We had a wonderful Make and Mend festival on Saturday May 7th, with one of our liveliest events yet. The phenomenal Tessa the Dresser hosted two Visible Mending Workshops, where participants learnt basic hand embroidery skills and how to repair with hand-made patches.
(Find out more about Tessa's work in this article "How to be a Sustainable Fashion Lover" by Climate Centre co-founder Bel Jacobs for BBC Culture here)
Do you have a sewing machine tucked under the desk, simply because you still haven't worked out how to thread it? We do, too! On Saturday, visitors could learn how to wind the bobbin, thread the machine, change stitches, position the needle and actually SEW TWO PIECES OF FABRIC TOGETHER on our three demo machines.
Mariscol and Jocely, expert darners from The Seam, offered on-site basic repairs while our block printers were kept EXTREMELY busy printing gorgeous designs of nature and animals onto upcycled t-shirts. The kids LOVED this so much, we invited them back for the Kids Day Special on May 14th.
Finally, at 3pm, visitors to the centre heard about the work of the pioneering Changing Markets Foundation via George Harding-Rolls who spoke not only about the impact of the fashion industry on the world's challenged planet but also the prevalence of plastic in today's clothing and how intimately that is linked to greenwashing. Read their fantastic report Fossil Fashion here and find out exactly what greenwashing is here.
Pictures: Rob Painter.
Find out what's on at the Islington Climate Centre here.