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Deftly tugging their needles through the royal fabric, members
of the Dumfries House Sewing Bee recently put the finishing
touches on the festive decorations, which will be auctioned off
to raise money for the King’s Foundation. While the rain
splattered against the windows of the 18th century mansion south
of Glasgow, the women chatted amiably, hot drinks by their
sides.
“It’s been absolutely great,” said Christine Wilson, 72, a
retired finance officer. “It’s a great atmosphere in the sewing
bee, a great group of friends, and we do a lot for charities as
well.”
Wilson and her friends have created 25 of the stockings, each of
which will be numbered to make them unique. The final stocking,
No. 25, will be given to the king as a Christmas gift.
Proceeds of the auction, which runs through midnight on Dec. 12,
will support the work of the foundation, which provides training
in practical skills such as hospitality and animal husbandry for
more than 15,000 young people each year.
“We hope that whoever is lucky enough to win one of the
stockings at auction will pass it down as a family heirloom to
be treasured for decades to come,” said Sarah McClymont, the
lead tutor for the foundation’s Future Textiles initiative.
This is the third auction held by the foundation in recent
years.
The project began in 2023, when the charity created a range of
kimono jackets from curtains that once hung in Buckingham Palace
and Windsor Castle.
In 2024, students from the furniture school at Highgrove
Gardens, part of the king’s private residence in western
England, crafted footstools upholstered with fabric from still
more curtains that once hung at the palace and castle.
There’s no need to worry about the royal windows being stripped
bare, though. Buckingham Palace alone has 760 windows, creating
a near-limitless supply of gently used fabric.
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