Great Idea for Youth Groups

I was in Eau Claire over the weekend and, with someone who hadn’t been there before, had a tour of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation’s building in Eau Claire [WI]. I was so excited about their youth group’s latest project that I just had to tell you about it.

This project combines our Unitarian Universalist seventh principle - “Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part” - with the adage ”Reduce, reuse, recycle” - and invites creativity and imagination and just plain fun. I haven’t spoken with the youth or their leaders, so I don’t know whether they thought of this themselves or read about it elsewhere.

What they did was this: they took used clothing and refashioned it into new items, using a variety of methods. Included in their display were several craft books where some of the ideas came from. I took a couple of  photos to show you the charming results!

 

Note the redesigned and decorated red shirt! Someone added polka dots and a decorative button to the yellow sweater. The knitted hat was created from the ribbing of an old sweater.

 

The mittens are made from old sweaters that were felted, cut out into a mitten shape, and sewed with a blanket stitch. A bag was created from another piece of felted sweater, and another bag was sewed from fleece. The white sweater has new, colorful buttons. The books on display were used to generate ideas.

I can just imagine how much fun they had with this! Great work, people!