Rags to Stitches

Lochana Adabala et al.
Wed, 29 Apr 2026 13:50:00 PDT

Clothes naturally wear out or tear over time, and many people don’t know how to repair their own clothes, causing them to be dependent on the fast fashion cycle. Fast fashion causes people to move through clothes too quickly and they end up throwing away items they don’t want or need anymore. Over the past few years, textile waste has increased from 6 million tons in 1990, to 18 million tons in 2018. This is a drastic issue in the fashion industry and can lead to detrimental effects such as environmental problems, climate change, and releasing greenhouse gasses from landfills.

To combat this issue, we want to focus on spreading more awareness and provide the chance for people to learn how to fix their clothes. We are proposing an app that teaches people how to sew. Our app provides video walkthroughs that people can learn from with step by step processes. Each episode has an instructor, who guides you through a sewing skill or through a DIY project using old clothes. Once each clothing item is fixed or a project is completed, you can upload the before and after pictures of your work in order to get rewarded a certain number of points. After you reach a milestone, you will be rewarded with gift cards from a company of your choice. By gamifying the learning process, the learner’s confidence is boosted and helps encourage them to continue to be sustainable to the environment and society.

Along with an app, there would be drop off centers for clothes that people don’t have the time to fix, but would still like to contribute to the textile sustainability cause. At the drop off center, or somewhere local, there would be people leading sewing sessions about every two months or however often people demand. Volunteers, who get points on the app, could come in and teach people how to sew for five dollar admissions to sign up for class (prices may vary depending on location).