This week, we are delving into zero waste sewing! Helen and Caroline discuss how to revolutionize your sewing practice with waste-reducing techniques, zero waste patterns, and sustainable habits.
The transcript for this episode is at the end of the show notes on this page.
Previous episodes mentioned:
- Episode 35: Sustainability and Sewing
- Episode 42: Sustainability and Sewing Part 2
- Episode 98: Scrap Busting
- Episode 114: Matchpoint Fabric and Sustainability
Sewing patterns and pattern companies mentioned:
- Birgitta Helmersson (pictured: ZW Gather Dress)
- Cris Wood Sews (pictured: Envelope Dress)
- MILAN AV-JC (Pictured: 007 Circle Dress)
- DIY Daisy (Pictured: Rori Wrap Top and Rectangle Ruffle Skirt)
- Schnittchen Patterns (Pictured: Zero Waste no. 2 Shirt)
- The Craft of Clothes (Pictured: Sawyer Hoodie)
- Zero Waste Sewing: 16 Projects to Make, Wear and Enjoy by Elizabeth M. Haywood
- Make/Use (pictured: Spiral Trousers and Cropped Tshirt)
- Zero Waste Scrub Set by Danielle Elsener
- The Zero Waste Collection by Thread Faction Studio – for kids!
- ZWWave Bags by bag.uettes
- Zero Waste Fashion Design by Timo Rissanen and Holly McQuillan
Other mentions:
- “1 Year of Textile Waste” on Handmaking Mel
- “50+ Scrap Busting Ideas” on Handmaking Mel
- “DIY Dress Form from Textile Waste” on Handmaking Mel
- Free Cutting by Julian Roberts – PDF E-book
- Francisco of @ciscosews has stunning makes with lots of thrifted fabrics!
- Our creative assistant, Lisa, made this dress out of a vintage tablecloth!
Leave us a review! It will help other sewists discover us.
Transcript:
Caroline: We are recording today on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Coast Salish and Kwakwaka’wakw peoples, including Tsleil-Waututh, Squamish, Musqueam, and K’ómoks first nations.
Caroline: Hello and welcome to Love to Sew. I’m Caroline, the owner of Blackbird Fabrics.
Helen: And I’m Helen, the designer behind Helen’s Closet Patterns.
Caroline: We’re two sewing buds who love to sew our own clothes and want to encourage you on your sewing journey, too.
Helen: Join us for today’s topic: Zero Waste Sewing.
Caroline: Hello, Helen.
Helen: Hi, Caroline.
Caroline: How are you doing?
Helen: I’m doing well, thanks. How are you?
Caroline:I am very good as well.
Helen: We have such an exciting topic today. There’s so much ground to cover, but let’s start off by just defining zero waste sewing for anyone out there who doesn’t know what zero waste sewing is all about.
Caroline: So zero waste sewing is the process of creating a garment or garments without any or with very little waste. So for those working in the fashion industry, it could be designing a sewing pattern or changing a wasteful garment production process at the factory level. For a home sewist, it could be about creating habits that reduce or eliminate waste, sewing from zero waste patterns, or designing your own zero waste garments.
Helen: Yes. And zero waste sewing has gained traction in the 21st century as more attention has been called to the amount of waste that the fashion industry generates. About 15% of the total fabric used by the industry is wasted. And that might not seem like a lot, but when you consider that 400 billion meters of fabric are manufactured per year, it really adds up; that’s 60 billion meters a year.
Caroline: Wow.
Helen: Yeah.
Caroline: Of waste. It’s pretty wild. And home sewists have started to pay attention to the amount of waste they generate, too. For example, our former assistant Melanie has started a textile waste reduction project on her blog. We’ll link that in the show notes. On her first post for the project, she sits on a big pile of a year’s worth of scraps – it’s really an extraordinary visual.
Helen: Yes, I really love what Mel has been doing with her zero waste reduction sewing, and she’s made some really cool projects so definitely go check it out. So why, other than the obvious reason, would somebody choose to sew zero waste garments?
Caroline: Well, sewing using zero waste principles reduces a sewist’s individual contribution to environmental degradation. So that’s one thing.
Helen: Yes, and sewists may be interested in working towards a larger shift in both social values and policy around environmental issues. So zero waste sewing can be a reflection of someone’s values as well as an action in and of itself.
Caroline: And it could also be an economic choice. Strategizing to make the most of your meterage of fabric is something frugal people have done through all of history.
Helen: Yes, and designers and sewists may want to contribute to a body of knowledge that is definitely growing. It’s really exciting to see new innovations as well as the revival of time-tested techniques. So everyone who sews with zero waste methods and principles is contributing to the growth and refinement of this movement that may completely change the industry.
Caroline: Yeah, and we’re going to talk a little bit more about all of that today, but keep in mind that a single person might combine some or all of these reasons or have other reasons that we haven’t thought of. So if you sew zero waste, we would love to hear your thoughts on Instagram, email, or leave us a voicemail this week.
Helen: Yeah, especially when I hear people’s recommendations for cool zero waste patterns that we can try.
Caroline: Yes.
Helen: Okay let’s talk a little bit about ways to reduce or eliminate waste in our sewing practices. The first thing we’re going to talk about is piecing fabric. I love this topic because you know I love pattern hacks, and piecing things together is a great way to hack your pattern. It’s sewing together smaller pieces of fabric to make a large piece that’s big enough to sew into a garment or something else. And those sewists out there who are also quilters are already quite familiar with this because it’s like quilting but often on a larger scale.
Caroline: Yeah, and you can do this in a symmetrical way that looks like the patchwork on traditional quilts. One of the reasons quilting was invented was to use up scraps of fabric. So historical sewists were the original zero wasters. Alyse on Instagram, uh she’s @maeandbjorn, made a super cute flowy patchwork dress that’s on her profile as a highlight. So we’re going to link that in the show notes. Natalie Ebaugh also has several colorful patchwork jackets and oven mitts on her profile. Jessica Quirk has a Tamarack Jacket in a more muted style, and she designed and made the patchwork especially for the jacket. So we’re going to link all these up in the show notes if you’re looking for a little bit of patchwork inspiration.
Helen: Yeah, you can also do more of, like, a wacky quilt style where you fit scraps together like puzzle pieces. Zero Waste Daniel does this a lot with his bright, fun clothing and masks. So we’ll link that too. But if you’re not into the patchwork style, you can also piece with a single fabric. This is something that clothing makers have done throughout history. You can try to put the seam in a less visible place, like, under the arm or inside of a gathered area. If the fabric has a busy pattern, you might not even be able to see it unless you look very closely. But think about how your pattern pieces could be cut up into more manageable pieces and then sewn back together so that you can make the most of the yardage that you have.
Caroline: Oh yeah, I mean, haven’t we all done this in a situation where we’re running out of fabric when we’re cutting out a project and then we ended up piecing together the belt or the sleeve or something like that?
Helen: Yeah, totally. I do this all the time, especially cause I hate when, like, a piece is just sitting off in the middle of, like, a big open area of fabric. I’m like, oh, but I could just cut this facing on the fold and, like, have half of it hanging off. And then I’ll, like, squeeze the other half in over here, maybe cut it on the cross grain. Definitely getting creative is a big part of zero waste sewing.
Caroline: Yeah, and you don’t even notice most of the time.
Helen: Nope.
Caroline: Okay. Another way to reduce textile waste is to bust scraps. You know we’ve talked about this before. We have a whole episode about it. So you can check out episode 98 which is all about scrap busting for a bunch of suggestions on how to use up all of your scraps. And we also mentioned before that our former assistant Melanie is working on a really cool textile waste reduction project this year. She has some great ideas on her blog. So we’re gonna link that up in the show notes as well. One really great project she did a few months ago was a DIY dress form which she sewed up and stuffed with textile waste.
Helen: What? I love using forms that needed a stuffing for scrap busting. It’s so handy. Closet Core Patterns has that free pouf pattern that you can sew up out of scraps and then fill with scraps. I mean, how great is that?
Caroline: It’s so great. And Mel also has a post on her blog of 50 plus scrap busting ideas sourced from her blog readers. So, definitely, Melanie is an awesome resource right now.
Helen: Yeah, I do love scrap busting. I mean, it can get a little overwhelming when you keep every little piece of fabric. So you do have to be a little bit careful about getting too many scraps built up in your stash, but that’s why working in some scrap busting projects as a regular part of your sewing practice is so great because it helps to clear out those scraps. And also, just use what you have which is the baseline for more sustainable sewing.
Caroline: Yeah, try not to get to the point where you have bags of scraps in every corner of your sewing room.
Helen: It’s true. It can happen faster than you think.
Caroline: It really can. Another way to sew zero waste is to use zero waste patterns, and there are a growing number of patterns for purchase and for free that are designed with zero waste in mind. But first we wanted to kind of talk about the fact that zero waste design principles are both old and new.
Helen: Yeah, so many medieval European garments, including cotes, shirts, chemises and kirtles, were more zero waste in design. The South Asian sari is a modern-day zero waste garment with roots that go centuries into history. The Japanese kimono is a traditional garment that uses every bit of precious fabric. We want to note here that it’s so important to avoid appropriating the kimono and the sari. We mention them because they’re great examples of how different cultures have been doing zero waste for centuries uninterrupted. In the sewing community, we’ve had a history of appropriation in our language and in our design, you know, myself included. At Helen’s Closet, I have done this and since apologized for this, and it really needs to change. So we’d like to honor the fact that zero waste design has been a part of many cultures’ clothing design and construction for centuries without advocating that people from outside of those cultures appropriate those garments and those words.
Caroline: Yeah, that’s a really important point to make. And there are a few 20th century fashion designers who’ve influenced 21st century zero waste designers including Madeleine Vionnet and Paul Poiret. In the early 20th century, Madeleine Vionnet began experimenting with bias cuts and avant-garde draping, departing from conventional Western pattern making techniques. And similarly, Paul Poiret moved away from traditionally tailored garments in favor of structural simplicity and drapey silhouettes.
Helen: Yeah, in many ways, today’s zero waste design is a reimagining of all these time-tested methods of designing and constructing garments. In general, modern zero waste pattern design takes a length of fabric and imposes the design on it, moving from large pattern pieces to small ones. So they block out the biggest parts of the garment and then divide up the leftover fabric to make things like cuffs, plackets, collars, and other design details.
Caroline: Yeah, and designer Julian Roberts has a free PDF ebook called Free Cutting which teaches this method of “subtraction cutting,” making a garment by cutting, or “subtracting,” small pieces from the main piece of fabric rather than “adding” the large pieces.
Helen: So zero waste sewing patterns are not patterns in the conventional sense. That is because there’s not usually paper pieces to them. Instead, they often include a cutting diagram and instructions. So the cutting diagrams can be a little puzzling to look at because the pieces look different than conventional patterns. But if you take the instructions one step at a time, it will all come together. So, for example, the instruction booklet will tell you to cut a rectangle 30 inches by 40 inches, and then cut another rectangle 12 inches by six inches. And by assembling all of those pieces and cutting all those parts, eventually you have all the pieces for the pattern. I’m simplifying it obviously, but you get the idea.
Caroline: Yeah, and a lot of the time in these zero waste patterns, they don’t even give the exact measurements. They’ll have you divide the width of your fabric into sections. So let’s say, they’ll say, you know, a third of the width is for this, two thirds is for this, so that you can use the full width of the fabric and have it be, like, a true zero waste design. So it’s actually really interesting when you kinda look at that chart and figure out how that’s going to work for the fabric that you have. But I think now would be a good time to go over some of the patterns and pattern companies that we know of that have zero waste options.
Helen: Yes, I think it would be so much fun as a community if we tried some of these zero waste designs and started sewing more of these zero waste patterns and contributed more to these hashtags because that will just help this movement to continue to grow. So the first one we want to mention is the Elbe Textiles Maynard Dress pattern as well as the free tutorial for a zero waste robe that they have on their site. The Maynard is a modern style wrap dress with a really cool kind of jagged or handkerchief hem. The robe looks like a standard one; the standout part is that the pattern is a zero waste style where it’s a cutting diagram laid on top of a rectangle that represents the fabric. So every part of the rectangle is accounted for as part of the pattern.
Caroline: Yes, and one of my personal faves, Birgiita Helmersson, is a Sweden-based designer who designs patterns and garments using only zero waste design principles. She has patterns for a cropped shirt, two dresses, a jacket, and a coat available. Riika Alanko recently made a beautiful taupe version of the coat with yellow pockets. We’ll definitely link that up in the show notes. I’m also working on the zero waste dress pattern, and I’m so excited to finish it.
Helen: I’ve seen a lot of people making this design since you pointed it out to me, Caroline. It’s so, so cute. It’s very, like, on trend with voluminous sleeves and a gathered skirt. I love the button front. So I definitely want to give this one a try, too.
Caroline: Yeah, and it comes in a couple of size options which is fairly rare with zero waste patterns. So we’ll talk a little bit more about sizing later.
Helen: Okay. Cris Wood Sews has instructions for a couple of dresses and a jacket for purchase on her website. The Envelope dress has been really popular on Instagram lately. Both of the dress patterns are kind of a caftan style. One with closed sides and one with open and fluttery sides.
Caroline: Yes, and next up is Milan AV-JC. This is the home of designer Mylène L’Orguilloux’s patterns. They are all free as of May of last year under an open source license. And of course, you can also make a donation for her hard work. There are dresses, a pair of pants, a jumpsuit, a bag, and a trench coat.
Helen: DIY Daisy isn’t known for designing zero waste, but many of her tutorials use rectangles that could be adapted to be zero waste if you use the full width of the fabric and maybe do some piecing here and there.
Caroline: Yes, and then Schnittchen Patterns has two zero waste patterns; one for a dress and top, and another for a top only.
Helen: The Craft of Clothes on Etsy has a zero waste top, backpack, skirt, a hoodie, two dress patterns as well as a low waste Pinafore pattern. The designer, Elizabeth M. Haywood, also wrote a book called Zero Waste Sewing: 16 Projects to Make and Enjoy, so you can find her patterns in there as well.
Caroline: And then Make/Use, they’re a zero waste pattern company based in New Zealand, and they offer their patterns for free. They have two shirts, a coat, two dresses, a skirt, and a pair of trousers. Their Spiral Trousers pattern looks especially intriguing. The seam starts at the back waistband and spirals down over the legs. That is pretty cool.
Helen: It’s so neat. This is one of the things about zero waste patterns that I find, as a designer, so intriguing is that you get really unique style lines with a lot of these patterns because, of course, you have to get creative about how to construct the garment to not waste any of the fabric. So you might end up with some really cool ties, some cool wraps, in this case, a really cool spiral seam. They kind of have a look to them, zero waste patterns, not all of them, obviously. But I do like that there is this style of modern sewing patterns that is developing around the zero waste aesthetic.
Caroline: Yeah, it’s really, really cool. I love seeing how designers decide to use those little pieces cause sometimes it can just be a patch, you know, that doesn’t really serve a purpose. It’s just adding a design feature. And sometimes it’s really serving a functional purpose, like a pocket or a belt loop or something like that. So it’s so fascinating to see how things come together.
Helen: Yeah, Danielle Elsiner has a free pattern for zero waste scrubs that is graded from an XS-2X. That’s awesome.
Caroline: That is awesome. Thread Faction has a collection of zero waste patterns for kids. That’s so cool. There’s enough to make a full closet of clothes: T-shirts, a skirt, a pinafore, shorts, pants, a sweater, and a bag.
Helen: Oh, so smart. Another thing with kids clothes, like, if you’re cutting out something for yourself and you have some scraps leftover, you can use those often to make kids’ clothes. Maybe you piece a few fabrics together. You can have a lot of fun mixing prints for kids’ clothes and for yourself, obviously, but for kids’ clothes, especially. The aesthetic really suits it. So don’t be afraid to use your scraps to sew kids’ clothes too.
Caroline: Oh yeah, totally. And like a matching scrunchie for your kid or like…
Helen: Oh yeah.
Caroline: Yeah. So cute.
Helen: Or for you or for…
Caroline: Yeah, totally.
Helen: I have a scrunchie in right now. I’m a scrunchie fan.
Caroline: Okay. Bag.uettes recently released the Zero Waste Wave Bags pattern which includes large, medium, and small zero waste bags. The top edge has a really cool wave to it which is a unique detail I haven’t really seen in zero waste. Um, but it makes so much sense and it’s so cool.
Helen: Timo Rissanen and Holly McQuillan, leaders in this field, published a book called Zero Waste Fashion Design that includes design strategies as well as sample zero waste patterns; it’s possible to use this book to make those patterns or as a reference to make your own zero waste patterns. How cool would that be?
Caroline: Very, very cool. When it comes to zero waste sewing patterns, there are definitely some barriers we have to acknowledge. And the first one is fit. Often zero waste sewing patterns come in one or only a few broad sizes to fit a range of measurements. “One size fits all” doesn’t work for many people though. Many sewists will not fit into the range of measurements that they’re offering. And even people who are within the range of measurements for a roomy piece may have trouble with fit because how a garment fits a person at the low end of the range will fit the person at the top end very differently.
Helen: Yeah, I think this is super important to note. I mean, it reminds me of, like, when you shop for ready to wear, and sometimes things are “one size fits all.” And I just always laugh when I see that tag. I mean, even on things, like, as simple as a hat, “one size fits all” is certainly not gonna fit everybody, right? But I do think that there are ways to get around this, especially if you’re interested in designing your own zero waste patterns because the principles are the same. You just need to apply them to make sure that the garment is fitting your specific body. Or maybe you can tweak a zero waste pattern that’s out there already and piece things together to make some adjustments to make it work for you. Obviously, it’s not ideal, and hopefully, we’ll see more zero waste sewing pattern designers coming out with patterns with more groups of sizing so that more people can be included.
Caroline: Yeah, I think the zero waste sewing pattern world is fairly new. And I think it’s really important that we use our voice. I know that’s one thing that I ran into when I was looking at zero waste patterns is that there weren’t many that I felt comfortable making cause I felt like, oh, I’m kind of either at the top or beyond the size range and maybe it would fit me, but they’re not really catering to me, you know? So reaching out to these designers and letting them know, hey, I’m here, and I’m outside of your size range, or I don’t fit in with this kind of, you know, diagram that you’ve put together for your zero waste pattern. Can you make another one for a larger size range? And just using your voice to make sure that they know that you are wanting to support them, but only if they’re really paying attention to you and catering to you.
Helen: Yeah, that’s so true. Okay. The second barrier to acknowledge is that fabric widths vary, and they vary a lot more than I think we realize. We kind of think in sewing of… as there being like two camps, there’s the narrow fabric which is like 115 centimeters and then the wider fabric which is around 150 centimeters. But there’s so much on either end of that. I know, Caroline, you must experience this at Blackbird. Like how many different widths are there out there?
Caroline: Oh my gosh, every width under the sun. Even a single fabric from the same manufacturer could be different widths in different colors, depending on, you know, the dye lot when it was manufactured. So anywhere from 40 inches to 70 inches. For some denims, you’ll get every single increment of measurement in between those two widths and sometimes even less, depending on the fabric. So, it is really important to keep that in mind which is why I think that zero waste design is so cool when they lay out these diagrams that aren’t necessarily giving you exact measurements. They’re often just having you split up your fabric into quadrants, you know, or thirds or, you know, half, or whatever. But yeah, one thing that was cool when I was, uh, starting to work on my zero waste dress from Birgitta Hellmerson is that her chart was for, like, a 55 inch fabric. But the one that I was thinking of working with was only 40 to 45 inches. So it really didn’t work with her diagram as she laid it out. But I ended up cutting out all the little squares, like, from the diagram and sort of rearranging them myself to work with the width of fabric that I had. And it actually totally would have worked. I didn’t end up going with that fabric cause I didn’t have quite enough of it, but it would have worked. So you can totally, like, rework those diagrams to fit the fabric that you have if you need to.
Helen: Yeah, and that’s a great tip for, just for, sewing in general, because when you’re looking at patterns, you’ll see the cutting layouts, and you’ll see the fabric requirements, and sometimes you’ll want to use a fabric that you have that doesn’t match with what’s going on in the instructions. So printing out the pattern ahead of time and laying it out on a table, or if you have the skills to do it digitally, that can be so helpful. And you will save fabric that way, and then you won’t be overbuying or overusing fabric that you have.
Caroline: Oh, yeah. And I’ve seen some really cool, like mixing of fabrics, too. Like, if you find that you don’t have enough of the original fabric, you were thinking of, maybe try working in another fabric from your stash, maybe in your scrap pile for small details here and there. So that you’re really trying to, like, make the most of your stash throughout the process.
Helen: Yeah, and if you’re ordering online, you’re often limited to a whole yard or half yard length. So it’s impossible to get exact dimensions that the pattern asks for with these zero waste patterns sometimes. Um, so just keep that in mind. Obviously, if you can go in person, then you can get a little bit more specific with the amount that you’re ordering.
Caroline: Yeah, or if you end up having to buy, let’s say, you know, an extra 30 centimeters of fabric, then you would really want to make it truly zero waste. Use that extra fabric, use it for masks. Use it to maybe lengthen your garment a little bit. Maybe if it’s a dress, you can just add that 30 centimeters to the length of the garment or make an extra wide hem. I think there’s so many ways that you can still utilize that additional fabric and still make it zero waste.
Helen: So smart. Okay. The third barrier is that often these patterns require the user to draft it themselves. So, sewists who have limited space, resources, or energy to draft their own patterns might find this process a little bit overwhelming or just more than you’re ready to do in, like, your hour of evening sewing.
Caroline: Oh, absolutely. It’s a lot more challenging I find to draft your own pattern, even though you’d think it would be easier. I just get overwhelmed when I’m having to, kind of, lay out measurements, and you need a lot of space. So I can totally see how some sewists would just be like, you know what, this is not for me. And I get that. I think all of these barriers are important to keep in mind when we’re advocating for zero waste patterns. There are many ways to reduce waste in your sewing practice. So it’s just good to keep an open mind and not judge others harshly for choices you may not understand.
Helen: Yes, that’s true. I thought of something else that I think might come up when you’re working with zero waste patterns is that sometimes they may require more yardage than a regular pattern does, like, especially, you know, for, like, a full jumpsuit or a dress or something. Maybe the yardage requirement is, you know, five or six meters versus like three meters might be what you’re used to making a dress pattern, you know, from an indie pattern designer or something like that. So it’s not a bad thing, obviously, you know, you’re using every inch of that fabric. So it’s all being very well used, but you could use three meters instead and then use the scraps to make masks or kids’ clothes or other scrap busting projects. So if that’s more your style, there can be benefits to that as well.
Caroline: Yeah, absolutely. Okay. So with all of that in mind, I think we should go over some habits that our listeners can incorporate into their sewing practice to reduce waste. So these don’t require a pattern or instructions. These are just things that you can do on the day-to-day in your sewing practice to make your sewing more sustainable and reduce your waste.
Helen: So the first one is a little interesting. You can reduce seam allowance. If you would know that you’re going to trim your seam allowances anyway, and you’re confident in your sewing, you can reduce your seam allowances to the trimmed length that you’re going to be using. Then you won’t have a pile of trimmings at the end of your sewing. And as a bonus, you might be able to squeeze your pattern pieces in just a little bit closer and get a better cutting layout.
Caroline: This is such a good tip, and I’ve definitely done this before when I’ve been short on fabric, just kind of, like, overlap the seam allowance a little bit, and it’ll be fine.
Helen: Or, like, this a-line skirt’s just going to be a little less a-line so I can fit the two pieces next to each other.
Caroline: And that’s totally fine in the spirit of using less fabric. I think that that is absolutely a-okay. You can also shop your stash, so make the best of what you have. I think this is a really good eco-friendly sustainable practice. It’s gonna save you time. It’s gonna save you money. It’s gonna give you an opportunity to fall back in love with some of the fabrics that you loved so much when you bought them. I know I fall prey to this as a fabric shop owner. I am constantly seeing all the new, fresh, shiny things come into the store, and I always wanna buy basically everything. But, you know, I also have a stash full of fabrics that I was excited about a month ago or six months ago or six years ago. So dive into your stash and figure out what you can use that you already have. I think that’s one of the huge ways that we can be more sustainable as sewists.
Helen: Yeah, and I think an important part of this is having your stash in a place that’s accessible and maybe even visual, on display, so you can see it, and you can be inspired by it and be reminded of all the lovely things you have. I used to keep my fabric in tote bins under my desk, and they were basically hidden away. And so it was really easy to buy new things when you’ve forgotten completely about all the stuff that you have. Don’t even get me started on the mending pile. I mean, why start a new project when you have 18 things to mend, but hey, that happens right?
Caroline: I know I’m resolved to do mending on my, on our next, uh, sewing afternoon, our next Zoom sewing session cause I have so much mending to do. Okay. The next thing you can do to just be a little bit less wasteful in your sewing practice is to buy second hand fabric. So thrift shops often carry donated fabric pieces. We’ve also seen some great garments made from unconventional thrifted fabrics, like tablecloths and vintage sheets. Francisco of @ciscosews on Instagram has made a lot of amazing garments from thrifted textiles. So we’ll definitely link that one up in the show notes.
Helen: Yeah, and I want to give a quick shout out to our assistant, Lisa, because she makes all sorts of really cool things out of tablecloths and stuff like that, and I just think that’s amazing. I have a couple of tablecloths that we used growing up and they’re printed tablecloths that we used outside. So they’re completely “sun damaged.” I’m putting it in quotes cause, I mean, they’re actually fine. It’s just that the print has faded in areas, and I really wanna make a garment out of them because I feel like I can use that faded print as, like, an ombre effect so it almost looked like the garment’s, like, dip-dyed.
Caroline: Ooh!
Helen: And, you know, there’s, like, maybe a few, like, food stains here and there, but I thought maybe I’d work it into the project. And it could just be this really nice reminder of, like, all the lovely dinners that we had on those tablecloths.
Caroline: Ooh, or you could do some, like, embroidery over the stains…
Helen: Oh, true!
Caroline: …or, like, patches of other scraps of fabrics that you can use up your scraps as well.
Helen: Are you trying to say you’re not into my stain positive garment?
Caroline: I’m all for being stain positive. We’re coining a new term. I need to be stain positive because I stain my clothes all the time.
Helen: Right? Then you don’t have to worry so much about it.
Caroline: I love that. Now, when someone points out a stain, I’m going to be like, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m a stain positive person.
Helen: All stains are welcome. You can also use thread from your stash that doesn’t quite match your fabric. You can choose a contrasting thread for a top stitched look, or you can just use a similar-not-quite-matching thread on the seams and seam finishes that won’t be visible from the outside. I do this all the time because it drives me crazy when the thread spools get, just like, down to that last, I don’t know, you could sew maybe a couple of feet with them. And then I’ll just do a project where I get all of my spools out, and I have them next to my sewing machine, and I just pop them into the machine as I sew, and I use them for all the construction seams and you’d never know.
Caroline: Such a good point. You mean you don’t play thread chicken at the end of every single one of your projects?
Helen: Sometimes you finish a project and there’s just that tiny bit left on the spool. And you have like a little dance party because it’s so exciting, but then you have to use that up at some point.
Caroline: True. Okay. You can also compost some fabric, so all natural fibers can technically be composted. Now I’m talking natural fibers like silk, cotton, linen, hemp, not, uh, cellulose fibers like, you know, rayon or bamboo or EcoVero or those kinds of things. So you want to go really natural with the fibers. Just watch out for certain dyes because sometimes the dyes can’t go into the compost. So if you’re thinking of composting a fabric, you want to do a little bit of research on, like, what the limitations are in your area, in terms of composting, and what kinds of things maybe are in that garment or that textile that might limit you from composting it. But it is possible for some fabrics.
Helen: Yeah. That’s pretty exciting. And some garments, you know, they can break down better in a landfill, if they do end up there, if you’ve used cotton thread and you haven’t used plastic closures and things like that. So we do have a couple of sustainability focused episodes on the podcast, as well as that scrap busting episode we mentioned earlier, where we have a lot more ideas of cool projects that you can make with all your scraps. So we’ll link everything in the show notes, and I think that you’ll find lots of inspiration there as well.
Caroline: Okay, before we end the episode, we want to share an organization doing work that is related to fashion and the environment, and that is Fashion Revolution. We’ve mentioned them on the show before, but just to recap, they organize Fashion Revolution Week which happens every April around the anniversary of the Rana Plaza garment factory collapse. This was a tragedy in 2013, that killed 1,138 people and injured many more. And Fashion Revolution is an organization that works to change the fashion industry, focusing on human rights and environmental responsibility. We’re gonna link them in the show notes so that you can get involved, and it’s such an important organization and so important to acknowledge that these things do happen in the garment industry, and we need to be working to change that.
Helen: Yeah, one of the things that Fashion Revolution promotes during this week, which I think is happening the week the episode comes out, is getting in touch with brands that you like and asking them to be more transparent about where they are manufacturing their items, how their workers are being paid, their environmental impacts, and how they are focusing on improving those. And just making sure that you’re using the voice that you have to ask those important questions, and it can make a big difference. So, during this week, you know, maybe scrap bust something, maybe just organize your fabric stash and fall back in love with what you have. Try one of these zero waste patterns. Try piecing together something and figuring out how to sew something out of the random scraps you have lying around or just participate in Fashion Revolution Week by following along with Fashion Revolution and everything that they’ve got going on this week.
Caroline: Yes. And we’d love to hear from you about the greater topic of zero waste sewing and what your experience has been like, what kind of patterns you love. Show us things that you’ve sewn out of zero waste designs. We really wanna see your zero waste sewing. So get in touch with us on email, voicemail, Instagram, DM, mention, and we’d love to hear from you this week.
Helen: That’s it for today’s episode of Love to Sew you can find me Helen at helensclosetpatterns.com and Caroline at blackbirdfabrics.com.
Caroline: We’re recording today in beautiful British Columbia, Canada, and you can get in touch with us and get links for everything we talked about in this episode at lovetosewpodcast.com.
Helen: If you’re enjoying the show and you want to help us out, you can support us on Patreon. Contribute $5 or more a month, and you’ll get access to our bonus episode feed. We release a bonus episode every month where Caroline and I catch up about what we’re sewing, what we’ve been doing in our personal lives, and just have a good chit chat for about half an hour to an hour. It’s really fun. So you get access to that for $5 a month. Or if you contribute $10 or more a month, you also get a 15% discount code for Blackbird Fabrics, for Helen’s Closet and for our swag shop lovetosewshop.com. So go to patreon.com/lovetosew for more info.
Caroline: Yes, and thank you to our amazing podcast team. And thank you all so much for listening. We will talk to you next week.
Helen: Buh bye.
Caroline: Bye.
Caroline: It’s really an extra ordinary visual.
Helen: Extra ordinary,
Caroline: Extra ordinary.
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You should check out Swanson’s Fabrics! https://www.swansonsfabrics.com/
It is a great resource for thrifted fabric. I first heard about them on the Sewing for the Weekend podcast.
Also, as you mentioned, many of the zero-waste patterns often use a lot more fabric. Sometimes it feels like it is just so nothing is wasted. I would rather make a garment out of less fabric in general, do some “pattern tetris” and try to be careful about how I use or dispose of waste.
Hi Heidi! Thanks for that tip; it seems like such a cool shop. 🙂 We hear you! There are lots of ways to reduce waste, and we’re glad you found ways that work for you.
Hi Hellen and Caroline, I would suggest a written version of the disclaimer you mention at the beggining of every episode. I am curious but cannot make further research coause I don’t know how to write the names of the origin people you say in English. Thank you. Lot od love to you both
Hi Flavia! We are currently working with a transcriber to make accurate transcripts for this season’s episodes! We should have a transcript up at the end of the show notes later this week. The land acknowledgement will be a part of it. Thanks for listening and commenting! Sending love!
Hello there,
Maybe I missed it but I thought with the tips at the end you maybe should have mentioned cutting on the flat (I find that usually uses less fabric!).
Another thing I often use my scraps for is dolls clothes. I have a nine year old daughter and she LOVES it when her dolls clothes match hers or mine. I don’t even really bother with grain lines or anything with them either – frankly no-one is going to be looking at dolly’s twisty clothes 🙂 (certainly not my daughter anyway)
I also agree with the poster above – I’d rather just make a garment out of less fabric rather than buy more and use it all. (Also I don’t doubt you – but I don’t even get the logic of how that works?!)
Hi, Siobhan!
You’re right; that’s an important tip! That is so cute about the doll clothes – love it.
Hello Helen and Caroline ,
Im Deepika ,
I recently found you guys. Im not a dress maker , I love to sew accessories and home decors, but I am thinking to make my wardrobe after I found you guys .
I was listening to your zero waste episode, its amazing how much u can save and recycle, personally I save small bits for art quilting and smaller bits to make collages with my kid.
I came across this in my FB feed, not related to sewing but realted to garment industry waste ,may be u guys have heard of this but jus wanted to share , good things hav to go around right .
https://fb.watch/7pUgRcICS0/
learning a lot from your podcast, keep inspiring and spreading positive vibes and confidence 🙂
Thank you
Hi Deepika! So glad you found us. I hope you try out garment sewing – it’s so fun. If you can sew accessories and home decor, you can definitely sew your own clothes! Love that you do art quilting and make collages with your kid. What a great use of scraps. That video is so cool! I haven’t seen it before. Thanks so much for sharing it. It was great to hear from you. Happy sewing!