SEWRENDIPITY
First hand natter on second hand clothes | A personal view
SUSTAINABILITY

First hand natter on second hand clothes | A personal view

When I moved to London for 5 years now, I was really surprised at how many charity shops there are in the UK high streets and always wondered how do they survive, who actually buys from them? It is clear that it is the norm here, and it seems to me to be accepted without questioning that the charity shop is a perfectly reasonable place to buy new (to you) clothes. But this has not been my experience at all growing up in Romania. I’m not going to bore you with a sob story about growing up in communism (I was…

28 April 2015
23 Comments
Quick guide to clothes and textile recycling
SUSTAINABILITY

Quick guide to clothes and textile recycling

There is a lot of talk about recycling lately, and it’s been touted like the answer to all our sustainability problems, not least of all plastics in the ocean, clothes to landfills and incineration. However, there is no magic bullet of transforming an ols garment into a new one just through the magic of textile recycling. And it is absolutely not even the most sustainable thing to do with our unwanted textiles. That is because there are limitations in the technology of recycling for different material, as well as difficulties in the actual collections.

Want to know more about how each type of fabric can be recycled and what are the pros and cons? Read on for a deep-dive into the recycling processes by fibre type and their challenges.

10 March 2015
6 Comments
How sustainable is wool?
SUSTAINABILITY

How sustainable is wool?

Wool is a natural material and we could easily assume that’s enough to be sustainable. Wool used to be one of the most common materials, but with the advent of synthetic fibres and the omnipresence of cotton, both the worldwide production and consumption (at least for apparel) has decreased. However, we still like a lovely warm woollen jumper or a merino coat, and sewing with wool fabrics is great, isn’t it? Although in general wool is considered a more sustainable fibre or fabric, there are a few things you need to know so you can make informed decisions.

25 February 2015
9 Comments
[Sustainable Tuesdays] Three unusual sustainable fabrics
SUSTAINABILITY

[Sustainable Tuesdays] Three unusual sustainable fabrics

Welcome to my newly created (as in just now) ‘Sustainable Tuesdays’ posts (only because the first one happened to be posted on a Tuesday, so I thought I keep with this day of the week). The aim of the series is to share my discoveries in the space of sustainable fashion and to inform and inspire other sewers to join me on this journey. In today’s post, I’m showcasing three sustainable fabrics that I for one never imagined could be actually made into garments. Unfortunately, some of them are not readily available in the UK, but if you’re travelling through…

27 January 2015
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