Pendle woman scoops funding for wellbeing project Sewing Together with Sew Gemsy through Crowdfund Lancashire

Gemma Allen, who lives near Barnoldswick, set up Sewing Together with Sew Gemsy out of her own pocket on Spacehive in January.

She hopes her project will help people make new friends and improve their mental wellbeing.

Gemma said: "I want to be able to help our local community and give them a safe, friendly space where they can learn how to sew and gain extra knowledge and skills in the art of sewing.”

The creative queen received £744 to help her buy two specialist sewing machines so that group members can continue to develop their new-found skills.

"I have never done any form of crowdfunding before, but then I thought ‘if I don’t try, I’ll never know’ so I easily created a profile and set up my project," Gemma said.

"Once I created my project, I was matched to Crowdfunding Lancashire, and I had the option whether I wanted to pitch my project to them. The questions again were really clear, and these helped me explain the benefits of my project in the community.”

Lancashire County Council is funding the project through a partnership between Crowdfund Lancashire and Spacehive.

The second round of funding is expected to open to other groups in early summer. Organisations can apply for up to £20,000, parish and town councils up to £5,000, and individuals and businesses could get £1,500 towards their live crowdfunding campaigns.

For more information, please visit https://www.spacehive.com/movement/lancashire