Swindon Stitch and Bitch Salute the RAF with a Knitted Spitfire


Swindon Stitch and Bitch have been working away on a display to celebrate and commemorate the RAF Centenary and for the British Legion Poppyappeal. The display was installed today at the Swindon Museum and Art Galleryin Old Town, between the reception desk and the gallery entrance. The display itself is a spitfire with a plume of poppies in the jet stream that swirls over the corridor and down the wall, as if the spitfire has swooped by. Tracey Major from Swindon Stitch and Bitch said that the group wanted to create something spectacular for the RAF Centenary, “we always commemorate remembrance Sunday with a poppy display, and with it being 100 years of the RAF we wanted to knit their most iconic aircraft, and have the poppies all tumbling out of the back in a wave to create a waterfall effect.”

The spitfire itself was knitted by one lady, Eileen Ashmore who said, “once I’d figured out how I was going to make it came together alright; and I’m really pleased with how it looks.”

The spitfire is knitted, and the stuffing and structure is achieved with balsa wood and bubble wrap. Eileen said, “the bubble wrap was great when you were shaping the aircraft, because if it looked a bit big, you just had to pop a few of the bubbles.”

The Jetstream out the back of the plane is made with a length of silver chiffon. Over 400 poppies were used to decorate the fabric. Tracey Major explained that the members of the group had helped in the making of the poppies for the museum display, and for two other poppy displays that the group have in the pipeline.

The display looks amazing and will be hanging around until the end of the month, so if you are in Old Town, do a quick flyby.

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Comments

  1. Unknown6 November 2018 at 12:17

    Fantastic ladies. That's an amazing display. 😍

    ReplyDelete
  2. Tricia21 October 2019 at 05:52

    Can i purchase a knitting patter for the spitfire for my sons charity stall for restoration of the loch doon spitfire cockpit he has learning difficulties and is physically challanged but has reaisedcoverc 2ooo pounds for the museum

    ReplyDelete

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