How Nova Scotia volunteers are using second-hand jeans to help women in need

Crystal Garrett meets a mother-daughter duo who are on a mission to use second-hand jeans to help other women.

A mother-daughter duo have launched a new non-profit to support women in need across Nova Scotia.

The Purses with Purpose project takes used denim, makes purses out of them and fills them with personal care items before delivering them to womens’ shelters.

This project was Donna Tutty’s vision and her daughter Abi Johnston helps spread the word and set up events.

“It is a community of women helping women, supporting each other… and we’re doing this by creating one-of-a-kind denim bags, it’s not like on an assembly line or anything. They’re all very unique,” Tutty explains.

The pair started in Abi’s old bedroom five months ago, where they created stations for volunteers to measure, cut, sew and assemble the bags.

They have two upcoming events, a pop-up event and a jean drive.

The jean drive is Feb. 21 at Chester Area Middle School from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

“We go into, it could be a community centre, it could be a church hall, we go in, we set up sewing machines, we bring in the denim, we bring all of the materials, women come in and they just cut away and sew and create the different totes,” says Tutty.

For the jean drives, they are looking for at least 30 pairs.

“Many places have done a jean drive; we just picked up 32 pairs of jeans from a place in Mahone Bay,” Tutty says.

Purses with Purpose doesn’t mind if there is something wrong with the donated jeans – they also accept all types and colours.

“It doesn’t matter if there’s holes in the knees, if there’s rips… we use every single piece of the jeans. We use pockets, we use the belt loops and we have lovely linings, there’s pockets inside as well,” Tutty says.

“We also have some home sewers that are very creative and one of our home sewers made (one) out of a denim jacket.”

The organization will also accept and pick up donations of goods to put in the bags.

Tutty says reactions have been “lovely” so far.

“We dropped them off at a shelter in Yarmouth and just the smiles,” she says.

“There’s a lot of love that goes into these bags and that’s all we want to do, is we want to bring a smile for a woman who’s going through the challenge of transition.”

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