With the influx of new during the Christmas season and as we head into the new year, it is normal to want to cast aside all the old unwanted clothing or items you have lying around the house and bag them up ready to donate them to charity.
Reality of Donating Unwanted Clothes to Charity
A lot of people see charity shops as an alternative to throwing things out, but if your items are not up to scratch, you can be doing more damage than good by donating them. What most of us don’t realise is that if you donate less than perfect and unsellable clothing or items to charity shops, they don’t take the time to mend and repair these items, and instead, your donations are likely to end up in landfill.
Not only does this defeat the purpose of donating your clothes to give them a second life, but it also costs charities thousands of pounds a year sending these unsellable clothes away. The British Heart Foundation says that fees charged by the local counsels for the disposal of all their unsellable items cost them “up to hundreds of thousands of pounds a year”. This is money that would otherwise be spent on lifesaving research or helping those in need.
This year when the excitement of Christmas day is over, why not take the time to mend and restore your unwanted items so you can be sure they will be given a second life once you donate them. It will give you a perfect opportunity to practice sewing on a button or seeing who has the best technique as part of a fun family challenge.
Tutorials to Help You Repair and Restore Your Clothes
The concept of mending our own clothes can seem a little daunting, you don’t need to have your grandmothers expert level of sewing skills to do this. In fact, you don’t need any sewing experience at all, just a good ‘give-it-a-go’ attitude.
You can find thousands of helpful and easy to follow tutorials online to help you carry out basic repairs. Even if you’ve never darned a sock before, you can learn how to fix up a hole, tidy up a fallen hem, sew back on a button or mend a jumper that has seen better days!
Here are some of our recommended tutorials to get you started,
How to carry out basic darning
If you find that this is something you really enjoy and want to develop, there are online crafting workshops you can subscribe to, such as Stichedup Coop based in Manchester. Who knows, you might not even want to get rid of the clothes once you’ve worked your magic on them. This could be a cost-effective way to give your clothes a second lease of life.
Let us know how you get on with your repairing and restoring this Christmas. If you’ve found any tutorials that you love, share the link below so we can all try them out.
Stay safe, and embrace the creative within you! 🙂
Roberta and the EBD Team x