Bags of sustainable style – Dorothy House’s collaboration with Eco Bunting

As part of our new Threads for Care range, Dorothy House are excited to be partnering with Sharon Goold from Eco Bunting, who will be creating bespoke pieces from our waste fabrics.

Every year, it costs Dorothy House £70,000 to recycle or dispose of items that do not meet our donation guidelines. In a bid to reduce waste across our 29 charity shops, Dorothy House has recently launched our new retail umbrella brand, Threads for Care, developed in collaboration with local makers and creatives. One of those makers is Sharon, the director of Wiltshire based company, Eco Bunting.

Reducing waste one item at a time

Eco Bunting’s mission is a simple one – to create fun and unique products through waste materials in a bid to reduce the amount of reusable fabrics going to landfill. Sharon creates colourful, unique bunting for all occasions, using all kinds of textiles that would otherwise go to waste. Her creations come from a wide range of materials, from clothing and home furnishings, right the way through to tents, paddling pools and lifejackets!

Since October 2024, Sharon has been making reusable bags from our rag waste after attending our Warehouse sales. She takes her inspiration from each item to create fully lined, unique bags which can be purchased by customers at our monthly pop-up events at our Retail HQ in Corsham. In addition to this, we’re excited to have Sharon on board to create a range of bespoke clothing that will be sold under our new Threads for Care brand.

While our partnership with Sharon has been going since 2024, her connection to Dorothy House goes back to when we cared for her dad. However, she recently discovered that the connection goes back even further than she realised.

Sharon’s story

Sharon recently discovered that her parents attended the same church as our founder, Prue Dufour, back when they lived in Lacock. Dorothy House became the family’s go-to charity to take any donations of preloved items, and they’d also regularly buy furniture and clothing from our shops.

Fast forward many years, and it was towards the end of the pandemic that Sharon’s dad was diagnosed with a brain tumour. He was cared for by our Hospice at Home team, who not only supported him, but the whole family. Sharon, who had previously been working as an Early Years Lead in the north of England, changed jobs so that she could move back to Wiltshire and help care for her dad at home.

“It was a family effort looking after him and being with him right the way through to the end. It was an honour to spend that much time with my dad – it was amazing and really special. To have Dorothy House there, not just supporting my dad but also supporting us was great. We knew there was always somebody at the end of the phone. They were always there, no matter what time of the day or night.”

Sharon was gifted Eco Bunting by her son in law to keep her busy after she moved back to Wiltshire, and in her words, “it’s definitely been keeping me busy since!”

Eco Bunting’s partnership with Dorothy House

Like many of the thrifty shoppers in our community, Sharon and her sister became regular customers at our Warehouse sales, buying clothing for the whole family. At the same time, Sharon had been building her knowledge on what was happening with waste in the world, and how charity shops were receiving less for the amounts of rag waste.

“I found out that there was so much waste in charity shops. Not through the fault of the shops, but because of the sheer amount of clothing that’s coming in thanks to fast fashion and the latest trends. There’s the ethos that everyone wants everything now and charity shops are being given far more clothes than they used to, but a lot of it is inferior quality. A lot of people think that charity shops are places to send their broken and dirty clothing because they don’t know what else to do with it. They do what they think is best by donating it.”

It was through a chat with Ben from our Retail team at the Warehouse sale that Eco Bunting’s partnership with Dorothy House began.

“When I went to the Warehouse sale, I noticed as we were buying things there was still so much waste. I offered to make bags out of the waste materials and Ben from Dorothy House happened to be there on the day and thought it was a great idea.”

Sharon’s bags have become a regular feature at our monthly Warehouse sales since she started her partnership with us, with customers being able to purchase her unique creations as an additional way to support the Hospice.

Threads for Care

Sharon will be joining us, alongside Amy Laws from There’s Only One, creating quirky, bespoke clothing pieces made from unsaleable fabrics. Her process of free-cutting and piecing materials together means that each item of clothing made will be truly unique too! As her for her fabulous bags, not only will these still be sold at our Warehouse sales, but they will also be available to buy from our Pop-Up shop in The Shires, Trowbridge.

As well as raising vital funds for the Hospice, Sharon hopes that her partnership with Dorothy House will also inspire others to get creative in a bid to reduce waste.

“Each item is unique and hopefully gives buyers something to look through and maybe get a bit of inspiration for themselves to think “if I buy an old shirt, I can make it into something new.” That then helps the whole chain and the whole cycle of informing people that we can make use of the waste that’s already out there, as well as raising money for Dorothy House and the work they do.”

We’ll be hearing more from Sharon and her creative process over on our socials throughout Sustainable September, so be sure to follow us so you don’t miss out. You can also check out her incredible creations on her Instagram by following @ecobunting.

The Threads for Care range will be available in selected Dorothy House shops from 15 September 2025. We’d love to see your purchases, so please share them on social media (follow us at @dorothyhousehc and @dorothyhouse.shop) and be sure to use #SustainableSeptember.