A COMMUNITY craft barn has been created in North Yorkshire by a resident who wanted to create a comfortable space where people could be creative.

Paula Richardson, from Londonderry near Bedale, has converted a barn at her home into a space for people of all ages and backgrounds to try their hand at crafts from quilt-making to crocheting and dressmaking.

She came up with the idea after staging craft workshops in a number of draughty village halls and decided to make her own cosy and inspirational venue for people to carry out their favourite crafts and explore new ones, as well as enjoying tea and cake around a log-burning stove.

Paula said: “I led a couple of workshops in village halls, but you have to take your sewing machines up there and village halls are often a bit cold and not conducive to crafting. So I thought rather than trekking out why didn’t I redecorate this space? It’s a big room and it makes sense to do workshops from here.

“I have a log-burning stove and sofas and a big snooker table with a cover on top so people can cut out materials.”

She also runs an online business, KitBag Crafts selling sewing and yarn craft kits online and named her venue, KitBagBarn.

The venue will stage informal craft clinics, where people can visit with their own crafts and get advice on any areas where they are struggling and even “craft and cocktail” nights for hen parties and other groups.

Paula will also be running workshops at the barn from October, with the first one on learning to crochet and running workshops in festive crafts in the run-up to Christmas.

The venture was launched with a Macmillan Coffee Morning on Saturday, September 24.

She said: “People can come along to the craft sessions and there will be other people they can chat to and think about what craft they want to take up.

“My whole philosophy is crafts are for everybody who wants to do them. People shouldn’t be intimidated out of doing anything.

“My grandmother and mother taught me a lot of these skills, but there’s a lot of teenagers whose parents or grandparents didn’t do that.

“It used to be much, much cheaper to make your own clothes rather than buying them and people stopped making their own clothes.

“But there’s a resurgence in crafts – you only need to look on Pinterest – which is being led by young people.”

For more information visit; KitBagCrafts.com or email: paula@kitbagcrafts.com