Girlhood

There were no houses opposite my childhood home: a view of Epping Forest filled my bedroom window. I walked alone there as a child and have since recognised the forest was a safe place (in contrast to an unsafe home) and wanted to represent my child self using fabrics from the 1970's era. 

Some of the fabrics used are my mother's aprons, pillow cases and blankets, some were sourced in charity shops. 

I traced my friends eight year old daughter's arm many years ago and this tracing and my first experiments lay dormant for a time.  In 2015 I decided to see the idea through and over a period of three months stitched ten pairs of arms by hand.