Simple Swaps

Natural Tie Dyeing Tuesday

See IGTV for full tutorial by !

Onion Skin Tie Dyeing Workshop - Method:

What you’ll need:
* Onion skins - enough to fill a small saucepan or half of a large pan
* Saucepan or large pan
* Old cotton white t-shirt - but you could also use socks, camisoles or shirts!
* Wooden spoon
* A few rubber bands (preferably the neutral coloured ones)

LONG METHOD (involves leaving overnight and may result in deeper colours):

Step 1 - the night before:
Place the onion skins in the pan and top up with enough boiling water so that they can move around freely when stirred. Pop a lid on and leave to steep for 12-24 hours.

Step 2 - the next day:
Get your t-shirt or cotton garment and use your rubber bands to tie around it as tightly as possible at different stages along its length. This example shown should create a “dart-board effect”, where colour appears in rings.

Step 3:
Remove the onion skins from the dye bath (large pan), using a slotted spoon, or pour through a colander into another pan. It is important not to pour the water away! The onion skins can now be composted or put into your food waste bin!

Step 4:
Soak your garment in water until completely saturated - this will help the dye attach to it much better and soak in more evenly. Wring out any excess water and transfer it to the dye bath.

Step 5:
Turn the temperature up on the dye bath to bring it to a constant simmer (this could take up to 20 minutes). The heat will help give the dye a kickstart to work into the fibres of the garment. Leave the garment to simmer in the dye bath for 30 minutes.

Step 6:
Turn off the heat and leave the pan to cool overnight (around 12 hours).

Step 7 - the next day:
Remove your garment from the dye bath and rinse it, squeezing out excess dye until the water runs clear. The dye bath water can go safely down the sink as it is all natural!

Step 8:
You can now remove the rubber bands and see the tie-dye effect! Hang your newly dyed garment to dry somewhere warm inside, or on a clothes line outside if you have one.

And voila! Your naturally-dyed garment is ready to wear!

How to package your clothes for drop off/collection?

We have a secure drop off/collection point for swaps at Scoop Refill on Lower Bristol Road to allow swaps to take place within lockdown restrictions.

When you drop off your clothes, make sure the item code of what’s inside is clearly displayed so the lovely staff at Scoop can identify them. This is a number given to each item in the Dopplle app.

When packaging your clothes, try and be as sustainable as possible - remember, as the items aren’t being posted you don’t have to go crazy with sellotape (or use any at all) or excess packaging, they just have to contain the item while they are being handled at Scoop and until they reach their new home!

Here are a few ideas:

Furoshiki folding using any unwanted fabric (e.g. old, clean bedding) that can be reused as wrapping by its new owner

A tote bag or carrier bag tied up by the handles

Newspaper or scrap paper tied up with ribbon or string

Reusing old packaging from parcels (I sealed this with a safety pin)

Attach the number code with a safety pin, thread onto string, write directly on the package or incorporate in the wrapping

When collecting items, simply show the item reference in the Dopplle app to the staff at Scoop and take home your new items. Please resist opening immediately and quarantine for 72 items once you get the item to its new home 🏡

Happy swapping!

Why is sustainable fashion important?

The fashion industry is a huge polluter - more than all international flights and shipping combined.

Clothing shouldn’t be cheap. Each item has a journey from material extraction, fabric creation, dyeing, designing, sewing and so on. Each process requires the input of materials, time and skill. Each person in this journey deserves to be paid for their work, and the methods used shouldn’t cut corners at the expensive of the environment.

Clothes are increasingly made from synthetic fibres which through washing and wear find their ways into waterways. Textile dyeing is a huge polluter of water and materials such as cotton and denim are massively thirsty crops.

The fashion industry as it stands is the very opposite of sustainable. Fast fashion brands need to be held accountable. We are constantly being greenwashed into continued extreme consumerism by greenwashing campaigns which continue to cover our eyes to the truth.

If you’re interested in finding out more there are some amazing resources out there such as those by and many more. Tonight I’ll be watching The True Cost on Netflix and I encourage you to join me!

On my page there are some story highlights of ethical brands and second hand marketplaces but it is true that sustainable fashion is often more expensive (for a reason) but options like second hand shopping and clothes swaps make this more accessible to everyone and reduce reliance on fast fashion and help recognise the before and after of our clothes.

Nobody is perfect and becoming more sustainable is a step by step process and a real learning curve and that is okay.

Next week we will be sharing ways to learn to love what you already have by reviving your wardrobe as well as offering daily drops of free, preloved clothes to refresh your style while turning support away from unethical brands.

I hope some of you will engage with this. If you are interested you can get your free tickets to the clothes swap event through the link in my bio.

Any questions, let me know!

Want to refresh your wardrobe without costing you or the planet?

Everyday next week at 6pm we will be doing daily drops of FREE preloved clothes over on the app

Interested? You’ll need to grab a FREE ticket to the event through the link in my bio to receive access to the exclusive week-long virtual clothes swap event.

What’s Dopplle?
is a free clothes swapping app for students. You upload your preloved items and receive coins for the items you send to a new home 🧡

Everyone who takes part in the Bath Virtual Clothes Swap Event will receive coins for each of the items they upload before the 23/11/20 to allow them to get their hands on the items in the daily drops, even if they are new to the app and haven’t found a new home for their old clothes just yet!

It’s a great way to stand up against fast fashion, which is fun and completely free 🙌🏼

Any other questions just let me know!

Something exciting is happening next week to brighten your lockdown routine...

I’m hosting a sustainable fashion week in collaboration with and

The fabulous Ayse and I will be hosting fun and simple workshops at 11am here on Instagram then I’ll be heading over to the app at 6pm each evening to upload an exclusive daily drop of FREE preloved clothes I have collated from last year’s in-person swap shops!

Here’s how it works:

Create an account in the clothes swapping app if you haven’t already and join the Bath Spa university group (uni of Bath students also welcome)

Head over to the link in my bio to purchase your FREE eventbrite ticket which will enable you access to the exclusive group within the app

Upload any clothes that need a new home by the 22/11/20 - you will receive Dopplle coins for the items you upload ahead of the 23/11/20 to allow you to purchase the free clothes within the group - both each other’s and from our daily drops

Refresh your wardrobe without costing you or the planet!

🧡🧡🧡🧡

Keep an eye out this week for more information

Pumpkin 🎃 seeds

If you’re pumpkin carving or just tucking into some seasonal squashes, save the seeds to make a super tasty snack 😋

I just rinsed and dried the seeds, covered with a little oil and a sprinkle of salt and roasted in the oven until nice and crispy. They taste like popcorn and I can’t resist having a few every time I’m in the kitchen!

I will definitely be doing this again as it’s essentially a free snack and it’s a great way to reduce food waste too 💚

Here are some brands to help you fulfil your

Most supermarkets now offer organic and plastic free disposable period products, and I can recommend the Luna range from as a cheap and effective choice (usually on offer for £1.95 or BOGOF).

It can be good to support big brands’ ethical ranges to demonstrate demand for more sustainable options.

Smaller brands are great to support if you can as they often have a laudable core ethos and put money towards fantastic causes, education and spreading important core messages about and being and many use the extra cost to donate period products to those who can’t afford them.

These brands offer reusable options too ( being the cheapest at £9.95 a cup)

are also offering 20% off a menstrual cup today with the code G&GBATHSPACUP

Remember today is the last day to enter the challenge to win a free cup 🌱

• G E T I N V O L V E D •

There are some amazing people and organisations doing some fantastic work around periods. Have a look and get involved!

Someone incredibly inspiring who is doing some really impactful work into is who has started a petition to make all menstrual products which has had some great responses already (link in bio). She has also created this giant tampon applicator out of plastic applicators found on UK beaches and waterways to get to

Environmenstrual week isn’t limited to discussions around sustainability - periods are also a social justice issue.

do some amazing work on period injustice. They provide period products to refugees and asylum seekers and people who can’t afford them, provide education and have recently been doing work into how the pandemic has further reduced the accessibility of menstrual products.

are breaking down period taboos and centring black people in discussions about periods.

There are also a number of organisations including who are doing important work in including trans and non-binary people in conversations about periods and eliminating the misconception that only women menstruate.

To help tackle period poverty and continue important discussions around periods you can spread the word, add to the conversations, sign and share petitions and write letters to companies such as

If you want to do more and are able to you can choose to buy menstrual products from brands who are providing education and donating products like and (more on this later in the week), or donating yourself to charities such as

❣️B S U P E R I O D P L E D G E ❣️

Tinyurl.com/BSUperiodpledge

As something that happens every month, it’s very easy to get into deep set habits around the time of our periods, without giving them a second thought, including the products we buy and use.

Mainstream period products create hundreds of thousands of tonnes of harmful plastic waste each year and pads and tampon applicators are among the most common finds on UK beach cleans.

Making a simple swap away from the big brand disposable pads and plastic applicator tampons can make a huge difference, especially if we all pull in together.

I’d like as many students and staff at Bath Spa Uni to pledge to make their next period more sustainable. Join each other in pledging to make your next period a or if you’re not quite ready you can pledge to but do try and challenge yourself to go plastic free - you’ll be surprised how easy it is!

If you aren’t ready to switch to reusable there are plenty of organic and plastic free single use options (which I’ll be sharing more details on throughout the week) but why not make next time you menstruate the time to finally give a reusable option a go?

Be sure to join in the activities going on this week to be in with a chance to win a free menstrual cup to help you achieve your pledge ❣️

Tinyurl.com/BSUperiodpledge