My time at Erewash Museum has come to an end, and what a journey it has been. While we didn’t quite reach our ambitious goal of 50 meters, we created over 40 meters of bunting, each flag stitched with laughter, memories, and stories of what celebration looks like today.
The aim of Bunting for Peace was to bring people together in commemoration and celebration of peace, just as communities did in 1945. During the war, stitching fabric was a necessity. Today, we’ve used it as a tool of joy, a way to connect people through shared experiences, memories, and dreams of festivity.
Over the course of August, more than 120 people, aged 5 to 71, joined me to cut, stitch, knot, and embroider. As we worked, I asked participants to reflect: What does a celebration look like to you? What belongs at every good party?
The answers were wonderfully varied, there was lots of tea and cake, of course, but also pizza, jelly, bunting, friends (including cats!), and games. These conversations stitched humour, memory, and imagination into the fabric, showing that what truly defines a celebration is tradition, community, joy, and the pleasure of indulgence. Each flag carries a fragment of someone’s voice, marking a moment in time, and together the flags form a kind of time capsule of contemporary celebration.
For some, this was their first ever attempt at stitching. For others, it was a reconnection with skills passed down through generations. What mattered most was not perfection, but participation, the act of making together across ages, backgrounds, and abilities. Children worked alongside parents, grandparents, and friends, creating special moments of intergenerational learning.
The bunting fluttered for the first time at the War Time Variety Show, and a section will shortly be included From Gas Masks to Garden Parties exhibition. But its story doesn’t end here. This bunting was designed to last, to travel, and to keep carrying our collective voices of love, joy, and hope into future celebrations.
For me, this project is proof of what craft can do: it creates space for conversation, nurtures creativity, and transforms scraps into symbols of togetherness. Just like the street parties of 1945, it reminds us that peace is worth celebrating, and that making, mending, and remembering together are powerful acts.
Every Stitch A Story 