Social Inclusion through Open Sewing Classes

Social inclusion at Social Fabric focuses on open sewing classes, which take place several times a week in the local seewingstudio in Zurich Binz  and are led by volunteers. Here, people with a refugee background can learn to sew and soon make their own clothes. The materials are donated and provided free of charge in Social Fabric's studio. Since communication between volunteers and participants takes place in German, the latter learn not only the craft of sewing but also how to better communicate in the German language. This is an important aspect in improving social integration in the long term.

In order to have access to the sewing studio in addition to the sewing classes, Social Fabric offers free membership to participants with a refugee background through a scholarship program. The scholarships are funded by independent private donors, as well as corporate donations. There is also a little twist here to prepare those interested for the working world. They apply with a small letter of motivation and can practice the Challenge in familiar surroundings.

Training in local production

In their local sewing studio in Zurich Binz, refugees can complete a one-year pre-apprenticeship as well as the two-year EBA apprenticeship to become a garment seamstress. The individual orders come from local companies, non-profit organizations, universities or start-ups. What unites the customers is the desire for products that are as ecologically and socially sustainable as possible and that have been produced locally. Only sustainable fabrics and upcycling technologies are used. The income from production makes it possible for Social Fabric to offer training and work integration programs for its tailors and to cover some of the costs as a social enterprise.

For the production of their own products in the online store, they also use as many textile scraps as possible to reduce the amount of waste in the studio. On the one hand, this creates small unique pieces or climate-neutral products that are intended to give pleasure for a long time.

But what do the finished products look like? Here is a selection of three products created by the Social Fabric team:

Keychain

This practical item has its own story, which tells of the appreciation of materials in Switzerland. In search of new materials, Ruth, the production and training manager, is always looking around the secondhand market to see what materials they have. That's how Ruth found the ribbon made by a Swiss weaving mill. Woven in bright colors and with high quality, Social Fabric came up with a product idea to give this material a new life.

socialfabric.ch

Basket set Mitloedi

This Basket Set is another example of a product that uses leftover fabrics from a Swiss manufacturer. The beautiful textiles come from Altra Management AG (formerly Mitloedi), a textile printing company in Glarus. The reality of working with remnants is that there is often only a small amount of material available, so each Körbli Set is unique.

socialfabric.ch

Meditation cushion

Work in the studio is often very material intensive, and the scraps bag (meant for the smallest fabric scraps) is filled weekly by the production team and sewing classes. They are always encouraging their community to come up with ideas on how to use even the smallest pieces of fabric. Over the years, many of their products have come from these "think tanks" - from sustainable napkins to hair ties. The meditation cushions are the latest development in this series.

socialfabric.ch