Yesterday it was our absolute pleasure to join in with the national #StitchItDontDitchIt event – 90 minutes mending our clothes in public on Manchester’s main shopping street Market Street. Stitch It Don’t Ditch It started out as a one-off event in Bromley to coincide with London Circular Economy Week, the brainchild of Suzi at Twisted Twee. Then other stitchers got in touch wanting to run one in their area, and it became a UK-wide movement!
The idea behind #StitchItDontDitchIt is to give some visibility to the idea of repairing clothes, right in front of the high street’s fashion stores. Participants hope to inspire passers-by to mend and care for their clothes, by showing how with just a few simple sewing skills we can keep our clothes in use for longer and have a positive environmental impact. It is not a protest, but a gentle and positive event which spotlights and normalises clothing repair and encourages us to respect and value our clothing.
It just so happened to be a beautiful sunny day for our Manchester event today, which made it all the more lovely. A group of us met on Market Street at 12:30pm and arranged our chairs in a row, with a #StitchItDontDitchIt sign attached to each one. Then we sat and mended our clothes for 90 minutes – some socks, a denim shirt, a blouse and a pair of jeans – in the midst of the Market Street hubbub!
We had lovely feedback from passers-by and from supporters online. We all loved taking part, and lots of people have been in touch wanting to join future events. Who knows, we may make it a more regular thing… If you’re interested in similar events, Extinction Rebellion Fashion Action North are organising monthly Guerilla Repair Workshops on Market Street and they’d love you to join them for those! ANd feel free to get in touch if you’d like to hear about any similar events we organise in future.
Scroll through some more photos of the Manchester event below – click to view in originl quality.
Stitch It Don’t Ditch It also took place in Aldershot, Bradford, Brighton, Cardiff, Chesham, Cornwall, Derby, Edinburgh, Hackney (London), Lewisham (London), Norwich, and Worthing.
Find loads more photos from all the other events across the UK using the hashtag #StitchItDontDitchIt on social media.
So great to be part of this event, alongside so many of our fellow slow fashion advocates. If you’d like to join us on future events like this in Manchester, let us know!
Stitched Up x
