Tag Archives: Ecouterre

Sew 291 – Re-learning care for clothes

The study of home economics has disappeared from some Australian schools entirely and is considered a lightweight in others – yet it teaches important life-skills about food and nutrition, sewing and textiles, and consumer citizenship.

Lack of knowledge about food and food preparation is no doubt contributing to obesity while absence of simple sewing and laundering skills leads to many clothing being discarded prematurely.

Recent United States research discussed in this Ecouterre article found that young people there have little idea of how to care for clothes. Textiles and Apparel Professor Pamela Norum from the University of Missouri-Columbia surveyed hundreds of American baby boomers and millennials about clothing consumption and found the ability to sew, hem, repair, and launder diminished across generations. Continue reading →

Sew 246 – Reusing what already exists

The coming to consciousness about what we wear on our bodies is being driven along by many factors – including popular culture icons engaging their profile and influence for greater good.

Pharrell Williams, of ‘Happy’ fame, is one such musician involved in a fashion initiative that is turning plastic and ocean waste into desirable clothing under the G-Star RAW for the Oceans collection launching this month. Read more in this 1 Million Women article by Bronte Hogarth.

Another popular musician Will.i.am is stepping out too, in sharply tailored suits made by Coca-Cola funded reuse initiative Ekocycle with fabric created from recycled plastic bottles, as reported by Ecouterre magazine and in the video below. Continue reading →

Sew 217 – Shift thinking on textile waste

The funny thing about this Sew it Again project in which I set out to reduce my clothing stockpile is that I seem to be accumulating more! There is so much surplus clothing in the world, that people either give it away, donate to charities or dump it to reduce the burden it has become.

Because I see waste clothing as a resource, I’m spending this year coming up with ways individuals can reuse it and sharing them on this blog, at workshops and talks. Around the world, there are other thrifty, resource-savvy people reusing waste clothing too – just google upcycling or refashion. We are part of a DIY refashion revolution exploring more sustainable, mindful and resourceful ways of living.

When I reflect on progress to date, I’m excited that local government authorities are inviting me to demonstrate what can be done with old clothing – via the t-shirts reworked workshop last Sunday at Redcliffe City Council’s What’s Cooking in the Gardens event, and a similar activity planned for Brisbane City Council’s Green Heart Fair at Carindale on October 12. Continue reading →

Sew 170 – REfashion is non-toxic

The reasons why I’m upcycling natural fibre garments during 2014 include because it is creative, mindful, resourceful, flexible, sustainable, thrifty, bespoke, handy, fun, ethical, reducing waste, shifting habits, demonstrating alternatives and non-toxic.

This Ecouterre article about toxic threads provides further affirmation: “Around 80 billion garments are produced worldwide, the equivalent of just over 11 garments a year for every person on the planet, according to Greenpeace. The growing volumes of clothing being made, sold, and disposed of magnifies the human and environmental costs of our clothes at every stage of their life cycle, which means that even minute quantities of toxins can cumulatively amount to the widespread dispersal of damaging chemicals across the globe, the group says.” Continue reading →

Sew 113 – Jean genie

Jeans are produced in their millions annually and an average pair weighs at least half a kilogram. That’s a huge resource in terms of cotton farmed, fibre spun, fabric woven, dyed, sewn, finished and marketed.

It is enthralling – and appalling – to think that 253 tons of clothing is thrown away by Hong Kong residents on the average day, according to their Environmental Protection Department.

Redress is a Hong-Kong based NGO with a mission to promote environmental sustainability in the fashion industry by reducing textile waste, pollution, water and energy consumption.

The 5-metre high mountain of second-hand clothing, photographed below, was designed as part of the Get Redressed campaign to illustrate the Chinese territory’s textile waste and is just the tip of a precipice because it represents only 7.5 tons of textiles, or 3% of the daily dumping of clothing. Continue reading →