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Eco-conscious collaborative project at SHRUB
- SHRUB Coop
- Jul 19, 2023
- 2 min read
Updated: Aug 26, 2023
We created a chair from woven scraps of fabric!
Last weekend Vanessa @vandicraft_design came into the Zero Waste Hub to present their crafting project at our sewing cafe and collaborated with folk at SHRUB to create a chair from woven scraps of fabric! How cool is this? Read on!
A message from Vanessa:
“I am a 4th-year product design student at the Edinburgh College of Art. This is my final year project and I am working on a conscious design that creates a collaborative experience through crafting with post-consumer textile waste to increase the awareness of fast fashion contributing to climate change.
Since the fashion industry contributes significantly to global emissions and climate change is recognised as a global emergency in recent years, I felt the urgency of designing out waste in the economy. Keeping products and materials in use at their highest value is one of the key principles of circular economy, therefore I hope my design can speak the message of transforming the throwaway culture into honouring the repair and craft culture.
I find the method of cutting old t-shirts and making them into yarn fits my project context and started ideation around it. The chair is designed to celebrate the afterlife of clothes through weaving with t-shirt yarn, as well as encouraging people to live a conscious lifestyle and be mindful. The chair is only complete when people weave to make the seat. It is intended to be completed collaboratively because I believe the community is more powerful in spreading the message and it creates the opportunity for discussion on sustainability.
During the workshop, I had some great conversations with the participants, some have experience in weaving and some don’t. Weaving with t-shirt yarn is new, nonetheless, participants didn’t find it difficult to learn. It was fascinating to see creative ways of cutting t-shirts from participants in order to fully use up the material and to hear participants getting inspired by how to use their t-shirts at home.”