The Patchwork Bear

We are a clothing keepsake company that upcycles clothes to keep them out of landfills. Our tagline: recycled, remade, remembered describes what we do best to help mitigate the amount of textile waste while saving memories that clothing holds from special times.

Our entire company and everyone who works here is part of our sustainability team since this is the heart of what we do: recycle clothes into something new and sentimental.

We help keep out some of the 21 billion pounds of clothing sent to landfills annually by turning favorite clothes into beautifully crafted memory bears, quilts and bags.

We have optimized pattern layouts to reduce the amount of fabric waste (we use stabilizing fabric in addition to clothes to make products).

Value: 50 lbs

Saved: $200

We reuse boxes to send out our finished products rather than purchase new boxes.

Value: 50 lbs

Saved: $300

We recycle any unused cardboard, bottles and paper products used in the studio.

We have switched much of our lighting to LED lights.

We have located our business in a pedestrian friendly town, walking distance from where our designers drop off their kids at school. They can walk to work and back to school to pick kids up at the end of the day.

We provide a family-friendly, specifically mom-friendly work environment by being flexible with work hours, summer schedules and bringing kids to work when needed.

We moved to a location with handicapped access.

As part of the community, we support the Pennington Business & Professional Association.

We have collaborated with Sustainable Princeton to develop and sell reusable market and produce bags at the local farmers market. (Ongoing) We also donate time and products by holding a bear making workshop with Good Grief, an organization that supports kids who suffer the loss of a family member. (one workshop, future ones pending) We donate time and products to SHUPP, Stand Up To Hunger Princeton which tackles food insufficiency in the greater Princeton NJ area (ongoing) We donate bear gift kits to The Luca John Foundation annually to raise funds for funeral expenses for infants. (Ongoing).

In addition to upcycling clothes into keepsakes, we have a retail shop in Pennington NJ that features zero waste and sustainable products with packaging that is minimal to no plastic and compostable and uses all natural products.

As part of the Pennington NJ community, we are on Main Street and encourage locals to purchase sustainable and zero-waste products from us and participate in the Annual Holiday Walk. We support the local elementary school with donations to their fundraisers to build community support.