Seniors Week rolls around once a year, giving people a chance to try new activities they may never have considered.

This year's theme for Seniors Week is Be Inspired.

Newcastle is hosting 55 free activities to try out across the city.

One of those activities is a four-hour workshop with the Newcastle Creative Embroiderers and Textile Artists (NCEATA).

Titled Body Shape and Design, the pencil and paper workshop guides participants on designing garments using people's body shapes.

A follow-up class involves wrapping people's bodies with Glad wrap and duct tape to make full body casts.

NCEATA secretary Carolyn Clausen said the group was made up of creative types who "think outside the square".

The group is about 30 years old and members are mainly middle-aged to older people.

They work with all types of threads and fibres, including embroidery, machine embellishment, dyeing, painting, discharging, fabric painting, wet and dry felting, and beading.

NCEATA meets on the third Saturday and third Monday of each month, sharing skills, learning from each other and exhibiting in Australia and overseas.

The group is about to ship around 46 pieces over to France for a medieval Queen and King of Chartres Cathedral exhibition in Nantes.

■ Body Shape and Design - fashion design and drawing with Newcastle Creative Embroiderers and Textile Artists will be held this Saturday at 130 Garden Grove Parade, Adamstown Heights, from 10am to 2pm and is free. Phone: 4944 8486.