Inspired by the little black dress workshop at our Zero Waste Christmas event last night our 4th Zero Waste Christmas blog looks at how we can love the clothes that we have.
There is an estimated £140 million worth of clothing going to UK landfills every year. Love Your Clothes is a national campaign which aims to reduce that by providing useful tips and advice to help look after our clothes.
Christmas is a big season for fashion, getting dressed up for Christmas parties and New Year celebrations and the change in the weather meaning we’re digging out our woolly jumpers and winter coats, not to mention those festive Christmas jumpers.
So what can we do to make sure what we have, and what we buy lasts and keep it out of landfill? Love Your Clothes provides lots of tips and advice here’s a few:
- Buy Quality: Think before you buy and buy quality clothes, the investment will be worth it as your clothes will last longer.
- Borrow & Hire: If you’re looking for a special outfit that you’ll only wear once or twice why not borrow one from your friends or hire it. There’s a lot of website out there where you can hire beautiful dresses that will wow, like Girl Meets Dress and Dream Wardrobe. You could even club together with your friends to buy a really special dress together to share.
- Take Care: look after your clothes: check the care label and wash them properly; turn jeans inside out when washing stop them fading; tumble dry sparingly, it wears clothes out, and fold and hang your clothes properly to keep their shape.
- Donate: We all change our style, if you’re no longer wearing something you have donate it to a charity shop, or host a clothes swapping with your friends.
- Revamp: If you’ve grown tired of your clothes a change that doesn’t mean you need to buy new and throw out your old. You can change the buttons, iron on a transfer images, add lace to a sleeve – there are lots of options. Here’s a few photos of dress makeover and iron transfers from the workshop Love Your Clothes ran for us last night for inspiration. You can also see our temporarily up-cycled Christmas jumpers here.
- Repair: Stains, moth holes, split seams, faded clothes and dull whites – they don’t mean you have to throw your clothes out. You can get that stubborn stain out with a neat trick, darn a heart over a moth hole, fix that seam, dye your faded clothes and use a brightener on your whites. Check out the tips and tutorials from Love Your Clothes with step by step guides to repair your clothes. Don’t forget if you can’t manage it yourself you can look up your local tailor.
- Repurpose: If your clothes can’t be repaired, aren’t suitable for donating or are a favourite that you want to keep the possibilities of repurposing are almost endless. Baby grows could become a cute quilt, your favourite bands t-shirt can become a cushion cover or your old socks a draught excluder. And keep and your scraps, they are great for using as stuffing. Check out our repurposed jumper that we turned into 2 Christmas stockings, a hat, mittens and a wee snowman.
- Recycle: if it comes down to it, it can’t be repaired, donated or repurposed – recycle your old clothes. Dunbar as several clothing banks, use your postcode to find your closest one here.
Visit www.loveyourclothes.co.uk for lots more practical tips and step by step guides, including: how to choose the perfect winter coat; altering a seam; and removing stains.