What is Second Hand September?
Well, I am glad you asked.
Second Hand September is a yearly campaign by Oxfam that encourages people to only buy second hand clothes for the 30 days in September. Anyone and everyone can take part – in fact, the more, the merrier!
I have been loving my recent charity shop escapades and upcycling my finds into unique scrunchies for all you scrunchie lovers out there. And, judging by the latest reclaimed collection sell-out, you girls have loved them too. The one problem I am having is that I want to keep all of the clothes I find. The solution – buy more clothes and keep some for myself and some for the seasonal reclaimed collections. It’s a win win!
I loved, loved, loved this red dress I found the other week (and it was the perfect dress for the summer). I did, however, part with it (reluctantly) and made it into a bunch of scrunchies.
I mean, the scrunchies turned out pretty cute and I am happy I decided to upcycle them in the end.
What Can You Do To Support This Cause?
There are so many ways to support Second Hand September. You can shop at local charity shops, do outfit swaps with your sisters or girlfriends, shop or sell on second hand clothing sites (such as Vinted or Ebay), take your old clothes to a tailor to switch them up or learn to mend them yourself (YouTube is great for learning new things). I recently turned one of my fave floral maxi dresses into a flowing skirt, and I am having lots of fun mixing it up with skirt/jumper combinations to suit the cooler weather that is on its way.
What Is Scrunchies By Nat Doing?
I have had some generous clothing donations from family, friends and my scrunchie community. Here’s some snaps of the most recent beauties that have been upcycled from dresses, jumpsuits and blouses.
All this upcycling has made me inspired to use more preloved clothing in future collections. In fact, for all of September, I will exclusively be making use of second hand goods. I will be sourcing this fabric from local charity shops, using the garments gifted to me and utilizing fabric I already have in my stash.
How Can You Help?
Well, as a little initiative to keep this going, I will be offering people who donate their clothing to Scrunchies by Nat a gift card or a collection of scrunchies in the clothing items they donated. Obviously local drop off is more convenient, however I am happy to sort out postage logistics on a case by case basis. I will make sure to keep you all updated regularly as I would hate to take away from donations given to charity shops (although I was shocked to find out that thrift shops and charitable organizations keep or sell less than 10 percent of donated clothing).
I think any way we can reduce fast fashion’s impact on the world is a cause that we should all get behind (and why not get yourself some scrunchies while you’re at it…) Please send a message on Instagram @scrunchies_bynatuk or email me at info@scrunchiesbynat.co.uk if you would like more details, or you have unwanted clothing items you’d like to contribute towards the Scrunchies By Nat reclaimed initiative.
Stay savvy,
Nat xx