02/09/2026
π¬οΈ As part of Sustainable Fashion Week 2026, the AK Bell Library is proud to present two Craft Films about sustainable fashion, community engagement and heritage crafts. 'Woman Grows Jeans' and 'Two Miles Squared' share a fascinating insight into the world of small-scale, community-produced fashion and the emergence of heritage skills that have been (almost) forgotten.
πΈ Suitable for ages 13 and over.
ποΈ FREE tickets are available online: https://bit.ly/craftfilmnight
π Donations welcome.
ποΈ Woman Grows Jeans
In the industrial heartland of British textiles, a community sets out to do something unprecedented - grow jeans from scratch. With hopes of helping regenerate harmful fashion systems, they begin planting flax and indigo, spinning yarn, and weaving cloth. When the dream of bringing them to market falters, Justine Aldersey-Williams takes on the challenge of creating a prototype, transforming the experiment into a personal rite of passage. What unfolds is a tender, radical act of reconnection: to land, lineage, lost skills, and the βmore-than-humanβ world. Woman Grows Jeans explores what it really means to rewild our world, our wardrobes and ourselves. At once a protest and a prayer, this is slow fashion as provocation - sown by hand, infused with love, and stitched with hope. For anyone whoβs ever wondered if a different future is possible, this pioneering story shows that the power to create change is still in our hands.
ποΈ Two Miles Squared
Two Miles Squared is the story of rediscovering one of Scotlandβs most important historic crops and exploring whether it could once again thrive in Perthshire. For centuries, flax was a cornerstone of the economy across eastern Scotland, particularly in Angus, Fife and Perthshire, with the Blairgowrie area playing a significant role in flax cultivation and linen production.
The project set out to investigate whether flax could be grown and processed locally in the modern day. Working alongside PlusPerth, UNESCO Perth City of Craft and archaeobotanist Seona Anderson, Alex Effinger from Culture Perth and Kinross followed the crop's journey from field to fibre, demonstrating traditional techniques such as scutching and hackling to transform harvested flax into usable fibres.
The project has shown that flax can be successfully grown organically in todayβs climate and processed locally using historic methods. The resulting fibres were used to create a beautiful natural-fibre apron, bringing Scotlandβs flax-growing heritage full circle while highlighting the potential of this sustainable material to play a role in contemporary making, mending and repair.
π€ In association with UNESCO Perth City of Craft and Folk Art.
