{"id":633689,"date":"2025-12-15T10:08:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T10:08:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/633689\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T10:08:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T10:08:17","slug":"calico-dress-cymru-to-star-at-20th-anniversary-of-wonderwool-wales-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/633689\/","title":{"rendered":"Calico Dress Cymru to star at 20th anniversary of Wonderwool Wales in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Commissioned by the Museum of Wales<\/a> and celebrating Welsh identity, heritage and creativity through embroidery, the project will occupy a large exhibition space at the show, held at the Museum of Wales<\/a>, Llanelwedd on April 25 and 26.<\/p>\n

The Calico Dress is the first daughter dress of the internationally-renowned Red Dress, a 14-year collaborative embroidery project by artist Kirstie Macleod<\/a> with contributions from almost 400 countries worldwide.<\/p>\n

A collaborative, community project in Wales, people stitch personal stories and Welsh cultural symbols onto a large calico dress, creating a collective artwork representing Wales’ past, present and future through hand embroidery.<\/p>\n

Workshops are delivered by Menna and people across Wales have contributed to the dress.<\/p>\n

Now, eight more Welsh embroiderers on each day of Wonderwool Wales 2026, will have a chance to contribute under the guidance of Menna.<\/p>\n

Wonderwool Wales \u2013 the UK\u2019s largest wool, yarn, natural fibre and textile festival -will be holding a competition through its website – https:\/\/wonderwoolwales.co.uk\/<\/a> – \u00a0in January, with a total of 16 places available to contribute a piece of embroidery to the dress.<\/p>\n

Current designs on the dress range from castles and sciences to action on climate change and migration stories. Each motif tells a story, turning the dress into a vibrant communal work of art.<\/p>\n

\u201cConsidering the collaboration with Amgueddfa Cymru, I wanted to create a newly imagined folk costume for Welsh communities to leave their embroidery mark,\u201d explained Menna, who guides embroidery sessions for community groups. \u201cIt\u2019s a kind of wearable time capsule that grows, decorated with people\u2019s stories and ideas!\u201d<\/p>\n

Inspired by Kirstie Macloed\u2019s \u2018The Red Dress\u2019, Calico Dress Cymru seeks under represented, marginalised voices and those with and without experience of embroidery.<\/p>\n

The Red Dress project provided an artistic platform for individuals, particularly women and communities around the world, many of whom are vulnerable and live in poverty, to tell their stories through embroidery..<\/p>\n

Chrissie Menzies, Wonderwool Wales director, said: \u201cWe are delighted that Calico Dress Cymru will be coming to Wonderwool Wales 2026 to celebrate the show\u2019s 20th anniversary next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are particularly pleased that we are able to offer places for eight people on each day of the show to attend a workshop wth Menna and embroider a motif for the dress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tickets for the show and for the popular Woolschools – craft workshops which this year include willow weaving – can be booked on Wonderwool Wales website \u00a0https:\/\/wonderwoolwales.co.uk\/<\/a> which has been updated by InSynch who also manage the events social media channels.<\/p>\n

Entries for a competition to design a limited edition anniversary tote bag for the show close on December 15, with the winner receiving a pair of tickets to Wonderwool Wales and \u00a3100 worth of vouchers to be spent with exhibitors.<\/p>\n

Chrissie is hopeful of attracting in excess of 200 exhibitors, including around 30 new ones and money raised by raffles will be donated to the show\u2019s two charities \u2013 Wales Air Ambulance and NGO Molotok in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

To cover rising costs, the organisers have been forced to increase show tickets to \u00a316 a day or \u00a330 for the weekend in 2026.<\/p>\n

An award-winning two-day event celebrates all that\u2019s great about Welsh wool and natural fibres, attracting around 6,000 visitors from across the UK and worldwide.<\/p>\n

Sheep Walk fashion shows, demonstrations and have-a-go sessions hosted by some of the exhibitors are regular features of the popular event.<\/p>\n

Wonderwool Wales covers everything from the start to the end of the creative process. Exhibits of sheep, raw and hand dyed fibres, yarn for knitting and crochet, embellishments, equipment, dyes and books can be found alongside superb examples of finished textile art, craft, clothing and home furnishings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Commissioned by the Museum of Wales and celebrating Welsh identity, heritage and creativity through embroidery, the project will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633690,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5010],"tags":[20174,748,77,920,4884,379,12630,19287,12,20,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-633689","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wales","8":"tag-attractions","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-events","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-local-hubs","14":"tag-mid-wales","15":"tag-mid-wales-entertainment","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-search","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom","20":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115723036750377749","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=633689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}