We at seam Collective are really excited to launch the shiftWorks project today.  We have been working hard this winter, writing funding applications, and we are pleased to announce that we have been granted funding from the Arts Council, South Somerset District Council and Somerset Art Works, and we are hoping to be successful with our other matched funding.

shiftWorks is a celebration of 50 years of the mainstream adoption of the shift dress – a simple straight-lined dress just with bust darts for shaping.  We will be using shift dresses as our canvas to showcase our textile design and we hope to be collaborating with you to explore the many different incarnations of the shift dress from 1965 to now.

We invite you to email us your photo of your favourite shift dress that you, your family or friends have worn, or maybe you have made, and tell us why it is your favourite.  Your photos will be on display in our gallery and 50 of your photos, which best show how the shift dress has changed over the last 50 years, will be displayed on postcards in our shiftWorks exhibitions.

shiftWorks will be exhibited at Yeovil, as part of Momentum Somerset Art Weeks Festival 2015, at SIT Select Showcase, both in October 2015, and at Devon Guild of Craftsmen in Spring 2016.

Look out for regular blog posts from all the seam artists taking part in shiftWorks: Anna Glasbrook, Desiree Goodall, Joy Merron, Linda Row, Penny Seume*, Lyn Snow*, Tabitha Stewart, Penny Wheeler, and Samon Yechi.

Penny Wheeler

*Sadly Lyn Snow and Penny Seume have had to pull out of the project. They are replaced by Anna Gravelle and Angie Parker.