SAVE YOUR CLOTHES - NEXT SWAP IN LOS ANGELES WILL BE IN 2009 BUT IT NEVER HURTS TO SAVE EARLY!

There's a new phenomenon sweeping the world called Swap O Rama Rama. Founded by Wendy Tremayne, Swap is a clothing swap and series of DIY workshops in which participants explore creative reuse from recycled clothing. Basically, you bring a bag of clothes and they get sorted into piles by volunteers. You get to sort through all the clothes and work at the various DIY stations and sewing stations to create new clothes!

We just wrapped the November 16, 2008 Swap at the Shrine Auditorium in downtown Los Angeles and had our largest turnout ever - over 400 people. Here are some pics on our Flickr Page, more links to come.

We had a great line up of Volunteer Designers including:

FreshPressed, who came with some of the coolest screen prints we've seen in a long time.

Redewin, one of our biggest hits with Rebecca's fabulous shirt patterns and creations.

Yelp, which gave away tote bags, t-shirts, and groovy chapstick tubes.

Miss Fruit Fly, where Fina and Aaron treated us to a silk screen technique that was family friendly and allowed for total creativity.

The uber talented local American Sewing Guild girls manned machine and hand felting stations.

Hollye, a talented graphic designer who sews from Kittybomb.

And the Hollywood Costume Design Team of Laura and Stephanie, Stocking maker Maggie, the Talented Vicky, Robin, Hector and Tanya!

Want to see what yourself Swap is all about? Check out this Video from the Venice Event.

You can learn more about Swap and the Creative Commons License at Swap-O-Rama-Rama.

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The photos below are from our June 2008 Swap in Venice, Ca. We have had silk screening and monster madness from the guys from Social Studies (Sean and Aldo), book author Sonya Nimri, Hollywood Costume Designer Laura Wolford, silk screener Donna from Four Idle Hands, Ellen King and her great sense of style, cool stencils from Jennifer at Pintucks, more silk screening from the dynamic duo of Nichole and Morgan from LA Craft Mafia, great t-shirt re-do's from Trisha at Redrawn Arts, applique guru KB Van Horn and open sewing stations with machines generously supplied by Janome!