Lunch & Learn Recap: Stitching Sustainability with Alexandria Glenn

For our first Lunch & Learn of the year, speaker Alexandria Glenn joined us for a talk titled “Stitching Sustainability: Rethinking Fashion Through Sewing and Upcycling.” It was fitting that the event took place at SEEDS community garden in Durham, because Allie runs a growing nonprofit brand called Seed Sewers.

The idea behind the name? Every sewing lesson she teaches might plant a seed that will grow into a newfound appreciation for the craft of sewing, the people who make our clothes, and the possibilities with garments that already exist.

A self-taught seamstress and vintage reseller, Allie has been teaching skills and ideas to grow upcycling in our community under the Seed Sewers nonprofit for the last year and a half. Her following and sold-out workshops have taken off in just a short period, leading her to launch even more regular classes at the Scrap Exchange in Durham, in addition to her classes with Downtown Cary Park, City of Raleigh, and other partners.

Allie encourages folks to not be afraid of learning how to use a sewing machine. When students leave her two-hour intro class, every one of them has learned how to operate the machine, and that includes folks who might have owned a machine for a decade without dusting it off after hitting a roadblock. Further, she wants people to know that sewing is a skill for everyone, having taught classes called “Men Sew Too” to prove that very point!

During our Lunch & Learn, she walked us through her journey from discovering thrifting, to becoming a vintage reseller, and finally, reworking clothing with newfound sewing and upcycling skills. She encourages mindful thrifting, and proves that secondhand clothes can be just a stylish. Each fashion season, she makes a Pinterest board with aspirational images, and then hunts down the garments she pinned in the secondhand stores of Brooklyn, NY and local NC vintage markets.

Whether you’re looking to rethink your relationship with clothing through the lens of sewing, or just looking for a sustainable and creative pasttime, check out one of Allie’s upcoming classes.

Want to learn more of what you missed during the Lunch & Learn? Read Allie’s presentation slides, and watch her recent TV interview on CBS 17’s MyCarolina here.

Allie demonstrates how to hem jeans

With a sewing machine and chalk, you can tailor clothes to better fit you!