Come to ReActon’s free event on Saturday 16 August from 11-3 pm for activities around children including school uniform free shop and swap, plus lots more. At the ReActon event, in Acton, the activities on the day will be:
- ReActon School Uniform free shop and swap on from 11 until 3 pm. This pop-up event is designed to help families reduce waste and save money. Donate School Uniform at the event or one of the Drop off locations.
- Free toy and book swap for all the family to take part in. Donate by 12:30. Swap opens at 1pm until 3pm.
- Learn to mend clothes with Ealing Repair Café to teach you how to repair your clothes.
- Learn how to upcycle unwanted t-shirts into yarn. The family can also learn how to make into bracelets or key-charms.
- Second hand bikes for sale & Bike Repairs from Collect4Reuse
This free event at ReActon is run by Ealing Council and West London Waste Authority. ReActon is on Stirling Road, Acton, W3 8DJ.
School Uniform Free Shop and Swap
With your children growing up, they regularly get too small for their school uniform and need the next size up. The School Uniform free shop and swap is here to help. Pick up some school uniform items in the next sizes up. You can also drop off any school uniform that is now too small.
At the free shop and swap there will be branded and unbranded Ealing school uniform items. This will include shirts, skirts, trousers, tops and jumpers. Also sportswear such as tops, shorts and trousers.
Donated school uniforms needed to be washed, clean and in good condition. It is not essential that you donate items.
On the day you can choose up to 3 essential school uniform items, per child, to take home for free. This is to make sure there’s enough available for everyone to take some uniform.
The free swap and shop keeps school clothing from going to waste by keeping it in use for longer and helps people save money. It is also about the community coming together to support each other. It is your donations that make these events such a success. Many families will be helped out by this generosity.
The pop-up School Uniform free shop and swap will be open on Saturday from 11-3pm. The swap will be open as long as stocks last.
For full details of the project, including the school uniform drop off locations go to School Uniform Swap
Toy and Book swap
The ReActon toy and book swap reduces waste and is a fun, cost-effective way to refresh your children’s toy and book collections.
Join us for the free toy and book swap on Saturday 16 August from 12-3pm at ReActon on Stirling Road, W3 8DJ. Bring your items to the toy and book swap by 12.30pm. The swap will begin at 1pm.
At the toy and book swap you can exchange preloved toys and books. Toys are an important part of your child’s development. However, we often find ourselves with a huge pile of toys that the children no longer want to play with.
This is a great opportunity for children to swap toys and books they no longer want for something more exciting and fun.
Please bring items that the children are no longer playing with or grown out of. Please ensure all toys and books you bring along are in good condition and have no broken items. You can choose from the different items brought by others.
We cannot accept electrical items at the toy swap event. Those taking part in a toy swap event do so at their own risk. For your own protection, please take all reasonable measures to check the condition and suitability of any item swapped. Ealing Council who runs the event accept no responsibility for items swapped. They give no guarantee or warranty as to the condition, suitability or provenance of any item swapped; and accepts no liability for any claim or loss resulting from the toy swap.
How it works:
- Bring items: Before 12.30 bring clean, good-condition toys, books, and games they no longer need.
- Browse and choose: Swap opens at 1pm. Attendees can browse the available items and select new treasures available items and select new treasures.
- Enjoy: Participants take their new-to-them items home.
Repair your clothes & school uniform
Ealing Repair Café will also be there on Saturday 16 August from 12-3 pm to advise and teach you to repair clothes. Ealing Repair Café volunteers will teach you how to patch and darn the clothes of you and your family. You can also learn how to upcycle unwanted t-shirts into t-shirt yarn and make into bracelets or key-charms. At the session they will bring hand sewing equipment, fabric scraps and samples. They will get you started in mending your clothes. They can also teach you how to sew on name labels. Their manual hand powered singer sewing machine will be available to use on suitable mends.
Ealing Repair Cafe Tips on making the most of your children’s uniform:
- Sew on your name labels so items can easily be returned to you. Sewing them on means they are easy to remove and pass on to the next family. Here are some instructions for How to sew on name labels to school uniform
- Repair seams that have come undone by using ladder stitch. This is a simple hand stitch and an easy way to repair seams that have come undone. Watch Ladder stitch instructions
- Jumpers and sweaters with frayed cuffs has an easy fix. Turn the cuffs halfway in and sew back together, hides all the loose threads. This makes them all neat again, as shown in this video.
- Trousers with rips and holes in knees can be converted into shorts. Cut them down to shorts to get another year out of them. This video shows you how.
Book your place and pop along for some great advice from Ealing Repair Café on how to wear your clothes for longer. They also run regular sessions that are on their webpage Whats On.
Second hand bikes for sale & Bike Repairs
Free bike repairs by Collect4Reuse’s trained mechanics. Bring your old bike down to have a simple service. They will evaluate and hopefully repaired by their trained mechanics. You will need to buy and bring along spares needed for repair.
Second-hand bikes will available to buy from Collect4Reuse at very reasonable prices. Adult and children’s bikes will be available.
Did you know?
School uniforms are designed to be hardwearing and good quality, so these items often outlast your child’s use for them. By passing items on, we are maximising their use and value.
According to Fashion Reimagined, we buy three times as many clothes as we did in 1980 and wear them for half as long. (fashionreimaginedfilm.com/impact). Textile waste is huge, so much there is a mountain of discarded clothes in the Chilean desert that is visible from space (space.com/mountain-discarded-clothes-chile-satellite-photo).
Clothing has a significant carbon footprint and results in huge amounts of waste, with the sector responsible for 8% of overall global emissions. The clothing industry consumes more energy than the aviation and shipping industry combined. (un.org/en/actnow/facts-and-figures)
Water use is a huge issue for the clothing industry with cotton being a very thirsty plant. For example, the making of a cotton t-shirt uses 2,700 litres of water! Let’s make all those drops of water worth it by wearing it for longer. (un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2019/08/actnow-for-zero-waste-fashion/#_edn2)
For more inspiration and facts on fashion on textiles, head to our Ealing Sewn Up project.
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