Mary Morton founder of Edinburgh’s Street Stitchers wants to educate people on how to increase their clothes’ lifespan. Morton and her army of women with sewing needles sit in camping chairs in parks over Edinburgh. They offer free sewing lessons to passers-by to teach them how to mend their clothes. Their mission? To convince people to buy less and mend more.
Morton, who hasn’t bought new clothes in five years – aside from four items which she can list on one hand; “two pairs of walking boots, a swimsuit and a pack of three pairs of socks” – says that her initial three-month buying ban encouraged her to be more creative with what she already has. Utilising her sewing skills, Morton will either alter what she has or craft new pieces from clothes she already has, or from textiles gifted to her by others. Morton’s neighbour recently gave her some of her old textiles, which Morton used to make a new patchwork dress. Morton still shops in charity shops occasionally, saying she recently bought a dress for a wedding.
Morton believes that sewing should be brought back onto the school curriculum, or “integrated back into society,” at least, to bridge a generational gap of people who “missed out on learning the core skill.” She stresses the importance of “having opportunities within society to bring your mending along to communal spaces to make it fun.” Morton has found through her time teaching passers-by to sew that although there are resources online, “People need the opportunity to sit and be talked through how to thread a needle and secure their thread.” Like with learning any new skill, having someone beside you telling you, “‘Well done, that’s how you do it’ makes such a difference,” she says.
Morton believes that our move towards fast fashion has made us idle in our pursuit to learning to sew, she says “items of clothing that are better quality are more worth putting the effort into mending, but if you’re only intending to wear it five or six times you’ll think twice when you’re determining whether it’s worth the effort.” Morton says that in her time since founding Street Stitchers she’s taught people how to make common repairs to socks, as well as harder repairs on more complex pieces like split trouser seams.
Morton has a circular system in place, where she selects some items to keep in her wardrobe – putting similar looking items, like a white T-shirt but with a different fit away. This collection will occupy her wardrobe for a few months, or until she gets bored, then she’ll bring out the back-up suitcase and go shopping in her own wardrobe. Morton speaks on behalf of the Street Stitchers saying that they collectively reject fashion – referring to its consumerist aims and continual waste, she says that fashion isn’t relevant in their intentions to teach people to reuse textiles.
Morton says, “The ethics of production is what we really need to think about.” There needs to be a movement towards a circular economy model, she argues, by using materials that can naturally decompose like, wool, cotton, flax, and linen. To have this circular model we need to “grow things, then manufacture it into your garment, and then hopefully you don’t have to take it far because of the environmental impact of transport, then you sell it – someone then wears it and wears it and wears it, and mends it then eventually passes it onto someone else who does the same. Then at the end of its life someone digs a hole and puts it in, and it wastes away into nothing.” Morton says that other materials create pollution when they’re produced and can’t naturally decompose, due to the treatment of the fabric.
Learning how to sew is beneficial for everyone, and the environment – so whether it’s watching a YouTube video about how to do a split stitch or a French knot stitch at 0.5 speed, or attending a local mending event; joining the community of “eco people” as Morton refers to herself and her sewing comrades, is a move toward a more circular fashion economy.
Pictures: Elaine Pieczonka, Mary Morton, & Stock Images
Designs: Pius Bentgens