Finding beauty in the unloved: a community project working with reclaimed textiles.

USED are Meghan, Rosie and Sarah.

We are 3 London based artist/designers with a common goal – to utilise our existing textile resources. 1.2 million tonnes of textiles hit landfill in the UK last year and 90% of clothes in charity shops were unable to be sold in their current form. Our aim is to create new and unique items out of material that would otherwise have been discarded and to teach others how to do the same. We welcome input and ideas from others, and wish to share the tales of our journey to establishing our textile upcycling community.

What we do:

There are 4 strands to USED:

1: Workshops and Education

We offer creative upcycling workshops to the general public and work with other community groups and charities to provide the opportunity to learn new skills and promote the use of working with reclaimed materials.

2: Altering and Upcycling Service

We offer free consultations and quotes to work with you and your ideas, style and wardrobe requirements with the aim to extending the lifecycle of your existing garments that are in your wardrobe but you no longer wear. The USED team’s mission is to repair, alter or upcycle to allow you to rediscover the beauty of your own clothes. We will deliver your item back to you as if it was new.

3: Products

We are working on a range of clothes based on current trends using reclaimed materials that we know you’ll love.

4: Community

Connect with other like-minded upcyclers to create a community of craftspeople with a social and environmental responsibility.

With many thanks to our friends 3space we have been offered an amazing space for our project. This money will move us into our new workspace in North London where we will be able to run workshops for the local community and develop further partnerships and collaborations with other groups, charities and artists.