Whenever my mother gets the suit stitched, she always tells Taylor to give back whatever clothes are left. Then these remaining small clothes are used in the designing of another suit or to make a cover etc. This is what most women do in small towns.
After making your suit or dress, from the remaining fabric, if possible, a frock is made for a small child or a pillow cover is added by adding the remaining pieces. But in most places you will find that often these clippings from tailor shops or boutiques end up in the garbage. It is seen a lot in big cities.
Fashion industry is in top 10 in terms of pollution
You will also find pieces of small clothes lying near the tailors who sit in the market with their sewing machines. Those who are thrown in the garbage without thinking anything. But do you know that the fashion industry is included in the top 10 in terms of pollution in the world? Yes, thousands of liters of water is wasted in making one t-shirt or jeans.
That’s why today everyone needs to think about this at a personal level. It is not necessary that we do something big, even small efforts can prove beneficial for the environment. As is doing Ritu Singh, who lives in Faridabad.
Ritu Singh, an MBA graduate, has worked in the fashion industry for a few years after her studies. So they know how this industry is having a negative impact on the environment. This is the reason why she is also writing a blog on sustainable fashion these days.
reuse leftover clippings
the season The Better India Told that for the last few years, she is also taking small steps for the environment at her level. One of the most interesting moves is that she is collecting and reusing the clippings that Taylor has left over. He said that he has always had a habit of throwing away whatever is left with the tailor or the boutique, which is called shredding. By collecting that cloth, she makes pouches, bags or any t-shirt etc. for her children.
She said, “I have been doing this work for almost four years. I often saw that the tailors always had such clippings piled up. I asked him once what will you do with him, then he said that a garbage man will come and give him everything. I thought that these are all new clothes and if they are added, then we can design something and use it again. But not everyone thinks so. So I started collecting these clothes from different places and started making different things from them, which would be useful for my children or me.”
The clothes collected by them started becoming more, so they got all the things ready and started distributing them among the needy children. She told that she is originally from Bokaro and whenever she goes to Bokaro, she takes this stuff with her there too.
Distributes clothes to the children of orphanages and slums
Ritu told that gradually she started visiting orphanages, old age homes and slum areas of the city. She says, “When I started doing this work, I started getting happiness from within. The children of these ashrams get satisfaction by giving clothes. Later, apart from the tailors and boutiques, a couple of manufacturing units also sent me the left over clothes. Apart from this, now that many people have come to know about this work of mine, so they also send clothes.”
Ritu collects the shreds of all these clothes and gives them to two women. Then these two women make T-shirts, tops, pouches, bags etc. for the children from these clothes. Ritu told that the women from whom she gets all these stitched are also needy and do sewing work in their homes. Due to this, they earn some money and Ritu gets good ready-made clothes.
She says that any good tailor will not take the headache of stitching clothes by adding these clippings. But these women do all the work very hard. He had made clothes for the children of ‘SOS Village’ organization. Apart from this, she has also made clothes for children in two or three orphanages in Faridabad and Sarita Vihar.
He said, “There are also many slum areas in Faridabad. There too I often go and come with clothes prepared in this way for the children. The joy that comes on the faces of the children on seeing the new clothes gives peace to the heart. It is not that I am only giving these clothes to other children. I also make clothes for my children out of these clippings.”
Inspired by the story of The Better India
So far, Ritu has delivered clothes prepared in this way to more than 50 children. He further explained that recently, he The Better India But read the story of Jalandhar Patel, a farmer from Odisha who is taking care of 25 destitute elderly people. He contacted Jalandhar ji and asked him if she could help him in any way.
Jalandhar Patel said, “Ritu ji has sent blouses made and some cloth pouches and bags for all our mothers. All the women are very happy that the goods have come for them from Delhi.” Ritu says, “I have never counted how many kilos of clothes I collected or made. But every year about 13 million clothing waste goes to landfills. In such a situation, if I am able to stop even a few kilos of clothing waste from going to the landfill, then that is a good thing. Also, these clothes are also useful for someone.”
Of course, this small effort of Ritu is commendable. Hopefully more people will take inspiration from him.
You can get in touch with them through Ritu’s Facebook page.
Editing – G N Jha
Also read: Send them your old jeans and make useful things like bags, curtains, covers
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