Category Archives: sustainability

Sew 300 – Celebrating thrifty repairs

We know that endless growth is impossible in a finite world. Therefore being thrifty, conserving resources, repurposing and repairing existing clothing are actions that contribute to the sustainability of life on Earth.

I find it interesting that some of the wealthiest people are also the thriftiest. Just because one can afford to go out and buy new clothing, doesn’t mean one does. I wrote about this in an earlier post and quoted UK design guru Kevin McCloud’s views on thrift “throw nothing away if you can help it and wear your clothes until they are rags – thrift is an admirable value that we have lost”.

Well-worn and cherished resources are often more comfortable, they have a story attached, and may even be of better quality than newer stuff. Thrift underpins this 365-day Sew it Again project which is valuing, reusing, repairing and refashioning natural-fibre clothing instead of always buying new. Continue reading →

Sew 297 – Silk worn across generations

We have clothing, and then we have fashion clothing. Clothing withstands the passage of time, whereas fashion comes and goes.

Professor Kate Fletcher Sustainable Fashion and Textiles says fashion links us to time and space – and caters to emotional and social needs. Where the fashion sector and the clothing industry come together – in fashion clothes – our emotional needs are made manifest as garments. She says this overlaying of emotional needs on physical goods fuels resource consumption, generates waste and promotes short-term thinking. It also leaves us feeling dissatisfied and disempowered, because external physical possessions are unable to satisfy internal psychological and emotional needs, no matter how much new stuff we consume. Continue reading →

Sew 294 – Pulling the threads together

Dr Wendy Relf and Adrienne Richards at Hawkesbury Regional Gallery

It is always helpful to gain fresh perspective on the Sew it Again project as I did today with my sister-in-law Wendy Relf and Hawkesbury Regional Gallery education and public program officer Adrienne Richards.

The project is a creative journey that connects head and heart. It bridges memories of childhood, agricultural science study, communications work and a love of nature – as well as purposefully engaging me in issues of ecological health and wellbeing. As I chatted to Adrienne about my journey from early days on the farm through agricultural science to rural reporting and then issues-based communications work – her summation was that Sew it Again is ‘pulling all the threads together’. Thanks Adrienne, I’ll take those words and put them to good use!

Continue reading →

Sew 288 – The rest of the cotton story

Australian cotton has a great story to tell about its reduced use of pesticides and water, as outlined in yesterday’s post. What has enabled those efficiencies is that cotton plants have been genetically modified to resist insect attack by heliothis pests.

Additionally, cotton growers routinely engage agronomists to check the crop several times a week to oversee the level of beneficial insects and decide when irrigation needs to be scheduled for best effect.

Cotton plants not only produce fibre, but also food in the form of cotton seed which is used as animal feed – with the ratio being two tonne of cotton seed for every one tonne of fibre produced. Continue reading →

Sew 287 – Great story of Aussie cotton

The Australian cotton industry has a cracking story to tell about its sustainability credentials, with pesticide use down by 95 per cent and water use down by 40 per cent according to Cotton Australia’s CEO Adam Kay.

Speaking at the Rural Press Club of Queensland in Brisbane today, Mr Kay said telling the story of Australian cotton to clients and customers enables the industry to take its place as a sustainable source of natural fibres – and face-down creeping competition from synthetic fibres such as polyester which is derived from petroleum.

Having begun its Best Management Practice program in 1997 along with environmental auditing, water-use efficiency measures and more recently the Better Cotton Initiative, the Australian industry is now sharing its story with global customers interested in sustainable natural fibres. View Mr Kay’s talk below.

Continue reading →

Sew 286 – Going green in Brisbane

A lot of interesting, green and thrifty people come to the Green Heart Fair. They come to pick up their free trees from Brisbane City Council, to see Peppa Pig and to gather ideas on how to live more sustainably.

Green Heart Fair values are in alignment with Textile Beat and Sew it Again values. As my rough-hewn signage says, Sew it Again values are creative, mindful, ethical, original, thrifty, eco-friendly, sustainable, unique and zero waste.

Thanks to my friends Neroli Roocke and Leanne McKnoulty for helping out, and the many interested folk who stopped by the Textile Beat activity tent. Continue reading →

Sew 284 – Green Heart is fair

It is great to live in a city that invests in a sustainability ethos by hosting the free Green Heart Fair twice every year as a community and sustainability festival, promoting innovative green living in a fun, family-friendly way.

The Green Heart Fair website says “more than 100 of our leading sustainability organisations, community groups, artisans, foodies, green-thumbs, conservationists, businesses and eco experts will be sharing information and knowledge with visitors on how to live more sustainably and offering vital tips to reduce rising cost of living pressures”.

Textile Beat will be there with some Sew it Again garments on display and running a free T-shirts Reworked workshop. Continue reading →

Sew 283 – Creating a hemline curve

The innovative Undress Runways is back in Brisbane tomorrow and I’m looking forward to seeing upcycled looks on the runway.

Undress Runways supports ethical and environmentally-friendly sustainable fashion – including ‘no-waste’ collections, ethical production, ‘food dyed’ garments, natural fibres, and unique pieces made from off-cuts.

The Undress Runways website has these simple tips on how to be sustainable:

Consume less, use what you have
Upcycle old garments you no longer wear
Choose garments of organic/recycled fabrics Continue reading →

Sew 280 – Clothing has no use-by date

Unlike food, clothing does not have a use-by date. Certainly some styles become dated but most clothing never gets a chance to wear out.

In the past we valued our clothing, bought quality, laundered with care, mended and maintained, handed down or passed on.

Engineer James Moody says it takes 10,000 litres of water to produce 1 kg of cotton, so we ought to treat cotton clothing with more respect – using, reusing, recycling or upcycling it – doing everything but put it in landfill.

Moody is CEO of online sharing platform Tu-Share and recently participated in a Rethinking Waste conversation with ABC Nightlife’s Tony Delroy along with National Association of Charitable Recycling Organisations CEO Kerryn Caulfield. Listen to the fascinating podcast here. Continue reading →

Sew 279 – Think outside the circle

It is easy to be caught up in a lifestyle in which competitive market-driven forces whip up a frenzy of ‘need’ for bigger, brighter, newer and supposedly better. Through glossy advertising, we’re sold an illusion that happiness and satisfaction can be bought with the latest and greatest material possessions. Even the promotion of ‘light-green’ or so-called sustainable living often involves buying more stuff.

So it is refreshing to hear discussion about how to move beyond growth economics and towards a ‘steady-state’ economy, with a focus on simpler, less consumptive ways of living.

Last week at the University of New South Wales, the 2014 Australian Academy of Science Fenner Conference on the Environment topic was: Addicted to Growth? How to move to a Steady State Economy in Australia This spawned an article about life in a degrowth economy on The Conversation website, written by research fellow at Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute at University of Melbourne, Samuel Alexander. Continue reading →