Friday, July 19, 2013

Salvaging Sewing Machines

This sewing machine was salvaged from a Household Waste and Recycle Centre (HWRC) last month in East London. I'm shocked that people choose to discard sewing machines at their local HWRC when there are so many avenues which enable them to stay in use including ebay, freecycle, flooting and taking it to a charity shop.

In addition to multiple re-use avenues, there is also a growing craft market forcing a rise of sewing machine sales. I have found articles each year from 2009 'Tesco sells two sewing machines a minute' to 2013 'Britain's got a sewing bee in it's bonnet causing sewing machine sales to soar' documenting the clear demand from a growing market.

In addition to the Singer below, I sorted through many other sewing machines that had been rescued. They were old electrical machines, with matching top thread and bobbin threaded up and ready to sew, with an array of spare bobbins, unpickers, needles and safety pins in the little storage compartment, with the cable and foot pedal wrapped carefully around the machine. They are definitely not waste and should be used!

The Sewing Machine Project operates in America, collecting and distributing unwanted sewing machines to communities around the world, supporting people to pursue creative projects.

If anyone knows of any sewing machine re-use projects in the UK please do let me know!




Thursday, July 18, 2013

Tie Dress

The Tie Dress, a popular upcycling challenge. This is mine.

Tuesday, July 02, 2013

The Upcycling Fashion Store, Berlin

Thanks to tweets from Livia Firth and From Somwhere, I'm very happy to hear about the first Upcycling Fashion Store in Berlin! Which I am excited by, even though I can't read German. Great to see fashion upcyclists in Berlin doing things like this...



Here is a blog post from someone who has been

And another

And another

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