Runway Rundown: Homefield’s 2026 Fashion Show

The 2026 Sew Unique Fashion Show fell on the date of Thursday the 2^nd of July 2026, having two different times for the showing, one in the afternoon for the students, and one in the evening for the family/friend guests.

Overall, the Fashion Show went off without a hitch, both rounds of guests thoroughly enjoyed the show and were very impressed with the product of the students’ hard work over the year. Many of the students had strutted their new creations down the runway, wowing the audience with both their designs and catwalk energy. For those who didn’t personally want to model what they had made, many of the staff members at the College had volunteered to wear the items down the runway for them.

At the show, staff members Tracey Forman and Clare Pervin were announcing the students to come onto the stage at the right times, providing a description of the item modelled, how it was created, and the thought process behind it.

Across the academic year, students from the Sew Unique lessons had been working hard on their creation ideas. As this year’s theme was Upcycle, Recycle, and Sustainability, Sew Unique students had to find already existing items to jazz up. These items could be a variety of things, such as pre-loved clothes or fabrics from home or charity shops.

The students found their material and decided what they wanted to add, change, or pair it with. As each idea was unique and personal, the starting and finishing process was different from student to student, but generally many students were using pins in their fabric, tacking together sections, using scissors for cutting independent pieces, working the sewing machines and overlockers, and utilising sewing weights that they had made at the beginning of the year. Throughout this design and making process, Sheila Page and Clare Pervin supported all the students and me the whole way, making sure to give encouraging words and to ensure everybody had finished their pieces in time for the show. I will go into more detail on some specific students’ processes further down.

Abi created a very stylish piece using a pair of up-cycled denim jeans and lace. She did this by having cut out several panels from her chosen jeans, picking out exactly how many pieces to use as patches from it. After this, she then tacked and sewed these patches very precisely onto the rest of the jeans, altering them. Also using a long piece of black lace, Abi had sewn and decorated the spaces between the side panels of both the legs, creating a lace and denim combination that works just flawlessly. She had worked very hard on these jeans, wanting them to be just right and the result was just perfect for her sense of style.

Kai crafted a decorated shirt with a large, winged design on the back. She created this piece by first using a lightbox and drawing a design of a set of wings onto a upcycled white t-shirt with a pencil. After the wings were cut out, Kai sewed them onto another grey t-shirt by operating the sewing machine foot pedal, while at the same time a member of staff fed the fabric through the machine. Kai had then traced over the pencil lines with a black fabric pen, next choosing to sew around the black edges using a golden thread, finally sticking on silver gems last. Overall, the design and process was very creative and worked together amazingly.

Luke had designed a shirt with musical note patches adorning an upcycled white shirt. To create this, Luke had cut out templates in the shape of musical notes with the help of a friend. Once he had cut out the templates, Luke set them down onto some black fabric which he had then drew around before cutting out his newly created shapes, again with the help of his friend. With Luke’s new black musical notes, he was ready to glue them onto and across his white shirt using a special fabric glue. With Luke’s love of music and radio, this fashion piece absolutely completes him.

Amelia created two pieces for this year’s show.

One of these was a pair of trousers, which Amelia had discussed what pattern she liked and how much fabric she would need. Amelia had travelled to The Silk Worm sewing shop, which was a great community access opportunity, where she had selected her chosen fabric. Amelia had ensured to tack and pin her fabric in place to secure it ready for the sewing process. Originally Amelia’s trousers were a little too lengthy, so using a tape measure and tailor chalk, she had measured and cut off 3 inches. She had then used a safety pin to thread some elastic through the waistband of the trousers, then operating the sewing machine she fed the fabric through with support from a staff member on the pedal. With Amelia’s chosen trouser fabric, her design choices just perfectly works as a stylish pair of trousers, and when asked how she felt, she said she felt good and happy using her infinity pad.

Another one of Amelia’s items were a pair of restyled trainers. Amelia created a unique Coraline-inspired design that she had hand-drawn across the entirety of the shoes using acrylic pens after creating a mock-up of her ideas on paper first. Amelia also ensured to exchange the usual laces with blue and yellow ribbons to suit her theming. Overall, both pieces had tons of attention to detail where Amelia focused heavily on exactly what she wanted, including her interests into the mix.

For Kacey, she had made a skirt from a large collection of ties. Kacey created this skirt by independently unpicking and tacking the many ties together, stitching them beside each other for the general skirt shape. Kacey had then tacked on a tie waistband, which she then sewed together using the sewing machine with support from a staff member, Kacey having operated the foot pedal while the staff member fed the fabric through. Once she had completed the waistband, she then fed elastic through it with support to finally complete her project. With its array of colours and uniqueness, Kacey made quite the eye-catching piece.

Charlie didn’t make an item for himself, but much rather for his dog, Pip, with a coat that is just adorable. It’s not only humans who get to be fashionable at Sew Unique, with Charlie, he created a little coat for his dog by pinning, tacking and sewing together the pink fabric chosen for Pip. Charlie used the sewing machine to piece together the fabric, operating the foot pedal and feeding the fabric through the machine with support from staff. Charlie had then also ironed on three letters, all of which were put together to create Pip’s name on the back of the coat in purple, pink, and green. He also sewed on pom poms and attached poppers onto the coat using the popper machine.

For me, I had made a jacket out of a single curtain I found at a charity shop. I decided as soon as I saw that curtain what I had wanted to do with it, and how I wanted it to look. When creating my jacket, I cut out all the pattern pieces I wanted to use, then I placed my sewing weights down on my fabric to hold the pattern in place while I cut around it carefully. Once I had my finished shapes all cut out, I pinned and tacked the appropriate sides together ready to use under the sewing machine. After having all the sides lined, I lastly inserted three poppers on the outside of my jacket with a popper machine I was taught how to use. I was extremely happy with my end result of my jacket with how hard I’d worked on completing it and ensuring I had each part of the design perfectly where I wanted it to go. I think it suits me, and will be happily added to my collection of jackets I have at home, being my first hand-made addition.

I won best item at the fashion show as voted by both staff and students, I am very proud of that!

The preparation for the show had started well before the day of the presentation. Apart from the time spent on their own creations, one of the many ways everyone prepared for the show was creating sellable goods for the guests to purchase once the show was finished. Some of these sellable goods were small purses with a little button opening, another being a medium-sized zip pouch, and larger bags with different handle designs. All of these sellable goods also used an assortment of fabrics for their designs, varying in colour, shapes, texture, and pattern. Students in the Sew Unique lessons had also created a range of bracelets to be sold after the show, these featured different lengths, beading styles and a very large variety of colours.

For the process of these sellable goods, such as the bags, purses and zip pouches, the students had outlined their chosen fabric, which they had then cut, tacked, and sewn together using the sewing machines. For this process, they had also attached any opening necessary to the style of the items, such as the handles, zipper or button latch. For the bracelets, the students would use a flexible stringing material that they would slide their chosen beads on, deciding the patterns and colours they wanted to use.

Before the show, I had the opportunity to create the advertisement poster for the Sew Unique Fashion Show, where I focused heavily on the Upcycle, Recycle and Sustainability theme. I hand-drew the designs featured in the poster, focusing on what may be shown in the show, from both the Sew Unique students, the art students, and the spectrum style students. I also ensured to detail the key information such as the date of the show, the arrival times, the set location of the display, and linking in a QR code where tickets could then be booked. This poster made certain that enough guests would arrive at the show, having many of the tickets booked up very quickly.

On the day of the Sew Unique Fashion Show, the building 109 was prepped for everyone. Speakers were brought through for the spoken presentations of the items, a large table was also brought out where all the sellable goods were showcased on, with small wooden towers to display the bracelets, which me and other students helped set up. A backdrop was too set up behind the stage, which showed an image with a red runway to help really set the scene of the show; me and the teachers Sheila Page and Clare Pervin helped to ensure it was centred properly. Chairs were also situated around the large hall in a lined order, making sure to leave a gap in the middle of the room for the runway leading up to the stage.

In one of the side rooms of the 109 building, the students waited. In that room, both teachers and students were getting ready for the show, getting their faces decorated in makeup and glitter, while also getting their hair styled by those from Spectrum Style with straightening, curling, and other looks. Nearer the time of the show, the students dressed themselves in their creation they had worked on, some picking specific clothes from home to pair with their creation, myself included. Before the show started, we got to practice the flow of the catwalk, ensuring that everybody knew which direction to go in, which made it much easier to be prepared.

At the show, I had watched as the other students did their catwalk before me as I was the last person on the list to walk down the runway. I was able to see how other students strutted and posed which gave me some confidence to do the same. Once it was my turn to walk down, I had my whole outfit organisation prepared and on. I was very nervous about going up in front of everybody there, but with lots of encouragement from the staff and even some of the students, I found myself quickly making my way through the catwalk, hand on my hips with my best smile.

When I got atop the stage, I ensured to present my jacket which I had created, showing off both the arms, the front, the back, and the pockets. I could hear Clare speaking up around my outfit and my design process behind it, and I could see the guests observing what I had made.

After leaving the stage, there was a round of applause from the guests, and a wave of relief washed over me, but also joy and the feeling of how personally proud I was of my jacket.

As mentioned before, the show absolutely went perfectly, but here are some of the highlights of the show that made it just that little bit more special:

Charlie’s dog, Pip, the cute little dog that turned the catwalk into a dogwalk. This was the little dog that everybody just adored, and became quite the spectacle at the show as an animal on the runway had never been featured before during the show in previous years!

At the end of the show, everybody who participated with the modelling and designing process got to catwalk one last time and stand atop the stage together, giving a final showing of the items created over the academic year and their achievements. The audience gave a big applause for the last time, not only for the students but for the staff that helped organise the whole event, staff that helped model, and staff that assisted the students throughout all of their creative process.

Tracey Forman and Clare Pervin took a lead on the show with their compèring skills, both had been standing by the stage with their microphones, giving out information to the audience about the entire method of each student’s design, ensuring to include the student’s personal views on their outfits as well as slotting in a few funny jokes to hype up the crowd.

All the students during the show displayed incredible confidence, each one making the runway their own and being proud to show off their hard work, earning rounds of applause from the guests. Even for those students who felt nervous beforehand to exit that first door and enter the showroom, myself included, we showed bravery as we faced our anxiousness head-on and made sure to steal what was our moment. It was certainly a day to express many achievements in one.