Ramp Festival workshop creating a new generation of menders.
Megan Bowden wasn’t ready to “lose” a pair of her favourite pants – so she signed up for an Artful Mending workshop to learn how to extend their life last week.
Megan (54), a spatial design student at Wintec was inspired by “stitching with others. There is something really restorative about people stitching together. I enjoy the magic of stitching with others. Wouldn’t it be fun to do mending or sewing workshops like today, on a more regular basis? I could have stitched all afternoon if we’d had the chance”
Wintec’s Ramp Festival is an event started by the School of Media Arts that bridges the gap between industry experts and students. The Artful Mending workshop was led by Amanda Matthews, creator of sustainable fashion label Koino in Kirikiriroa Hamilton.
She took her group of 25 through traditional and contemporary techniques including sashiko – a Japanese visible mending technique – darning and patching to mend garments by hand.
The workshop encouraged people to mend rather than throw away clothes.
A study by Donna Cleveland, from the Auckland University of Technology states “It is estimated 100 million kilos of textile waste is dumped each year in New Zealand”
“Extending the life cycle of a garment means it doesn’t go to landfill and stops the over consumption of garments – the most sustainable item is the one you already own,” Matthews said.
“There is more awareness of the environmental and social impacts of fast fashion through documentaries like The True Cost and the Rana Plaza disaster of 2013, that is what’s making young people return to the old craft of mending.”
