Colourful flags are a great way to give a sense of occasion to an event and add joy to the streetscape and public realm.

At Applefest, we decided last year that we would make our own colourful bespoke flags in 2023 to display on the streets of Clonmel and in other public area to celebrate the coming of Applefest and the Harvest season. Our Feast of flags project brings together community groups who produced biodiversity themed images and a group of women who wanted to improve their sewing and design skills while at the same time help enhance the public realm.

A sewing mistress was involved from the onset to teach the basics of good sewing-machine stitching to ensure that the flags would be solid and can be used for many years to come.

For the design part, we worked with artist Tina Looby who facilitated design workshops and tapped into the creativity and civic spirits of several community groups eliciting individual images cutout of recycled tent fabrics. These have been stitched and embroidered by our sewing team to celebrate the special place that is Clonmel. Participating groups were:

National Learning Network, Clonmel Training Centre, Bridgewater House Rehab, and Primary Traveller women's Health project, as well as a group of approx 10 individual attendees at public sessions. There were two blocks of 6 weeks from early May to mid June and from July to end of August. The flags weill be unveiled on Friday 1st September on some key lampposts on O'Connell and Parnell street.

The project has been kindly sponsored by CAMIDA and the Tipperary ETB.

Skills that were learned:

- how to use a sewing machine

- introduction to various stitches

- how to use fabric efficiently

- Using contrasting colours as a design feature

- The art of good composition & design

- Highlighting in pen and paint

- Solid structuring and finishing

Expression of interest from stitchers, designers, makers and sewers, please contact us on registerapplefest@gmail.com.