FABSCRAP

My summer internship took place in Philadelphia at FABSCRAP, a textile recycling company. FABSCRAP held a pop-up selling used fabric, trims, and notions at MICA and my professor encouraged me to go and talk to FABSCRAP’s reuse coordinator who was in charge of pop-up sales and would later become my supervisor. They mentioned FABSCRAP’s internship program and I applied for a summer position when applications opened in February. I secured an interview where I spoke about my passion for sewing my own clothes and my desire to learn more about fabric reuse, which led to me being selected for the role of summer reuse intern.

My internship organization’s primary goal is to reduce textile waste from the fashion industry by sorting, recycling, and reselling over 374,000 pounds of fabric in 2022 (and over one million pounds total). FABSCRAP utilizes volunteer sorting sessions to process incoming donated fabric, and once organized, the fabric is either shipped out to be shredded and turned into “shoddy” (used for insulation, carpet padding, and furniture lining) or resold at affordable prices in the reuse store. My role involved sorting specialty bags of material (spandex, lace, and leather), detrimming denim for the shredding process, as well as being trained to use the cash register and assisting customers with fabric selection, program questions, and checking out.

I’m proud of myself for picking up many new skills in customer service, fabric identification, and project management this summer, and being able to combine them with my knowledge of FABSCRAP in order to step into the role of Reuse Coordinator (at times when my supervisor couldn’t be present, I was often the person in charge of the reuse room and sales).

Interning at FABSCRAP allowed me to meet and network with many other fiber professionals, such as the CEO and designer at Fite Fashion, which was instrumental to my career development. I learned that I would like to pursue a career working with clothes with a smaller fashion brand or possibly as a stylist– spending lots of time this summer upcycling FABSCRAP’s mendable clothing has definitely made me feel prepared for any future positions in the fiber industry.