HELP WITH CRISIS PREGNANCY & BEYOND: CLOTHING

Here are some ideas for free-to-inexpensive and sometimes more eco-friendly, human-friendly clothing, including but not limited to maternity, breastfeeding, baby, older child, and "special needs" clothes. Wearing recycled clothes, sewing your own (especially with eco-friendly fabrics), and mending clothes you already have are all ways you can save money and at the same time address the human and environmental costs of the global garment industry. And sometimes, if you look around, for example at online clearance sales, you can even find good deals on fabrics or new, readymade clothes that are green and fair-trade.

Do you want to donate secondhand clothes or make new ones for people in need? Along with the organizations listed on this page, consider those listed under Crisis Pregnancy Support and Adoption & Foster Care. If you cannot afford, for example, maternity, breastfeeding, baby, and older-child clothes and items like diapers for yourself and your child(ren), these organizations may be able to help, too.

If you are looking to buy readymade maternity, nursing, or baby clothes, and other personal and household items, you might find a good deal--and maybe an eco-friendly one-- in our Mall.

Diapers (Nappies)
Disabled-Accessible Clothes--see also Shoes
Disaster Needs
Eco-Friendly, Cruelty-Free, & Fair Trade Information
Free/Inexpensive and/or Recycled Clothes
Free Interview Clothes
Make Your Own
Premature & Sick Baby Clothes
Shoes

Diapers (Nappies)

DIAPER BANKS. In the US, government benefit programs for the poor, such as WIC and food stamps, do not cover the ever-rising, expensive cost of diapers. In Southern Arizona; Hartford, Connecticut; New Haven, Connecticut; South Boston, Massachusetts; Rhode Island; and South King County (Seattle), Washington, diaper banks have been established to address this problem at the local level. The Autism Support Group of Genessee County, Michigan helps families with older autistic children still in diapers to get them for free.

Note: If you want to organize a diaper drive, click here for some ideas. If you do not have a diaper bank in your community, you can arrange before your drive to donate the diapers you collect to another charity, such as a crisis pregnancy center or homeless or domestic violence shelter. And if you are in the US, please write your Congresspeople and demand that federal benefit programs like WIC and food stamps cover diapers.

Diaper Choices. From the (no pun intended) Waste Education series, University of Minnesota Extension Service. Discusses the eco pros and cons of cloth versus disposable diapers. On this complex and perplexing dilemma, you may also want to read The Politics of Diapers: A Timeline of Recovered History, as well as ClothDiaperInfo.com and perhaps even (!) Kid Commando: On Diaperless Parenting.

GreenNappies.org.uk. Charitable project in the United Kingdom that offers free or low-cost eco-friendly nappies.

Miracle Diapers: Cloth Diapers for Low-Income Families. "Miracle Diapers has assisted those in need all over the world. Most of our applicants are from the US and Canada, but we welcome applications from anywhere. We have joyfully sent diapers to Latvia, Germany, Japan, Australia, and India to name a few. Though our focus is on cloth diapers, we accept any donations that promote natural living and baby care. We accept and redistribute baby carriers, natural baby items, unused natural menstrual items, unused cloth nursing pads and other nursing accessories, baby clothes and furniture."

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Disabled-Accessible Clothes

Adaptive Clothing and Accessories. From the Disability Resource Directory; mostly companies that make and market these. Unfortunately, readymade adaptive clothing can be expensive. But you can look at AdaptiveOutlet.com for discounts and bargains. The charity Sew Much Comfort makes free adaptive clothing available to wounded and disabled US military veterans, both men and women. Fashion Freaks (English, Swedish) offers tips and patterns (oriented to wheelchair users) from Stockholm's Independent Living Institute. You may also find help from the British charity Clothing Solutions (for Disabled People) or from the Iowa State University Extension Service's free online .pdf (Adobe Acrobat) publication Clothing ideas for people with special needs.

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Disaster Needs

International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. (English, French, Spanish, Chinese.) National and local Red Cross/Red Crescent societies often distribute free clothing to war and disaster victims.

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Eco-Friendly, Cruelty-Free, & Fair Trade Information

Clothing: Greener Choices. From the government of Great Britain's Directgov (English, some Welsh).

Cruelty-Free Clothing Guide from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and Animals and Environment: Clothing from the International Vegetarian Union.

Green Union. (British.) Ideas, including clothing and accessory ideas, for eco-friendly, human-friendly (which can sometimes mean lower-cost) weddings and commitment ceremonies.

Sweatshops: Frequently Asked Questions and Sweatshops: Tools for Actions. Garment industry workers worldwide suffer exploitation. Many women are subjected to sexual harassment and abuse, exposure to reproductively damaging chemicals, deprivation of the most basic maternity benefits, and forced abortions. Global Exchange not only educates the public about the problems, but the solutions.

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Free/Inexpensive and/or Recycled Clothes

Cheap Maternity Clothes. A short how-to-find guide from LovetoKnowPregnancy.

CraigsList. Hundreds of cities in dozens of countries now have their own edition of Craigslist, the online bulletin board for free classified ads, including ads for free or low-cost clothing of all sorts.

Charity Shops (Great Britain & Ireland), TheThriftShopper.com (US), and Opshop.org (Australia). How to find bargains or recycle your old clothes and raise funds for (hopefully) good causes at the same time.

FreeCycle Network. "Made up of 4,129 groups with 3,906,000 members across the globe...a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills...Membership is free." Baby, kid, and maternity clothes and other items are popular giveaways among FreeCycle members.

GarageSaleHunter.com. (US.) Garage or yard sales can be good places to find inexpensive, secondhand clothes . You can also hold your own and raise a little money while recycling clothes you no longer need.

Glass Slipper Project. (US.) Free prom dresses for disadvantaged high school students.

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Free Interview Clothes

Dress for Success. (Affiliates in Australia, Canada, Ireland, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, UK, US.) Charitable organization that offers free interview clothing and other support services to low-income women entering or returning to the workforce. Career Gear, with affiliates in several US cities, offers similar services for low-income men.

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Make Your Own

How to Sew Your Own Nursing Pillow, Shirt, Bra & Pumping Bra, Cloth Diapers & More. Free patterns and tips.

KnittingHelp.com, along with Knitting-and.com, and Knitting Pattern Central. Learn how online for free; free patterns.

Maternity and Nursing Sewing Patterns. Link collection.

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Premature & Sick Babies

CareWear and Newborns in Need. Volunteers who sew, knit, and crochet clothes for premature, sick, and other needy babies. The clothes are donated to hospitals in the US. These websites have free patterns. MyPreemie: Sewing Patterns for the Premature Baby raises money for these two organizations.

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Shoes

National Odd Shoe Exchange. (Focused on Canada and US, but will ship elsewhere.) Makes new single shoes and pairs of different sizes available to people who need such footwear because of disabilities.

Share Your Soles. This nonprofit gathers and distributes free, clean secondhand shoes for impoverished people in the US, especially on Native American reservations, and in poorer nations around the globe.

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Copyright Nonviolent Choice Directory 2007-2008. All rights reserved. This page last updated April 18, 2008.