCO2e saved!

I haven’t done a financial saving calculation on this because it involves too many assumptions, but what I can say is that again based on the same report findings, ‘For every 5 items repaired, 4 displace a new purchase – resulting in a displacement rate of 82.2%’ so instead of 364 new items being purchased, only 65 will be.

Abi Green from The Conscious Project, Green and Healthy Frome Evaluator

Coat of Hopes

Embodying the hopes of people across the country who have embellished and added small squares of blanket to express their hopes, remembrances and grief for their landscape in climate crisis. It has currently been walked by coat guardians and pilgrims over 2,000 miles. Wren will be the coat guardian when it comes to Frome and will walk it from Hillfield Friary in Dorset. Everyone is invited to join any or all of that walk, it will take 5 days. Also the coat continually needs mending and can be added to if anyone wants to make a square (3 inches square on blanket) We are hoping we can change the date for our network meeting and gather for the April meeting on Friday 24th. The coat will arrive in Frome on 17th April and leave on 11th May and will be hosted in Christchurch and St Mary’s, Innox. If anyone would like it to visit anywhere else in Frome get in contact with Wren. You are invited to try on the coat to feel the weight of its hopes and there is an accompanying song, it was created by Barbara Keal.

Email Wren

We hope you will enjoy being part of our shared desire to make change happen.
If you have a skill you would like to share or if there is something you would like to learn do let us know and we will see what we can do for future sessions.

Saturday 31 January

10am-4pm

Frome Town Hall

Drop in anytime through out the day

Save clothes from the bin • Share skills • Mend in company

WHAT’S HAPPENING

Collective mending with the EveryoneNeeds Pockets Textile

Network

Share advice, skills & inspiration

Visible & invisible mending - patch in new ways

Nothing to mend?

Mend for a friend or neighbour, or help someone else

Come one, come all with your piles of broken clothes.

We will help each other with inspiration and advice. Let’s fix 100 items in one day!

ON THE DAY

Repair kits provided (or bring your own)

Sewing machines to share

Tea, coffee, hot drinks & snacks

Some songs from Nicola

Bring a cushion if you can