Today, I am going to wear my good deed!

I am one of those very smug students that does not have any 9 o’clock, in fact, I only have 9 hour contact time in a week, please take in account I am an English Lit student and therefore have many a classic novel to read (well, I read their summaries on the internet!). I also have Wednesday and Thursdays off, as hectic as these free days could have been by filling them up with sleep, eat, Gilmore Girls, I decided, ‘No Clare, you must do something more!’. There must be over a thousand societies at my Uni, so I set out to join one. I chose LUVU, Lancaster University Volunteering Unit. I work on two different (albeit similar) schemes called Voltage and Energisers and I love it! Working with College students to help them set up their own Social Enterprises. Some of their ideas are so inspiring, and I could not believe how organised and successful some of these groups are. As you can imagine though, there is usually around 4-5 groups a term that focus on ‘fashion’, be it recycled jewellery to vintage and sprucing up boring clothes, but I lie to you not, they are amazing.
Of course I am so bias, I honestly believe my team, ‘Jeanius’ (Blackpool and Fylde College) are the best! I spent an hour or so on Wednesday helping transform various pairs of jeans into bags, iPod cases, purses and anything you could possibly think of. These students are utterly fantastic (lead by their truly inspirational teacher), every single pair of jeans have been donated, and the students spend time helping design and cut the pattern for some lovely ladies to stitch! I have to say, I was so very impressed with a little tartan and denim number I battled with (of course with the help of Chris!). Every single penny of profit will be sent to a small charity called Helping Hand in Blackpool, one of their aims ‘includes walking alongside and befriending those with life controlling issues’.
So where is this blog leading to? I honestly believe that whether Climate Change is happening or not, we need to stop wasting clothes! We need to re-use and re-cycle! Revamp, stitch, change and dye if needs be! You know that buzz you get from doing a good deed? Imagine being dressed in good deeds, imagine the skip in that walk. There are so many social enterprises out there, and one of my favourite is Kresse Wesling’s. She makes the most amazing bags out of old Fire Hose and disregarded material from office chairs. Sounds mental? They work. These bags are expensive, but gorgeous, and once you have got bored of it, send it back to her and she will make you other things from the bag. Say a smaller bag, a belt and iPhone case! You have to check out the website, and I defy you not to get tingles. This women is amazing (I really need to stop using superlatives). I love you Vivienne Westwood, and I love your Ebury 4690 Floral Bag , I truly lose breath at the mere sight of it, but I am sorry, I want a bag made out of Fire House so much more.


I want the messenger back because it is more me, but she does have various designs, including a nice tote. Check it out. Please....

http://www.fire-hose.co.uk