Lochwinnoch was awash with the hum of sewing machines as the village hosted a charity challenge to make 300 sustainable bags in just one day.
The Big Bag Sewathon aimed to make 300 cloth bags for members of Lochwinnoch Community Larder (LCL).
The lifeline charity, which addresses food insecurity and food waste in the village, teamed up with Paisley’s ReMode charity in a bid to create reusable cloth bags for members of the larder organisation.
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Committed to the sustainability theme, the bags were made out of spare material, which may have otherwise been heading to landfill.
Tori Bell, project leader for LEAP, which runs the larder, said the 300-bag challenge was met thanks to an army of volunteers who turned out at Lochwinnoch Primary School for the event.
“This was such a rewarding project and everyone involved really enjoyed it,” she said.
“The atmosphere at the event was brilliant and lots of people mucked in with all sorts of jobs from sewing to making lunch, cutting fabric and fixing machines.
“It was great to see so many people come together and we’re really grateful to the volunteers and to ReMode who threw themselves in to this partnership, as well as Lidl who funded it.
“Thanks also go to the many people who donated beautiful fabric to us.
“The bags are exceptionally high quality and we’re really excited about being able to give such high-value items to our members, especially as they were made by such sustainable means.”
Lochwinnoch Community Larder was set up last year to prevent food from going into a landfill too early.
It collects items from supermarkets such as Lidl, which sponsored the event, and helps redistribute them.
Juliette Tapping, a larder volunteer who co-managed the overall project, added: “Seeing this day all come together was so fantastic.
“It was great to meet and work with new volunteers who gave up their day to help us achieve the 300 bag target.
“Everyone came with such a positive energy and you can see that in the end results of the quality of the bags.”
ReMode originally began as a group within sustainable charity LEAP, with the Sewathon providing a great opportunity for the two organisation to work together
again.
Gillian Steel, creative director for ReMode - which aims to raise awareness of the environmental impacts of the fashion and textiles industry, said: “It was a great day.
“A collective effort to create more than 300 bags for the larder as a valuable community resource. ReMode and LEAP were great working together.”
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