Fun at Ragfinery

After dropping Phil off this morning for his Bolt Bus ride to the Belgian Beer Festival in Seattle, I enjoyed some creative play at Ragfinery, Bellingham’s newest recycling program.

Libby Chenault — whose Moth and Squirrel hats, decorative items, and whimsical animals made of recycled textiles are found at the Bellingham Farmers Market— is one of the fiber artists involved in Ragfinery, a new venture for ReUse Works. (I hope you’ll take a look at that link, as ReUse Works is a great nonprofit organization that uses discarded materials and waste “to promote and support worker training, job creation, and business development opportunities for low-income residents” — a win-win on many levels.)

The unwanted textiles donated to Ragfinery — clothing, household linens and draperies, and fabric — will be sorted by worker trainees and then as much as possible will be “upcycled" by the trainees and local artisans into products for sale, instead of ending up in landfills. I was delighted to donate a stack of Phil’s old T-shirts that he no longer needed and were not good enough to take to a thrift shop.

At today’s workshop, Libby showed a diverse group of 14 women of all ages, a number of whom were active crafters, how to make little decorative pins from fabric yo-yos, and also how to make fabric pompoms, which could be strung into garlands. She brought scraps from her fabric stash for us to work with, and I admired the combinations of colors and textures that many of the participants put together. Not having done any hand sewing for years, I was among the last to finish my tiny fabric pin (I chose to keep the gathers on the back side). I made one pom-pom before the workshop ended, and can make more at home, now that I've learned that technique.

The words on the side of the Ragfinery van say it best:

Textile Transformation
Donate clothes. Create jobs. Promote art.