Sewing, repair and upcycling

Around 4,000 tonnes of clothing end up in Leeds' black bins every year. With a little time and creativity, so much of this could be saved through sewing, repair and upcycling.

During Zero Waste Fashion Week, we spoke to Dawn Wood who runs the fabulous Fabrication on Albion Street in Leeds. Her key message is that all clothes can be re-worked and re-purposed. Even small changes can make a huge difference and you don’t always need machinery to make them.

She suggests some simple ways you could re-work old clothes, including changing the structure, adding some buttons, adding a pocket in a different colour, redying the fabric, or putting a patch on it if it's worn.

During Zero Waste Fashion Week, we also spoke to Corinne Coolican from the sustainable fashion brand Cooli, who shared her practical suggestions and ideas for what to do with old and second hand denim. She is a designer who makes all her clothes using recycled fabric and particularly loves upcycling given that it can be so polluting.

She recommends that if you have a hole in your jeans, instead of throwing them away, you could add patches made from other old clothes you have. It doesn't have to be neat, and in fact obvious hand stitching can add to the style.

If you're looking to learn to sew, there are plenty of workshops in Leeds. Take a look at the sewing workshops on our Zero Waste Fashion map below. Please get in touch if there are any we have missed!