Fabric Scraps Upcycled – how they can create sustainable opportunities
It began, as many meaningful things do, with something small.
Fabric offcuts. Beautiful pieces, but irregular. The leftovers from cutting garments. Too small to use again in production, yet far too good to throw away. Bags of them. Growing steadily in a studio corner. This is a common problem that many CmT companies face.
For designer Hayley Joy Clothing, sending them to landfill felt wrong. Textile waste is one of the fastest growing waste streams globally, and even natural fibres carry an environmental cost long after they are discarded. She didn’t want recycling in theory. She wanted responsibility in practice.
That search led her to Upcycle.
Where Waste Finds Its Next Life
At Upcycle, waste is never viewed in isolation. It is assessed for potential.
The fabric was taken to Orange Farm, where a sewing skills programme was already underway. Women were learning how to use sewing machines, how to construct garments, how to earn income from their own hands.
The offcuts became training material at first. They were used to practise stitching and pattern cutting. Then came the question that sits at the heart of everything Upcycle does: what could this become?
After research, experimentation, and many prototypes, a simple product emerged. A teddy bear. Fully hand-stitched. Made entirely from scrap fabric. Stuffed with shredded offcuts from the same donated material.
Nothing new purchased. Nothing wasted.
The project did not begin as a teddy bear project. It began as a textile waste diversion solution. The bears were simply the most beautiful answer to the question.
The Shift That Changed Everything
For Lydia, the programme was originally about learning to sew clothing. The teddy bears were not part of her plan. But as the concept developed, something shifted.
She began refining the process. Improving the stitching. Standardising the pattern. Training others. What started as participation became ownership.
Today she leads a small team. Women who had limited employment opportunities now earn income through careful, skilled handwork. Some are elderly. Some had never worked formally before. All contribute to something that exists because fabric was redirected instead of discarded.
Each teddy carries texture and character from the original material. No two are identical. Each one represents hours of handwork, skill transfer, and quiet enterprise.
Behind every bear sits a larger system that Upcycle has built over years: material assessment, product development, training methodology, and community-based production.
The teddy is visible. The structure behind it is what makes it sustainable.
What This Story Really Shows
When businesses speak about waste, they often speak about disposal. At Upcycle, the conversation begins earlier. Before waste leaves the building. Before it becomes a liability.
Fabric scraps can become products. Banner offcuts can become bags. Uniform waste can become training stock. Materials can move from surplus to structured community enterprise.The teddy bears are only one example of what happens when a waste stream is reconsidered.
Crafty Corner exists in partnership with Upcycle to inspire creative reuse. Upcycle exists to implement it at scale, with training, systems, and measurable impact. One sparks imagination. The other builds the infrastructure that allows that imagination to create work.
That is the connection.
If You Are Looking at Your Own Fabric Offcuts
The teddy bears and other products are available for purchase though upcyclecreative.co.za, our online store, each purchase will directly support the sewing our communities and the ongoing skills development programme.
But more than that, they represent a circular economy in action. Fabric that once had a single life in a design studio now moves into a second life as a product, a third life as income, and a lasting impact in a household. Nothing is wasted. Value is extended. Materials stay in use for as long as possible, and people grow alongside them.
If you would like to explore how your own waste could follow a similar path — not just reused, but redesigned into opportunity — connect with Upcycle and start the conversation.