The original vision in my head for Shared Threads was so simple. On one hand, there are young women in the world who have no sanitary pads and on the other hand, we have a disgraceful amount of second hand cloth piling up in our landfills.
The exciting part has been gathering an army of makers dedicated to making our cloth pads and watching these generous, creative communities flourish.
We are now able to offer a sustainable menstrual hygiene solution to women who have no alternative. Within a year, we have already delivered thousands of cloth pads, all lovingly handmade using our unwanted second hand cotton and towels.
In the beginning, people immediately wanted to donate second hand materials and very quickly, I was coming home every day to bin bags full of cloth on my doorstep.
Since we began making last year, we have been overwhelmed by people’s generosity. We very quickly could not move in our house for piles of bags of cloth, which is why we needed to move into our studio in Portview Trade Centre. Around the same time, Roots and Branch cafe moved into Portview and so generously offered to support us by giving away their hessian coffee sacks in exchange for a donation to Shared Threads.
It resonates so beautifully with our obsession with all things second hand being transformed into something useful and beautiful. Nothing wasted! And by a lovely twist of fate, many of the coffee sacks were made in India which is where many of our cloth pads are sent.
It has been fun seeing what people have been doing with their sacks. Using them as log baskets, making them into cushions and one very clever Belfast mum used hers to recover this chair. We’d love you to share a photo on Instagram or Facebook of how you have used yours using #sharedthreadsni
You can get your own coffee sack in Roots and Branch Roastery in Portview and if you would like to donate second hand cloth to Shared Threads, please visit the get involved section to find out how to donate materials. Thank you for your support. By donating, you are helping girls stay in school.
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