Saturday, Oct. 5, Alma Mater Productions transformed the College of William and Mary’s Crim Dell Meadow into a hub of creativity and community as students gathered together for an upcycling workshop at their Mending in the Meadow event. Old jeans, tote bags and various scraps of fabric were redesigned beneath the needles of eager-looking participants, and the atmosphere of campus on a fall afternoon turned mending into a social practice as much as a creative one.
Mending in the Meadow was hosted by AMP’s Impact Committee, a group dedicated to hosting events that promote diversity, inclusion, wellness and engagement with current social topics and issues. This event provided an opportunity for students to gather together and bring life back to old pieces of clothing through the process of mending and upcycling.
The art of upcycling can be described as combining artistic freedom with values of sustainability, opening an outlet for people to transform old or unwanted materials into something creative and new. Students were encouraged to bring any old item to incorporate it into their upcycling experience. Regarding this sustainability focus, Impact Committee Chair Anika Srikanth ’25 shared the inspiration for hosting the event.
“We were thinking about creative ways to get people engaged in sustainability and also crafts, because that is something people have indicated they really enjoy doing on campus,” Srikanth said.
Srikanth also spoke to how the event aligns with the broader goals of AMP and the Impact Committee, in particular.
“One thing that we really try to do is create community,” Srikanth said. “I’m hoping that people coming to this workshop will make friends. I think it’s really easy to build that sort of community when you’re working on a project together.”
The event was hosted in collaboration with SCRAP RVA, a national network of creative reuse centers whose mission is to encourage creative sustainability through upcycling and repurposing. The two afternoon sessions that made up the event were led by SCRAP Education Coordinator Hannah Bashkow, with the first session being from 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. and the other being from 5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Bashkow provided her personal insight into her motivations for engaging with the program.
“I’m an artist and love doing community-related arts things. I also am definitely very environmentally friendly-focused and like to promote sustainability,” Bashkow said. “A lot of what we do is teaching that to make art, you don’t have to have fancy or expensive materials. You can use the things you already have at home that are left over from other projects or you can share that with friends.”
Students gathered together at tables across Crim Dell Meadow with their friends and peers to begin their afternoon of upcycling. Several textiles, sewing materials and other general crafting resources were provided by SCRAP for participants to use, and an array of colors, styles of fabrics and threads filled the meadow as each attendee began their crafting.
Bashkow began the workshops with a brief presentation on various techniques of visible mending and upcycling to ensure all participants had proper footing before diving into their crafts. She additionally elaborated on the cultural context of specific styles of mending, describing traditional techniques for the students to incorporate into their projects if they wished.
Once the participants were set on the right track, a wide arrangement of projects were completed throughout the event, as students had a variety of motivations and goals. Some of them had old clothing they wanted to learn how to fix, while others simply wanted to elevate old purses and pants to make a piece that was more unique to their style.
Several attendees specifically upcycled old pairs of jeans, some because they were old and falling apart and some to turn them into a piece they would feel more prone to wear. Attendee Julia Beverley ’26, who noted having some experience with general embroidering, brought one of her favorite pairs of denim shorts that needed repairs due to some wear and tear. For Beverley, the emphasis on sustainability as an element of mending was also very important.
“I am a big proponent of being sustainable, whether it’s through clothing, maybe eating, I try very hard to make sure I’m thinking and being conscious about my choices,” Beverley said.
Bashkow continually reinforced the idea that not all mending has to be practical. Attendees were encouraged to do things purely for aesthetics and cosmetic purposes, such as embroidering little designs in place of simple patches.
Attendee Caroline Anderson ’25 took this advice to heart, using the fabric scraps that were provided to reimagine an old pair of jeans she had.
“If I’m not using a piece of clothing that I bought, I should either donate it so it can get repurposed or repurpose it myself,” Anderson said. “I don’t wear these clothes that much, so if I can make them more statement-pieces than just a regular pair of jeans, I’m more likely to wear them.”
Anderson highlighted the community-building aspect of her mending experience and the Mending in the Meadow event as a whole.
“I think it brings a lot of different people on campus together. Art is very unifying, and you don’t have to be an artist to come to an event like this,” Anderson said. “It can bring a lot of interesting people together and let them connect over a fun activity.”
Participants like attendee Danielle Seay ’25 agreed that this workshop, as well as other AMP-facilitated workshops, help to foster a greater sense of community at the College.
“It’s very cool getting to learn about places like SCRAP and getting to work on this together as a community and seeing other people and getting inspiration from other people,” Seay said.
Altogether, the event was deemed a success by both attendees and those who organized it. Participants left with creatively reimagined versions of the pieces they brought to the Crim Dell Meadow, and they expressed an overall contentment with the afternoon spent with their peers.
