CHICAGO (WLS) — When it comes to sewing a button, patching up a pair of worn-out jeans, or darning a sock, fiber artist Kristine Brandel is the master.
“Some people don’t even know the business end of the needle because they’ve never sewn,” said Brandel.
Brandel teaches these simple but useful skills at the Creative Chicago Collection Reuse Exchange (CCRX) on the South Side.
“Even something as, to me, simple as threading a needle and making a knot that’ll stay there – it’s really empowering,” Brandel said.
“This was a shirt that I got from when there was an eclipse in 2017,” explained one student. “I want to make sure that this shirt stays around as long as I can.”
CCRX is a nonprofit art supply thrift store that offers an endless supply of donated fabric, buttons, and sewing supplies.
ABC7 visited when Violet Q, a local LGBTQ+ social group, stopped by for a mending session.
“This is just a patch I’m putting on top of my friend’s jeans, they had a hole in the knee, and so my friend loves cats and has like a bunch of them, so i saw this little scrap, I’m like that’s so cute, she’ll love it,” said Diego Rancel, founder of Violet Q.
Rancel, a self-proclaimed member of Gen Z, thinks it’s the younger and thriftier generation that’s helping to drive the shift toward more sustainable fashion.
“Clothes are expensive, I’m always fascinated by the historical standpoint of like mending, in that it is such a lost art. modern clothing is like a byproduct of fast fashion,” said Rancel. “I know people who buy things on Shein. I’m like don’t buy, yeah, its’ cheap but it’s going to break in a week and then what?”
The environmental impact is significant because clothing is notoriously difficult to recycle. Most discarded garments sit in landfills, releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and leaching pollutants into the soil and water.
“It’s come to a point where clothing has become so disposable in people’s heads that it is sent to other nations and like dumped in the Chilean desert where you can see this pile of clothes from space,” said Brandel.
But with a little love and care, you just might want to hold on to that favorite shirt a little longer.
“So if you have a hole in a garment, you could throw it away. But you could also fix it. And especially if it’s a piece that you like, you should keep it,” said Brandel.
CCRX holds Mending Night the second Thursday of every month.
Brandel also teaches at various libraries and the Chicago Fair Trade Museum in Uptown.
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