Casgliadau Arlein

Red floral cotton wrap-around skirt worn by Thalia Campbell on the march from Cardiff to Greenham Common, 27 August–5 September 1981. She was a member of the Women for Life on Earth group who established the peace camp at Greenham in September 1981.

"Shorts – blue and white flowery shorts, a wrap-around skirt, Jesus sandals, a scarf. Somebody made scarves for each one of us. It was lovely. Screen printed. Unfortunately, the dye was not colourfast and they all faded over the years. And erm, oh somebody else bought purple, green and white ribbons which they gave out... Oh, before I went I managed to find three white jumpsuits and I dyed them all purple. Stirred them all in a big pot and dyed them all purple. Purple jumpsuits, suffrage colours". Source: Oral history interview with Thalia Campbell conducted by Elen Phillips (19 December 2017).

Knee-length skirt appears to be home made, but possibly adapted from a previous garment (as there is a small label along the waist). Made up of three pieces of fabric joined by 2 vertical seams; 2 lengths of same fabric used to encapsulate the waist, extending into long ties. Printed cotton fabric: blue, yellow and white flowers on red ground. Hem and side edges finished with stitched double turn backs but turnback at waist and seam allowances on the two vertical seams left with raw edges. Six holes have been repaired with rectangular patches of a different print cotton fabric (all applied to the front of the skirt): 5x yellow and purple flowers on red ground (stitched on by hand using red thread) & 1x red & brown flowers on black ground (stitched on with machine made Zig-Zag stitches using red, blue and black thread).