An Oilfields High School teen’s sewing skills are saving her school a few bucks.
Grade 9 student Charity Kiffiak is making costumes for the drama club’s upcoming play Robin Hood, which hits the stage at the end of May.
Rather than purchasing fabrics from a store, Kiffiak is using material from unwanted curtains and costumes from previous plays to adorn the cast in the upcoming production.
“You can’t always afford to buy new material right off the bolt,” explained Kiffiak. “I take fabrics I come across and make something useful.”
For instance, Kiffiak transformed old curtains into a beautiful dress with a matching bejeweled necklace.
Reusing fabric isn’t a new concept for Kiffiak, who began designing clothing for her dolls at a young age and now designs clothing for herself and family members.
She also does alterations and repairs in her community, and dreams of becoming a fashion designer.
Kiffiak is one of eight Oilfields High School students inventing and creating with unwanted materials in a school program that runs Thursdays.
The school’s weekly maker space program began a few years ago, giving students a place to gather to work on projects of their own interests.
Black Diamond Coun. Veronica Kloiber, member of the Sustainable Black Diamond Advisory Committee, approached the school to get youth involved in the annual Sustainability Fair, which takes place in May.
“We wanted to invite the high school kids to the fair in some capacity,” she said. “This way both the school and the Town are getting their needs met.”
Kloiber met with the students at the beginning of this semester to educate them about sustainability and, for the past three weeks, attended the weekly gatherings to ask questions and offer suggestions as students work on their various projects.
“I’ve been encouraging them through asking mildly probing questions about how the students feel that their project fits in with the sustainability concept,” she said.
Student Eli Lange makes furniture from pallet boards he collects from businesses. He cleans up the wood, planes it and sands it before constructing.
“I’m showing that you don’t have to go out and buy expensive wood to make something beautiful,” he said. “Once you clean it up it turns into something you would have bought at a store.”
The Grade 12 student said he got the idea after seeing online videos of people making furniture out of repurposed materials. He was especially inspired by a man who built a small cabin out of pallet boards.
“A lot of guys just buy wood,” he said. “What I don’t think they know is pallet wood is just as good. A lot of stuff I pulled out of dumpsters.”
Oilfields High School learning commons facilitator Cindy Watts said the sustainability component is a great addition to the maker spaces program.
“When Veronica approached me I thought it was a great way for them (students) to see that you don’t have to buy supplies to make something,” she said. “You can also make it yourself.”
Since Kloiber initially spoke with students, Watts said they’ve become passionate about sustainability.
One student created a Bluetooth speaker made of scrap electronics, two others created figurines out of empty pop cans, another uses wool from a local farmer and a barbed needle to make felt toys and two girls are collecting some of the hundreds of Tim Hortons cups discarded at the school each week to create art.
“They are super excited and wanting to stay until 5:30 or 6 to put in extra time because they’re so pumped,” said Watts. “It gets them thinking about how can we better improve our economy. It’s just being able to use what we already have and not just keep having more.”
