In honor of Earth Day, Sherry Zitter suggested we start in our own homes when looking for ways to care for our planet by moving closer to a sustainable lifestyle. In a very collaborative session, she showed us how to repurpose tired or torn textiles and create unique homemade gifts from the heart or repair clothes to be appealing and functional using what we already had. We were encouraged to watch and learn, and have our needles, thread, and scissors ready to work on a project.

Courtesy Sherry Zitter: Her mother-in-law's sweater from the 1960s, with a macrame pocket woven added by Sherry

Sherry has been embroidering unique gifts for weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs, and other special occasions, as well as mending favorite clothes with distinctive scraps since she was in high school. She has not met a piece of clothing she could not repurpose beautifully or an occasion where an embroidered gift was not a hit.

Participants came with ideas, questions, favorite stitches, clothes needing patches, and their own beautiful examples of upcycling. Feel free to watch and learn from the recorded video. Participants had fun sharing their visions for a more quirky and sustainable world of fabric!

Courtesy Sherry Zitter: An example of jeans patched by Sherry