SEWRENDIPITY
WHY SUSTAINABLE SEWING SHOULD STILL MATTER IN 2020
ACCORDING TO ALEX

WHY SUSTAINABLE SEWING SHOULD STILL MATTER IN 2020

David Attenborough joined Instagram last week. And he got to 1m followers in 45 minutes, beating the record for the fastest rise. But more important is the reason why he chose to engage with the platform: because he is trying to reach younger audiences and raise the awareness on just how dire the climate situation is. He was also on BBC Breakfast on Monday talking about how if there is one small sliver of hope to save the natural world, we need to keep fighting. This prompted me to think about the topic of today’s post and how, in the…

29 September 2020
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SEWING PROJECTS FOR A ZERO WASTE LIFE | SEWING VS WASTE WHEN CLEANING
SEWING

SEWING PROJECTS FOR A ZERO WASTE LIFE | SEWING VS WASTE WHEN CLEANING

During this difficult pandemic period, sustainability is perhaps not too high on people’s agenda. If anything, an undesirable side effect was the shunning of reusable options, especially outside the house. Moreover, we have also unwittingly increased the amount of disposable plastic, be it wipes, plastic gloves, disposable face masks, as well as take-away containers or other unrecyclable packaging when you did not have another choice based on what is available in the shops. However, life will go back to normal at some and we should go back to the good habits that we might have started forming with regards to…

26 May 2020
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SUSTAINABLE WARDROBE LOCKDOWN BINGO
SUSTAINABILITY

SUSTAINABLE WARDROBE LOCKDOWN BINGO

Was it light-hearted frivolity you asked for? Well, this is exactly what I’m delivering in this post. I mean, the title contains the word ‘bingo’… Though old habits are hard to shake so I had to put some grated courgette in the chocolate cake (you know, the ‘good for you part’ in the ‘too delicious for your own good part’). So let’s make this bingo game one where the prize is a more thoughtful wardrobe that will be ready to make you feel awesome when we come out at the other end. Sustainable wardrobe lockdown bingo – The Rules So…

21 April 2020
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ULTIMATE GUIDE TO SUSTAINABLE COTTON CHOICES
SUSTAINABILITY

ULTIMATE GUIDE TO SUSTAINABLE COTTON CHOICES

Today, we’re talking about one of the most used fibres in the world, cotton, which is well-loved and often chosen by sewers and fashion lovers alike. But what are your choices for more sustainable cotton? I’m so glad to see so many more conversations lately around sustainability in fashion and also in the sewing community. But as a sustainable fashion professional, I often get really frustrated and annoyed at the crazy amount of greenwashing and false claims that are being made by brands and retailers. Some I’m sure, come from not knowing, but I do suspect some cases of wilfully…

3 March 2020
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13 SUSTAINABLE FASHION PODCAST EPISODES YOU MUST LISTEN
SUSTAINABILITY

13 SUSTAINABLE FASHION PODCAST EPISODES YOU MUST LISTEN

Only a few years ago, podcasts were such a Noughties thing, but they are back with a vengeance. Seems like the word and their wife are launching one. And honestly, at some point, there are just too many of them out there. I tend to get choice paralysis when faced with too many options, so I wanted to make life easier for you by curating a list of my favourite ones. That is sustainable fashion podcast episodes, the gold nuggets of whole podcast series, so you don’t have to trawl through loads of loads of them. While there are a…

4 February 2020
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WHAT TO DO WITH HANDMADE CLOTHES YOU NO LONGER WEAR
SUSTAINABILITY

WHAT TO DO WITH HANDMADE CLOTHES YOU NO LONGER WEAR

If you are anything like me, with the swift transition from summer to autumn, or whatever this non-stop rain season is called, you might have been swapping your warm-weather wardrobe for the colder months one. I did that a few weeks ago and it provided a perfect opportunity to reassess and review my clothes in light of newfound style insights, changes in my preferences and wardrobe demands in my job, for both handmade and RTW items. This type of exercise usually comes with a massive purge. So I did a bit of thinking, a bit of research and I’d like…

23 October 2019
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SUSTAINABILITY AND SEWING | WHAT IS THE MOST SUSTAINABLE FABRIC?
SEWING

SUSTAINABILITY AND SEWING | WHAT IS THE MOST SUSTAINABLE FABRIC?

In case you missed it, there is an Instagram photo challenge running at the moment, focusing on sustainability in sewing. I’m really terrible at those, but it did make me realise I haven’t posted any sustainability posts in quite a while. So I decided to cover a topic that I get asked about all the time, both in the sewing community, amongst my friends and family, but also at work. You might remember I am a sustainability professional in my day job, so my role is to advise designers and product techs how to make a garment as sustainable as…

6 September 2019
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Zero Waste Sewing Patterns you should try
SUSTAINABILITY

Zero Waste Sewing Patterns you should try

When talking about sustainability in the fashion industry (and, by extension, in home sewing), one of the concepts that comes up often is zero-waste design (or sewing patterns). It’s a very interesting approach, that looks at the pattern cutting process in a completely different way, resulting in shapes that are functional, simple looking, but also very cleverly assembled at the same time. I have been meaning to sew my own version of a zero-waste pattern for a very long time, so I started doing some research to see what is available for home sewing. The bad news is that obviously…

7 June 2019
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Sustainability vs Sewing | Is it killing creativity?
SEWING

Sustainability vs Sewing | Is it killing creativity?

I wrote a little while ago about losing my sewing mojo. I got a lot of great responses from the sewing community, a lot of empathy and a lot of advice. Thank you all again for engaging and sharing. (Btw,  I’m still not there yet in finding my sewjo, though working on it). There were some particular comments that really made me think about this topic from a different view-point and what can be the underlying cause. One person told me on Instagram that they feel scrutinised by this new trend of slow sewing and all the conversation about sustainability.…

23 May 2019
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8 sustainable and ethical fashion documentaries you must watch
SUSTAINABILITY

8 sustainable and ethical fashion documentaries you must watch

On the 24th April, we are commemorating 6 years since the Rana Plaza collapse in 2013. It is considered the deadliest structural failure accident in modern human history, and therefore also the deadliest garment-factory accident in history with 1134 workers killed and over 2500 injured (source: Wikipedia). Fashion Revolution is an NGO whose mission is to ensure that accidents such as Rana Plaza never occur again, aiming “to unite people and organisations to work together towards radically changing the way our clothes are sourced, produced and consumed, so that our clothing is made in a safe, clean and fair way”.…

25 April 2019
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