▲‘Our PTA sells beautiful hair accessories made from leftover pre-loved uniforms that are not suitable for sale. A group of parents and grandparents from our school support us in helping to make them. This initiative is a part of our Project Unicycle, which aims to recycle as much uniform as possible.’
Katie Marsden, Greenmount PTA
▲‘At our uniform recycling scheme, we encourage parents to donate pre-loved, unwanted uniform that families can take for free. One of our talented grandmas makes these memory bears from anything left over and we sell them to the Year 6 leavers – a lovely keepsake to remember their time at our school.’
Tanya Dos Santos, St Mary Magdalen’s PTFA
▲‘We had several branded jumpers that were too damaged to sell in our pre-loved uniform sale. Rather than disposing of them, I decided to make some bunting to use at our events. Having never used a sewing machine before, I watched a few online tutorials first. Then I created a template, cut up the jumpers with pinking shears and got to work. The end result was very effective, and everyone loved them!’
Sarah O’Shea, Harold Court Primary School PTA
▲‘We wanted to create a unique keepsake for our leavers. So PTA secretary Mel Russell used uniforms that were too marked or damaged to sell in our second-hand uniform store to make these beautiful rosettes. Each of the 45 pupils received one as a gift.’
Gemma Rowlands, Friends of Burnham Copse PTA
▲‘I wanted our PTFA to be easily identifiable at events, so I went through the torn gingham summer dresses and made these lanyards.’
Jenny King, Friends of John Blandy
▲If you’re looking for a more sustainable alternative to leavers’ hoodies, order these custom-made memory cushions, which can be sewn from a variety of old uniform items, such as shirts, jumpers, cardigans and ties. No PTA seamstress required!
Six things to do with torn and stained uniform
- Make old polo shirts, sweatshirts and cardigans into tote bags or drawstring bags for PE kits.
- Sew colourful sun hats from worn-out summer dresses.
- Make aprons for PTA members to wear at fairs and events. Include a money pocket too.
- Use the cloth from sweatshirts, dresses, skirts and trousers to make handy reversible storage buckets for stationery, hair accessories and toys.
- Create bookmarks from offcuts of gingham fabric glued to stiff cardboard. Punch a hole in the top and decorate with matching ribbon.
- For a simple way to use up small scraps of fabric, make lavender bags to sell at the summer fair or patch them together to create colourful stockings for the Christmas fair.
