Will I wear it 30 times?

Tips on how to buy ethically during Black Friday

Those of you have attended our workshops or follow us on social media know that our ethos all year round is to mend our clothes and choose second hand to avoid buying new. With all the noise around Black Friday it is difficult to avoid all the seemingly good discounts. I’ll admit to making the most of the discount off my favourite natural beauty brand but I wrote a list before I went shopping so as not to get tempted by discounts and buy only what I needed.

When buying new clothes a good tip is to question yourself ‘will I wear it 30 times?’ A philosophy created by Livia Firth, founder of Eco-Age to help reduce the number of clothes bought and not worn. We like this explanation on Cariki’s blog. It is also helpful to ask yourself ‘can I buy it second hand?’ or if it is an item of clothing that needs replacing, ‘can I mend it?‘.

When shopping for new clothes it is useful to have a check list of the values that are most important to you. For example buying clothes made from organic fabrics and ensuring the brands pay their factory workers a fair wage. I wrote the above list about 8 years ago when I started understanding more about sustainable fashion. I realise now that this list is idealistic but it has resulted in me buying less, choosing second hand clothes, mending and upcycling clothes or making my own from pre-loved fabrics.

FASH Forward is a new online sustainable fashion magazine. Lots of tips from how to wash clothes to mending shoes and wear to buy sustainable sportswear. We are definitely going to visit the packaging exhibition at the Design Museum thanks to FASH Foward’s recommendation. Read the Winter Issue here. Thanks to Ailís for including us in her excellent magazine.

I like to remember that Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving in the US, as it was a day that retailers are supposed to be in the black, or credit. It is a holiday in the US and people start their Christmas shopping. In the UK we seemed to have inherited the buying frenzy without the day of thanks. I’ve been celebrating Thanksgiving with my American friend for the past 10 years to make her feel more at home. It is an enjoyable day with our families eating a delicious dinner without the commercialism of gifts. At the end of the meal we take turns in sharing what we have thanks for. This year I gave thanks that The Create Place introduced Eleanor and I and for the support from our workshop attendees and followers. Thank you!

COP26: What can we do?

with COP26 finished in Glasgow, it feels like climate change is firmly on the agenda. A UN report found that if we carry on at our current rate of growth by 2050, it will take the equivalent of almost 3 planets worth of resources to maintain our modern lifestyles.

But what can we do now? With so many world leaders having met at COP26 it’s a really important time to demand action from our governments, whether by contacting them directly or signing petitions. Contacting the companies that make our clothes, food and other products to demand transparency and change in their unsustainable supply chains can help to make them take action.

On a personal level, using the clothes and products we already own and repairing them when they’re broken can help save resources. Sign up for our newsletter to find out more about our clothes mending workshops, including a free monthly virtual mend-a-long.

For more information on COP26 The Yikes Podcast has a great episode explaining what COP26 is and why it’s important to keep climate change on the agenda. We also like Pebble Magazines 5 key take aways from the event.

How to re-patch jeans

Jeans are probably the most popular item people bring to our workshops. It is really tricky to find jeans to fit perfectly and once you find a pair you don’t want to stop wearing them. We have helped many people repair their favourite jeans to be worn again and again. However, it can happen that the repair needs repairing.

I fixed my nieces favourite jeans about two years ago. She has worn them continually and they need repairing again. I know I should be encouraging her to repair her own jeans, that will be the next step! Patches are great but they do weaken the fabric and can rip again after lots of wear. There is no need to unpick the original patch, just patch on top.

Here is a video to show how I got on – but I will admit that the legs of the jeans are narrow and it was tricky fitting them onto my sewing machine.

Autumn Clothes Mending Events

Have you started wearing your winter clothes and noticed they need a bit of TLC? We have arranged lots of clothes mending workshops to help you those jumpers, tights and socks darned, jeans patched and hems repaired.

31 October | ‘Fix your Knitwear’ workshop at Woodfield Pavilion

Join us for this workshop to pick up some new sewing techniques that will help you to repair and refresh your tired knitwear. Save a jumper Save the planet!

Tickets are £15 per person (plus booking fee) and includes a small kit of 4 x needles, a selection of yarns (3 woollen yarns and 2 cotton yarns) and a ‘How to Darn’ instructional card.


1 November | Fast Fashion Therapy at home via Zoom

  • Join us via Zoom with your mending and a sewing kit.
  • Sign up for our newsletter for the Zoom link, which will be sent a few days before
  • The session is free
  • It isn’t a formal teaching session, an hour to encourage us all to get our clothes mended.
  • 7:30 to 8:30pm

6th November | Sutton Japanese Boro Workshop

Set in the unique Tudor setting of Whitehall Historic House, this workshop will help you mend and up-cycle old or damaged clothes. The workshop will take you through the basics ‘visible mending’ techniques to leave you feeling All materials and kit will be provided in the workshop.

8 + 22 November at The Create Place

A regular sewing workshop at The Create Place in Bethnal Green Eleanor and Sarah are on hand to help you repair and upcycle your clothes, practice techniques on examples or bring along your own clothes to repair and alter.

6:30 to 8pm – Free

Email us to book your place


15 November at The Remakery

A regular sewing workshop: Eleanor and Sarah are on hand to help you repair and upcycle your clothes, practice techniques on examples or bring along your own clothes to repair and alter.

£3.50 book via Eventbrite


View all of these events and future ones on our Calendar

Big Green Weekend & Tooting RepairFest at Woodfield Pavilion

We’ll be joining forces with the Woodfield Pavilion, in Tooting Bec Common, to host some workshops as part of their Big Green Weekend and Tooting RepairFest on the weekend of 30th and 31st October.

The first workshop on Saturday 30th will be a ‘Collaborative Protest Coat’ workshop, where we’ll be asking people to take part in stitching a community protest coat using the slogan ‘Repair for our future!’. The workshop runs from 12pm – 2.30pm and it’s free to attend, you can find out more details and sign up on Eventbrite here.

The second workshop on Sunday 31st will be a ‘Fix your Knitwear’ workshop where we’ll be covering a range of visible and invisible mending skills that can be used to repair holes in jumpers, tidy up ragged cuffs, or cover stains including basic darning, Swiss darning, and some ‘quick fix’ techniques. The workshop runs from 1pm – 2.30pm and tickets are £15 (plus booking fee) including a small kit to take home with you, you can find more information and book your ticket on Eventbrite here.

Check out www.thewoodfield.org to find what else is going on for Woodfield Pavilion’s Big Green Weekend over 30th and 31st October.

We’re also working with Tooting RepairFest, which celebrates and promotes local fixing and mending, launches this week! Full details, including how to book events (and a link to a map of local repair businesses) HERE

Second Hand September

Campaign by Oxfam UK

As it is Oxfam’s #secondhandseptember this month, we’ll be sharing some of our favourite second hand clothing that we’ve collected over the years! We treat buying second hand and repairing our clothes as a year round obsession but if you’re new to the world of second hand, this month is a great place to start! Every September Oxfam asks people to make a pledge to only buy second hand for the month to help reduce the number of clothes going to landfill and raise awareness around the need for more sustainability in the fashion industry. You can do this either buy shopping in charity shops, using resale apps and sites or taking part in a clothing swap.

Eleanor’s favourite second hand outfit

Eleanor: I got into buying second hand when I was a teenager as vintage clothes were coming back into fashion and the high street in my hometown pretty much only had charity shops to choose from. Skip forward ten years and I’ve ended up in Streatham, which apparently has the most charity shops on a high street in Europe (I haven’t fact checked that but there are a lot!). So buying second hand has become second nature. A little about my second hand outfit – the blue floral kimono I inherited from my Nanna (with some patching and darning to keep it together), the patterned velvet top was a Depop purchase, the black Levi skirt was bought in a vintage shop in Brighton, the gold necklace as also inherited and my Puma trainers were another Depop purchase!

Sarah: This top started life as a large scarf. I saw it in a charity shop on the south coast. I’m really into 1980’s prints at the moment and was drawn to it’s graphic style and bright colours. I’m not a scarf person so I turned it into a top. There was plenty of fabric and I kept the frayed hem of the scarf for the hem of my top. I used a pattern I found in a charity shop. Charity shops are a great source of second hand sewing equipment and haberdashery.

What are you wearing this SecondhandSeptember?

Second Hand Clothing Mountain

Find out why we are supporting Oxfam’s Secondhand September – our blog post tries to explain why we have a mountain of clothes and tips on how to reduce textile waste.

Clothes mending workshops in London

Fast Fashion Therapy at The Create Place, Bethnal Green

Mending Monday was in full swing at The Create Place this week. Thanks to everyone who came along, here is how we got on…

Jess brought a few items along including these dungarees and a halter neck dress that had both ripped in the side seams. She pinned the seams back together before stitching them on the sewing machine. She finished off the edges with a zig zag stitch to prevent the seams from fraying. Jess also fixed a blouse where the sleeve had come away from the cuff. She brought the fabric down to the inside of the cuff and fixed it with a zig zag stitch on the sewing machine. 

Sarah returned with another pair of jeans to fix. They had the common problem of fraying on the inner thigh seam and in the knee.  Sarah didn’t want to throw the jeans away as there was nothing wrong with the rest of the denim. She used the sewing machine to secure the patch and cover the holes with a zig zag stitch. Sarah also brought a blouse where the sleeves were too tight. She cut off the sleeves and is in the process of neatening the edges to create a sleeveless blouse.

Eileen brought along this beautiful printed skirt which sadly has a couple of rips in the back. She didn’t want to give up on the skirt so is repairing it with a patch. Rummaging in the fabric stash, Eileen found this happy clashing patch to reinforce the weak fabric on her skirt. She started to repair the tear using a Boro stitch.

Connor brought along a couple of pairs of jeans to repair that had holes in them. He had never used a sewing machine before… As you can see, he did a great job patching the jeans using a zig zag stitch on the sewing machine. And a bright red contrast stitch on the reverse. 

Karen was busy recovering a seat cushion cover and ask questions on how to mend a blouse and a pair of trousers that had ripped. It is work in progress so we will post photos on a later newsletter. Want to join us? scroll down to find more information on how to join one of our in person or virtual workshops…

Want to join us to mend your clothes? We host regular workshops on a Monday evening:

1st Monday of the month – virtual (and free) mend-a-long via Google hangout. Sign up for our newsletter for joining details.

2nd and 4th Monday of the month – at The Create Place, Bethnal Green. Email us to book your free place.

3rd Monday of the month – The Remakery, Brixton. Book via Eventbrite, £3.50 per person.

We often host other workshops in and around London. Sign up for our newsletter for more details or get in touch if you would like us to host a workshop at your event.

Mending Workshops IRL!

Mending Monday was in full swing this week at The Create Place this week. Thanks to everyone who came along, here is how we got on…

Justin did a great job mending a rather large patch on the knee of his jeans. First of all he reinforced the hole by placing a denim patch behind the hole. Then zig zag stitched it in place using the sewing machine. He ironed on these fun patches over the hole. We recommended to Justin to hand sew the patches using an over stitch. It helps keep them in place. 

Sarah brought her favourite jeans with her to fix. They had the common problem of fraying on the inner thigh seam. Sarah didn’t want to throw the jeans away as there was nothing wrong with the rest of the denim. She used the sewing machine to secure the patch and cover the holes with a zig zag stitch.

Jess found a replacement button that co-ordinated with the button on the other side of the dungarees. It was a shank button and she sewed it on with a double thread to prevent it from falling off again. How to sew on a button. Jess found a replacement button that co-ordinated with the button on the other side of the dungarees. It was a shank button and she sewed it on with a double thread to prevent it from falling off again. How to sew on a button.

Scroll down to find more information on how to join one of our in person or online workshops…

Sutton

Saturday 3 July, 2 to 3:30pm ‘Fix your Clothes’ Workshop at Whitehall Historic House, Sutton: In this ‘Fix your Clothes’ workshop hosted by Whitehall Historic House, we’ll give you an introduction to the repair skills of darning and patching, and provide you with some of the materials you need to get started. Each participant will receive a kit to use during the workshop, the kit will include a selection of woven and knitted fabric patches, 1 cotton yarn, 1 woollen yarn, 1 regular sewing thread, 2 needles, and an instructional card for each technique for you to look back at after the workshop. Tickets are £10 Book via Eventbright.

The Remakery, Brixton, London

Third Monday of the month 6:30 to 8pm : We have teamed up with The Remakery for a regular clothes mending workshop. The format is the same as our session at The Create Place. Bring along an item of clothing that needs mending, along with a basic sewing kit. There are a few sewing machines available, iron and ironing board. Please let us know what you are mending in advance and we can bring along the relevant materials as we don’t have any storage at The Remakery. Book via Eventbrite, cost is £3.50.

The Create Place, Bethnal Green, London

Second and Fourth Mondays of the month 6:30 to 8pm We are back at The Create Place in Bethnal Green. Spaces are limited to 4 people and full details will be sent in advance so we can stay Covid safe. To help manage the limited space only one person can book one place per month. For example if you book for the 14th June you can’t book for 28th June. We are not advertising on Eventbrite, please email us if you would like to book for July.

First Monday of the month we host a free online mend-a-long. Bring along a couple of pieces of clothes mending with a basic sewing kit. Connect with us on video call and join in the chat as we mend. Feel free to ask us and the group questions. Sign up for our newsletter for joining details which are sent a few days in advance (previously on Zoom but we are exploring other platforms). (no online workshop in July, next meet up is 2nd August.

We look forward to seeing you online or in person at a workshop soon. 

Fashion Revolution Week: Our 5 take-aways

Congratulations to Fashion Revolution on another successful Fashion Revolution Week! The week kicked off with a thought provoking Fashion Question Time that focused on Rights, Relationships and Revolution. Particularly the link between climate and racial injustice. Thanks to everyone for commenting on our social media posts and joining our mend-a-longs. This is what we learnt…

1. Environmental and human rights need to be top of the agenda for business

Respecting nature and the rights of workers should be a moral obligation, it is also the only way that industry can continue to be viable into the future. There is a necessity to work with nature to create new methods of production, to build workplaces that are safe for and respectful of their workers and to strive towards a circular economy.

2. What’s in my clothes?

A shocking number of chemicals are used in our clothing, with around 800 of them known to interfere with hormones in both males and females. Since 1996 the EU has recognised these chemicals as hazards but she again highlighted how the interconnectedness of government and business meant it had been hard to get them banned. We asked Playtex and M&S #whomademyclothes and #whatsinmyclothes ? Playtex sent us a link to their sustainability credentials. We followed up asking why it is difficult to find this information on their e-commerce sites and why they haven’t taken part in the Fashion Revolution transparency index.

3. We have consumer power

Earlier this week there was news of a football EU super league, which the fans protested against. Within 24 hours of the pressure from the fans the league and government threatening with legislation all 6 UK clubs pulled out. The league can’t make a profit if nobody watches and the TV companies don’t pay for the rights. Just think how we could change the fashion industry if we stopped buying clothes from brands that don’t pay their garment workers a fair wage. If we stopped buying clothes made from chemicals and fibres that damage the Earth, the brands would have to adapt their sourcing policies to appeal to the consumers.

‘…if people are willing it could happen tomorrow, or it could be years and years…nothing is impossible.’

Nazma Akter , Fashion Question Time

4. Legislation is key to genuine change

Preventing Fashion’s negative effects on the Earth clearly isn’t as top of the UK Government’s agenda as football is. The UK Government rejected 2019 Fixing Fashion’s report by the Environmental Audit Committee which could have brought in some legislation against the negative effects of Fashion on the earth. Governments and businesses need to start putting the planet and people before profit. Governments need to shift subsidies from supporting damaging industries to fund those that are sustainable and ethical and to put legislation in place to give workers, consumers and citizens a voice

5. Consume less + mend more!

‘If we consume less it automatically reduces the number of plastics and chemicals in our clothes.’ Baroness Bennet of Manor Castle, Green Party. Before buying new clothes, consider what we already have in our wardrobes. Why hasn’t an item of clothing been worn for a while? Can it be repaired or altered into something you will wear? Or re-sell it on one of the many resell apps available for someone else to love. Follow one of our videos teaching how to mend clothes or join one of our workshops.

About Fashion Revolution Week: This is the eighth year in which the charity ask us to challenge our favourite fashion brands with the question #whomademyclothes? Fashion Revolution was established in 2013 a year after the Rana Plaza disaster that killed 1138 garment workers in Bangladesh. Since then charity have been campaigning globally against the human and environmental consequences of the fashion industry. Encouraging brands to change their practices to a more transparent and circular model.

Fashion Question Time 2021

Click on photo for recording of the Question Time

Fashion Question Time has become a key part of the Fashion Revolution Week calendar over the last few years and acts as an essential platform in bringing together activists, legislators and business owners, allowing the general public to ask them questions and hearing their ideas from inside the industry.

This years’ panel focused on ‘Rights, Relationships and Revolution’ and was made up of Nicole Rycroft, founder and executive director of Canopy, Nazma Akter, a Bangladeshi trade unionist and founder of AWAJ Foundation, Lara Wolters, a Dutch politician and member of European Parliament and Sunny Dolat, a creative director and co-founder of The Nest Collective . Chaired by Baroness Lola Young, co-chair of the UK’s Ethics and Sustainability in Fashion parliamentary group, the panel seemed to be truly representative of the different perspectives that form the fashion industry.

‘The health of the world is essential for people and future generations…Nature needs to be seen as a stakeholder’

Carry Somers

Below we go through some of the questions asked and some key takeaways from the session.

Lara Wolters and Sonny Dolat both acknowledged how climate and racial justice are so strongly connected generally, but particularly within fashion. Dolat discussed how ‘as far back as the 1950s the garment industry has relied on black and brown labour‘ and when it comes to the climate crisis, black and indigenous communities are the ones that suffer first. He also talked about how the industries desire to always find the cheapest labour meant that suppliers with bad working practices were moving between countries to set up new factories. Ethiopia is meant to be the next hotspot for the garment industry but one of the main draws here is the lack of a minimum wage.

Wolters talked about many of the ‘undesirable consequences of the fashion industry‘ and of the people affected by racial and social injustice. But she also highlights how many of these ‘oppressed people are now getting a voice’ through social media and there is a much greater awareness of the problems. At the moment there are no straightforward solutions but this pressure will force companies to start making some.

Nazma Akter felt strongly that sustainable consumption wasn’t possible under capitalism asking ‘eight years after the Rana Plaza disaster, what has changed? Nothing’.

Akter discussed how even during a strict lockdown in Bangladesh, factory owners put pressure on the government to keep factories open, particularly as lockdowns were eased in Europe and the USA. She felt there had to be a ‘fight against capitalism and neoliberalism’ in order to place the needs and rights of workers at the top of the business owners priorities.

‘There is a necessity for a fundamental rethink of how we think about business…fundamentally, it’s a question of social and racial justice’

Barroness Lola Young

Wolters responded to this question by discussing the shocking number of chemicals used in our clothing, with around 800 of them known to interfere with hormones in both males and females. Since 1996 the EU has recognised these chemicals as hazards but she again highlighted how the interconnectedness of government and business meant it had been hard to get them banned. ‘Lobby from the industry on these chemicals has been powerful’ leaving legislators fearful that any ban would affect the EU’s trade agreement with the US. There is some hope as an EU commission is still working on banning these chemicals in products with exceptions only being allowed if their use is proven essential for society.

All the panellists felt the need for both incentives and penalties from governments in order to encourage sustainability and innovation in the fashion industry. Dolat mentioned how these are essential as ‘if governments don’t incentivise innovation then people will replicate failed models’.

Wolters discussed how attempts at voluntary schemes have not really worked, and often allowed companies to greenwash or hide bad practices more easily. Legislation needs to affect shareholders, to disincentivise CEOs from making quick decisions that affect the environment and human rights and look ‘to create a race to the top rather than a race to the bottom’. In talking about H&M’s involvement in the forced labour camps in Uighur, Wolters mentioned how initially H&M tried to do the right thing by placing pressure on China to stop this practice but the Chinese government ‘bullied’ them into staying quiet. Similar accounts came out of the US, with the US government pressuring brands to stay quiet in response to the Black Lives Matter protests.

Nicole Rycroft commented on how there isn’t actually a need to normalise these incentives as they are already normal for other ‘pernicious industries‘ with trillions of dollars given out in subsidies to the fossil fuel and farming industries. She instead questioned how we move this across to industries operating in the circular economy or with socially just practices.

‘We are not against the industry, we are against the system’

Nazma Akter

Rycroft talked about how the idea of limiting growth in production doesn’t have to be seen as going backwards and how we need to look at disrupting linear supply chains.

‘We’re smarter than using 400, 500 year old trees to make fabric and pizza boxes’

Nicole Rycroft

There is a sense of positivity when looking at the innovation she has seen in the industry in adopting rental, repair and remodelling business models and sees the brands ability to change as necessary as they won’t be ‘viable businesses in thirty years time’ when access to raw materials runs out.

‘Rights of humans and nature are inextricably bound’

Baroness Lola Young

There was optimism in Atker and Rycroft’s responses to this question with both stating it simply comes down to people’s willingness for change.

‘…if people are willing it could happen tomorrow, or it could be years and years…nothing is impossible.’

Nazma Akter

Rycroft discussed how the scientific research on the climate crisis shows it is essential that we turn our situation around in this decade but also, that ‘if Covid has shown us anything, we can literally change everything overnight if we want to’.

Orsola de Castro, co-found of Fashion Revolution, finished with a closing statement that reinforced the need for a complete reevaluation of our systems in order to evolve and asked fashion brands to see sustainability not as a business opportunity but as a moral obligation.

Key points from Fashion Question Time 2021

  • Environmental and human rights need to be top of the agenda for business – respecting nature and the rights of workers should be a moral obligation, it is also the only way that industry can continue to be viable into the future. There is a necessity to work with nature to create new methods of production, to build workplaces that are safe for and respectful of their workers and to strive towards a circular economy.
  • Legislation is key to genuine change – governments and businesses need to start putting the planet and people before profit. Governments need to shift subsidies from supporting damaging industries to fund those that are sustainable and ethical and to put legislation in place to give workers, consumers and citizens a voice.
  • Our voices do have power – without social media, many of the accounts of oppression and abuse suffered by garment workers would not have surfaced about the fashion industry. Marginalised people and their allies now have a voice against corrupt governments and businesses and we can continue to place pressure on brands and politicians to change their behaviours.

‘There are no experts and learners in this life, we are all continuously both.’

Orsola de Castro