Patch and Repurpose - teaching sewing skills

Forest Recycling Project (FRP) and Residents of Angel Edmonton Community Together (REACT) are delighted to have received support from the North London Waste Authority (NLWA) North London Community Fund to provide sewing skills workshops for residents.

The workshops will start in May 2025 and be delivered throughout the year, and up until February 2026. They will take place at the Living Room Library on Fore Street, Upper Edmonton, and FRP’s space at Bakers Avenue in Walthamstow. Residents will have a range of opportunities to sign up and join in at both sites, and thanks to the support of the NLWA the workshops will be completely free to access.

Demand for the project has come from residents wanting to do more to prevent waste and save and create items at home, through learning and developing sewing skills. Both FRP and REACT have been working with residents for a long time to support them to engage in creative opportunities and reduce waste. The workshops will also be fun and sociable to participate in.

Participants will be taught sewing skills to enable them to creatively mend and re-invent previously loved or worn out clothes and home textiles.

Being able to sew by hand or machine can be life-enhancing and by upcycling we can help the environment with textile waste prevention, saving it from incineration and landfill.

The fashion and textile industry has a huge impact on the environment, stripping soil of nutrients, threatening biodiversity and contaminating the world's oceans with chemicals and plastics. Giving clothing and textiles new life can therefore be beneficial in so many ways.

The first workshops will be opened for sign-ups in early May, and links will be shared on FRP’s website and social media, as well as by the project partners. There will be limited capacity for each series of workshops, but we will repeat the offer throughout the year. We will share more information as we have it, but if you want to get in touch to register your interest, please email info@frpuk.org. We expect the workshops will start in mid May on Wednesday afternoons in Upper Edmonton and Thursday mornings in Walthamstow, tbc.