Because I imagine that you, like me, love sewing, fabric, and scrolling your Instagram feed for inspiration. After a summer of floral and printed floaty dresses in cotton lawns and viscose, autumn cosiness rolls in:
… mmm toaster sweater season…
…. lovely ponte roma fabric around everywhere… what is it anyway?
… do I care that it is 100% polyester or blended with rayon or spandex?
During the day you subconsciously (or consciously) go green. You might use the recycling bin, turn off the tap when you brush your teeth, cycle or walk to work, take your reusable coffee cup to the cafe.
When the work day is done you get home, finish dinner and start your sewing. Some thoughts that might float by:
…Should I toile? Do I have a cheap jersey I can try this with?
… Do I just bin the scraps and my toile when I have finished with it?
… This is going to be a failure. Should I finish? What if I don’t?
Or the opposite: this is so good I must make another one!
As I sewed, these thoughts turned into questions about fabric manufacture, textile waste, and my environmental footprint. Maybe you have thought about this too while you sew, but not had the time to look into it and the information is scattered?
This blog is my attempt to address some of these questions
- What is my environmental footprint from sewing? Is it that bad?
- Is there such a thing as “sustainable sewing” and how do I do it?
- What happens to all the fabric scraps I throw out?
- What happens to the clothing I give to charity or put in the textile bin?
- How is cotton, polyester, viscose, silk, acrylic and linen produced? What is best to buy from an environmental perspective?
- What do I do now after watching documentaries like “True Cost” or “Planet T shirt”?
Are you interested? Do let me know what you would like to read about and I’ll do my best!
Just a few of the summer dresses from 2017
16 comments
Brilliant questions as I sit here working on a dress from some lovely ponte that’s sat in my stash for nearly a year! I definitely becoming more conscious of the fabric I buy now, but determined to not waste what i’ve already got regardless of whether it’s sustainable. I want to make clothes that have longevity rather than for the fashion and instagram trend currently filling my feed. Lots of thought provoking questions in your post. Look forward to reading how you achieve you goals. Xx
I’m with you on no wastage – throwing away fabric or clothing in order to stock up on different “sustainable” fabric is not helping anyone! Also agree on making what you need and avoiding the trends. Especially if you wouldn’t buy RTW that is in trend, why would you sew the trends? Anyway thanks for reading 🙂
Very important things to ponder. One thing semi-related that I mulled over was, I had many bags of clothes that I don’t wear anymore (some kept from 15 years back), and after hosting a “Take my clothes!” party with my friends I was still left with a lot. I thought really hard about 1) keeping them, cut them up, repurpose the fabric , reuse the buttons and hardware etc or 2) donate them so someone can wear them, unspoilt. I’m also aware that clothing donations don’t always go where we want them to. In the end I donated them – cutting into perfectly good clothing seems like a crime. Any experience or insights into this? To this day I still think about it.
Hi Sil, this question was what prompted me to do the Sustainable Fashion course and I did get some answers from it! I was going to write a little series on what happens to our stuff when we donate it / throw it away, including landfill (not the sexiest topic I know!) and the second market for clothing (booming, but not in the way that we may imagine). So let me keep you posted on that. Thanks for reading and the comment.
Hi Sil, very interesting comment. As you say, donated clothes aren’t always used how we’d like (I read somewhere that only 10% is actually resold) and I’ve also been giving this matter quite a bit of thought. What I’m currently doing is donate anything that is literally like brand new, and anything else I keep for repurposing. I know what you mean about cutting into wearable clothes, but chances are, that those clothes won’t probably be worn by anyone anyway. This solution works for me because it allows me to be mindful about my actual textile waste and I really think long and thorough before I discard a piece of clothing. I guess I just try to recycle my own textile waste as much as I can before I send it off to the wild where I don’t know how it’s going to be dealt with.
Yes, that sounds like a good plan. To think that millions of people keep buying new clothes and discarding “old” ones (sometimes just because it’s past the trend, or bored of wearing it, or slightly damaged and couldn’t be bothered to mend it), makes me sad…
Oh, have you seen those videos on youtube with the teenagers who do a shopping haul and there are piles of clothes on the bed and floor! Then sometimes they say they don’t even like them and bought it because it was cheap. Makes my heart sink as well 🙁
I can’t even bring myself to watch those. I mean, I’ve had my younger days where I bought more clothes than I should have. I regret those days. I deliberately not buy trends at the time though, so I can wear them for a long time. And I look after them. The ones I donated were all in near new condition – outgrown in size mostly and age appropriateness. I wish there had been more education back then and now. Worse now though – it’s all about Fashion Influencers and who’s getting likes with the newest stuff.
Hi Kate! I’m totally in with you. Your questions and thoughts totally resonate with me and I look forward to reading where this journey takes you. Hopefully it will help me to put some structure into my own thoughts, sometimes i feel that other people, you in this case, are much more able to put into words what I think and feel that I could ever do, so thank you 🙂
Hi Pilar, thanks so much for the comments and nice words. Sorry for the late response, I did not login yesterday as I did not think that people are actually finding this interesting to make a comment either here or on Instagram – makes me so happy! I am trying to put some structure into writing some little series to cover different topics without being too academic, so hopefully that will be interesting for you. What happens to our clothes when we throw them away is definitely on the list, as well as stuff about different textiles and production. Keep you posted x
Hi Kate, while scrolling through Instagram I stumbled on your latest picture “interested in sustainable sewing” and I thought: that’s in my mind whole this time! But it’s so difficult and I pose myself a lot of questions (without answers usually), and then I discovered your blog and I’m so happy to discover that I’m not alone with all these questions.
I fell in love with sewing and went through the whole fabric addiction phase, but the environmental and social issues of these fabrics soon started to worry me. Now i’m trying to sooth my sewing addiction by remaking a lot of existing second-hand clothes (and finishing up the fabric stash I have gathered)… however, as said before, some of them are still in good condition and then I wonder again if it’s not a waste to cut them up. On the other hand, as said above, those clothes are probably not worn by anyone anymore… Also, I’m struggling with the fact that by sewing I’m making more clothes than I actually need, I still have to find a good balance there!
Anyway all this to say to say that I love your blog! It’s even the first time I commented on a blog 🙂
Hello Charlotte, so nice to meet you and very happy that you found the blog! I looked at your Instagram pictures before and they are just beautiful.
Our sewing journey sounds quite similar. The best fabric is probably the fabric that already exists, so the fact that you can be creative with second hand clothes is awesome! I am less good at this so right now I am starting with seeing what I can remake and adjust in my current wardrobe. My first attempt to remake is a dress that has some sentimental value for me but the fit and construction was awful. I also have 2 wool blend skirts which I bought at a vintage fair and thought to also remake, but unfortunately I do not love them enough to get on with it. I think that sewing is always going to be a battle between a hobby that is good for mental health, and what is not so great for the planet. There is probably no right solution – but my current thinking is that if I can make something with beautiful finishings that I know I can wear on and off for a few years then I will do it!
I feel super privileged that you liked the blog enough to make a comment. Will try to keep up with writing the information articles, if there is anything in particular you would like to see do let me know and I will do my best!
Hi, I agree with you, the best way is to make clothes you’ll love with good finishing and that we’ll keep for a long time! And in that respect remaking things is not always worth it (I mean some clothes you have to make from scratch from new fabric), but I find it a nice way to sooth my sewing and creative urges without feeling too guilty. And I find it indeed a very nice blog, and I’m keen to see more informative articles! What I find interesting at the moment is everything that has to do with textile recycling, not refashioning but really recycling to the fiber. And sources of nice environmental-friendly and ethical fabrics, which at the moment seem to be rather limited in design and style… I know these are difficult subjects as I’m looking into them a bit myself so I can understand if you don’t want to dive in these immediately.. I keep following anyway! 🙂
Thanks Charlotte for the ideas. I’m not really into writing too much about my makes (others can do that better than me!) definitely better at the information ones. The eco friendly / ethical fabrics I always find to be a problem, as you say they are either limited, or they are very expensive! Of course I understand it is more expensive to produce but we need to switch our mindset to getting used to buying higher quality fabric and less of it. Some people have written about where to buy in the UK but unless it is organic cotton (mostly kids prints) personally I have found it difficult to find anything I love. OK I will keep your interests in mind and add to my list. Maybe we can compare notes one day 🙂 Happy Wednesday!
Hi, I read your recent article about whether “Will using eco fabrics really save the planet?” and I couldn’t agree more with it! Keep up your work with these informative articles, they are really good. It went through my mind to write similar articles but my writing skills are not as good to tackle this tricky subject that is sustainability. However, you do a perfect job with it, approaching the subject from different angles and making us think. And slowly more and more people will become aware and more conscious of their actions I hope!
Hi Charlotte, thanks for your comment! I do indeed feel very motivated to keep writing since people like yourself have been so positive about the things they want to see. And thank you for the compliment about my writing. I spend most of my week writing because my corporate job is also writing and editing so I am happy the skills can be put to something more interesting like sustainable sewing! Anyway I think as a collective we are still at a fairly immature stage of awareness and thinking about sustainability. So the first step is to still get people to navel gaze upon their own behaviour and consider if there is something they want to change 🙂