University Students Acquire Sewing Skills for Waste Reduction

To foster sustainability and minimize waste, sewing specialists instructed students in self-repair techniques. The Tadcrafters organization organized its inaugural Repair Fair at York St John University, assisting students with mending garments and accessories. This initiative was organized by the university’s Living Lab network, which operates within the Institute for Social Justice and aims to implement “real changes on campus, from reducing waste to tackling food poverty.” Bailee Wray, a forensic psychology student, commented: “It’s always nice to be able to repair your own clothes instead of throwing them away.” The second-year student, who stated her preference for purchasing items from charity shops when feasible, honed her abilities by crafting a needle case. She also mentioned: “I recently bought a sewing machine and I’m planning on putting pockets on this coat that I’m wearing.” According to the university, over 100 students participated in the event, during which 30 sewing kits were distributed and more than 40 items were mended. Abigail Attridge, who was refining her embroidery techniques, remarked: “If one of your buttons falls off it’s really good to be able to know how to sew it back on.” She further described needlework as “fun even if you don’t know how to do it very well.” The Tadcrafters, originating from the nearby town of Tadcaster, were established following the devastating floods that affected the area at Christmas in 2015. Volunteers aimed to “cheer the place up” by producing hundreds of metres of bunting to adorn the town for the Tour de Yorkshire cycle race the subsequent April. Since then, they have endeavored to impart their expertise to the broader community. Su Morgan, founder of Tadcrafters, stated: “I think there’s a conception that it’s just little old ladies that do sewing and knitting and that’s really wrong. These are vital life skills that everybody should have and unfortunately we’re in a society where we just go and buy things new and we don’t mend things and we don’t make things any more and these skills are being lost.” She further commented: “In the current climate where we’ve got people who are experiencing poverty and we’ve got lots and lots of issues of sustainability, we shouldn’t be wasting our textiles, our clothes. We should be mending them, reusing them and not buying quite so much.”