Clothworks Glasgow CIC is a social enterprise rooted in the belief that clothesmaking is not only a practical craft but a powerful tool for empowerment, education, and community regeneration. Based in the East End of Glasgow, an area historically marked by economic inequality, our mission is to strengthen local resilience by teaching people the skills to make, alter, and repair clothes.
Clothing is a universal need, yet the knowledge of how to create and sustain garments has become increasingly rare in modern life. We view this loss not just as a cultural gap, but as a missed opportunity for economic participation and personal agency.
At Clothworks Glasgow, we aim to change that by delivering accessible, high-quality training in tailoring, pattern cutting, sewing, and textile repair. These practical skills offer more than creative expression they provide pathways into employment, entrepreneurship, and self-sufficiency.
Our two core objectives are:
Education through Craft – providing inclusive training opportunities that restore traditional skills and promote lifelong learning.
Opportunity through Making – supporting local people, especially those from marginalised or low-income backgrounds, to access new routes to income, confidence, and connection.
We also actively champion established makers, circular fashion, and encourage sustainable practices through mending, repurposing, and responsible material use. Our long-term vision is to help cultivate a thriving local economy of highly skilled independent makers and small textile businesses, reinvesting value back into the communities that need it most.In everything we do, Clothworks Glasgow is about combining dignity, skill, and tangible opportunity.
Our belief is, to be well you have to possess a sense of place and purpose. Millions of people, from all walks of life, do not have this. We exist to develop projects which work alongside people to create an environment where feeling well can start to feel possible.
We find working with your hands to be a great way of connecting people to themselves and their surroundings. Much of contemporary culture encourages disconnection - from our surroundings, our nature, and how things are made. We work to restore and create a place where we can fix and make things ourselves.
This is restorative, this is what we're about.