Katie Ellis - Making Getting Dressed Easier

Katie Ellis and I have something in common. We both realised when spending time with our grandparents how much they struggle dressing themselves. We realised they could live more of a life. For Katie, her grandmother was unable to dress herself and struggled with the loss of independence and dignity due to Parkinsons. My Grumpa is 96 and still dresses himself but has arthritis and frozen fingers, making buttons incredibly troublesome. We have both come up with solutions within our abilities. For me, it was to edit his current clothing. For Katie, it was to set up a stylish clothing brand which has adaptive designs, hidden fastenings (such as velcro) and makes self-dressing easier for those with dressing difficulties. Katie Ellis launched The Able Label.

Here's an image of the shirt I edited with velcro fastenings for my 96 year old Grumpa on my late Grannie’s sewing machine. You can hear the audio of my Grumpa trying to do up his old shirt and then how delighted he was when doing up his velcro edited shirt.

Have you thought about whether your family members, friends or neighbours need clothes which are easier to get dressed into? Can you help them live more of a life?