British charity launches Fashion campaign in July

If you have a knack for sewing and loves to be creative in customising your clothes, you ought to get involved with a charity drive to showcase your talent.

On 1st July, UK charity the British Heart Foundation will launch their first fashion-led campaign entitled, The Big Stitch, to raise awareness to upcycling and reducing waste while raising funds for the BHF.

Shoppers are encouraged to pop into one of their 750 BHF shops nationwide, buy an item and customise it by utilising sewing and dressmaking skills.

All enthusiastic sewing bees are urged to upload their ‘before’ and ‘after’ images on the BHF’s Twitter, Instagram or on BHF’s Facebook page and be in with a chance of winning a Night Out at a London West End show.

On hand to provide support to the Big Stitch campaign is Senior Costume Tchnician of London College of Fashion Jax Black, as well as YouTuber, Just Jodes.  They will both partake in a series of tutorials throughout July on how to customise current trends with ease. The tutorials will appear across Just Jodes social media channels.

Jax Black said: “It is great to see the BHF championing sewing and dressmaking skills. Making alterations, adding buttons, trims, embroidery and other decorative items to your BHF purchases are a great way to update your wardrobe this July.”

Allison Swaine-Hughes, Retail Operations Director at the BHF said: “We are really excited to see new and existing customers come into our shops and browse the vast fashion offerings we have on display. With clothing waste on the rise, our shops provide the perfect sustainable solution for everyone.

According to the BHF, sewing is a skill worth promoting as it has been revealed in a recent study that Brits are spending over £2.5 billion fixing or tailoring clothes and £3 billion replacing items of clothing due to an easily-repairable fault last year.   Some 260 million items of clothing were thrown or given away due to a fault that could have been repaired, with men giving away around six items per year and women chucking out an average of four items a year due to minor damage.

The Big Stitch will launch from July 1st until July 31st. Entries using the hashtag #TheBigStitch and tagging the BHF will be automatically entered into a competition*. A winner will be selected and announced on Aug 1st. 

For further information on The Big Stitch and information about how to locate your nearest BHF shop visit bhf.org.uk/TheBigStitch