Sewing Circle for Sustainability: A Theatre for Social Change Project

April 2023-ongoing

Developed as a Theatre for Social Change workshop at Montclair State University (MA Theatre Studies). Sewing Circle for Sustainability has been run five times since April of 2023, with participants of beginner to advanced sewing levels ranging in age from 11 to 84. Drawing upon the historical position of the sewing circle as a hotbed for activism, using plastic and paper packaging waste and fabric scraps donated to the project, Sewing Circle for Sustainability asks participants to recontextualize and reconsider their relationship with the fast fashion cycle and its environmental and human tolls through a resituated act of performance by turning waste materials into both functional and non-functional garments, once individually and once as a group, with a final goal of providing them with the resources necessary to interact with fashion in a more sustainable manner. Throughout the exercise, participants are presented with a series of talking points on fashion, the environment, history, and sewing related labor and carry out conversation sewing circle style, with a convention at the end that includes information about relevant laws and movements in the staged locale. Among younger participants, this workshop has been used to teach fashion history and patterning techniques as well. Lesson plan is available upon request.