Green Your Wardrobe: Workshops

Did you know that the fashion industry is one of the second largest polluter after oil? Did you know that 95% of discarded clothing can be recycled or upcycled?

In support of a fairer, safer and sustainable fashion industry, the BU Arts Initiative is proud to support Fashion Revolution Week, an annual global initiative to mark the Rana Plaza factory disaster in Bangladesh. We invite you to be part of this small but ambitious initiative to approach sustainability in creative ways at BU.

Interested in the Friday 4/27 night activities? RSVP here for Film Screening: The True Cost & Meet the Eco-Warriors: a panel discussion on going green.

**Please RSVP individually for each workshop**

Saturday, April 28, 2018

10:00am – 5:00pm – Clothes Drop-off (no RSVP required)
Recycle. Upcycle to fight AIDS with Boomerangs
Clear your clutter this weekend right here at the GSU. Boomerangs, a family of thrift stores owned and operated by the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts, is setting up shop at the Arts Initiative office for a whole day. Donate clothing that you do not want and help Boomerangs raise funding to support the work of AIDS Action Committee.

1:00 – 3:00pm: Workshop #1: Mend & Repair: Sewing 101
Teacher: Tazzy Cole
Do you have a favorite t-shirt, a pair of jeans or that gorgeous dress you no longer wear, all because of a tear or a rip? Bring them and learn to mend a tear, fix a button or fix a rip. Because #lovedclotheslast.

4:30 – 5:30pm – ‘Going Sustainable from Head-to-Toe’ with Kate Black
Meet Kate Black, the author of Magnifeco: Your Head-to-Toe Guide to Ethical Fashion and Nontoxic Beauty as she tells you how to go sustainable with your makeup, hair products, jewellery, clothing, footwear, and more! (No plastics please! We are going all green). Join us for this interactive discussion and get answers to all questions on going green with your wardrobe.

5:30 – 7:00pm – Open House: Green Your Closet Mix-n-Match
Use the sewing machines, the swatches, the patches and learn how to have fun with clothing. Renew or repair, stitch or sew, swap clothing or donate the old stuff, this time is your time to approach sustainability your way.

5:40 – 7:40pm – Workshop #2: Say it with a Bowtie!
Teacher: Cassandra
5-20% of fabric used to make garments ends up discarded on the cutting room floor. That’s almost 13.1 million tons of textile waste thrown away every year. But not if we get creative with our waste! Get crafty with scrap fabric and learn to make fun and colorful bow-ties that you can wear or gift!

Sunday, April 29th

11:00am – 12:30pm – Workshop #3: Basic, patches and bags
Teacher: Emily Tirella
This is a sewing session for all skill levels. Bring anything you want to repair. It will be an easy and fun time to know how to repair your clothes with a hand-sewing needle, how to save your favorite outfits with fancy patches. Better still give your old clothes a new life by creating a tote bag that you can flaunt whenever you want!

11:00am – 1:00pm (listed at 11:05) – Workshop #4: Green your Summer: Make lounge pants with recycled fabric!
Teacher: Zoya Derman
Bring anything you have no use for – a bedsheet, old shirts, t-shirts, skirts and designer Zoya Derman will show you how to turn them into comfy lounge pants-a-la Buddha Pants!
What You Bring: An old sheet or the garments that sum to a size of a bed sheet (for example, 4-5 t-shirts would roughly make up the size of a bed sheet)
What we Provide: Sewing machine, sewing supplies – threads, straight pins, measuring tape, fabric scissors AND a notepad to keep all notes (we’ll have quite a few)
Helpful but not Required: Basic sewing skills are strongly preferred (able to thread a sewing machine and sew a straight stitch is sufficient)

2:00 – 3:30pm – Workshop #5: Mend & Repair: Sewing 101
Teacher: Zoya Derman
Do you have a favorite t-shirt, a pair of jeans or that gorgeous dress you no longer wear, all because of a tear or a rip? Bring them and learn to mend a tear, fix a button or fix a rip. Because #lovedclotheslast.