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My feet hover nervously over the sewing machine pedal. I carefully worked on my own sewing kit produced by Pattern Project, a micro manufacturing start-up in south London. It has pioneered laser cutting machines that can cut patterns on demand, with minimal waste. The bits for the drop-sleeved dress I’ve sewn have been cut to my exact size with a tiny zippy laser, whizzing across the crisp Irish linen, a faint seam guide that seams into the fabric so I know exactly where to sew.
Pattern Projects founders Shruti Grover, 34, and Simon Johnson, 35 partners in life and business are seeking funding for their first store. The vision of 22nd century fashion, Grover said, would not be in stock, but would sell custom-made clothes that are laser cut in front of you within minutes, from local, ethical and sustainable fabrics and then sewn by you.
They have collaborated on a zero-waste pattern for the latest collection by fashion designer Phoebe English, while last weekend they exhibited at V&A in west London as part of London Design Festival.
The Pattern project is on the cutting edge of a renaissance of homemade clothing, but it’s not the only business facilitating home-stitched fashion. The catalyst is Covid. We took six weeks of selling in one day during the lockdown, said Michael Jones of Traders & Factory, which sells anything you need for patterns, fabrics, tools, and online tutorials for sewing your own. Even now, 18 months on, sales are 50% higher than before the pandemic.
Shedding the image of mummies and hobbyists, the sewing movement itself (SIY) has become something more modern, sustainable and social. For starters, sewers have been renamed tailors because who wants to be mistaken for a sewage pipe? Plus, thanks to the new wave of independent pattern makers, it’s not hard to find trending designs, downloadable in pdf format anywhere in the world.
When I tell people that I make my own clothes they look at me like: Oh, you poor thing, say Leila and Angelo, a 34-year-old insurance broker who cleaned his sewing machine during the second UK lockdown. Then I walked in in a bustier dress and they were like: Sorry, what? That’s not what I expected.
According to Jones, his new customers are young people and mostly women, who are against fast fashion and are more interested in environmental issues. Many are motivated to sew because it allows them to avoid sweatshop production. Many people understand that cutting and sewing is where exploitation happens, says Lydia Morrow, a 25-year-old sewing influencer based in Glasgow who shares microtutorials on Instagram Stories. I can cut it now.
There is a lot of support available for novice tailors as well. NS Fashion District Festival, a five-day celebration of sustainable fashion that took place last week in Stratford, east London, dedicated a third of this year’s program to maker workshops, including a tutorial on recycling scarves into kimonos, organized by a community interest company. Trashion Factory. There’s a great desire for people to get involved in their own style, says Helen Lax, the festival’s founder. This is a different incarnation of the good life. Instead of just following a pattern, the creator community will go out of the way and try. It’s about being able to control your style.
For many tailors, face masks are the gateway drug. After seeing a request for 500 cloth masks from a homeless charity, Lydia Higginson, founder of Create My Closet sewing equipment, gathered his followers to help. It was a quick win of the perfect little challenge to get people back on their machines, he said. And then they’re like: What else can I make?
The new generation of bespoke sewing kits complete with patterns, sustainable fabrics and the promise of a clean conscience serve as outstretched hands waiting to guide newborn tailors through the daunting process of sewing. Made My Wardrobe, which has sold 20,000 dungarees kits (out of 58) and patterns (12.50) since its launch two years ago, also offers kits for underwear, trousers and swimwear, using recycled denim and recycled fishing line. (in UK sizes 6 to 24). If you get stuck, the Made My Wardrobe and Pattern Project offers sewing video tutorials.
Although you’ll only find British and European organic fabrics at the Pattern Project (as well as Italian polyamides which they claim will biodegrade about five years after the exile), the bigger fashion problem it wants to solve is overstock. Estimated 20% of the 100 billion clothing items produced annually are unsold; they are then usually buried, shredded or burned. Brands are always over-ordering, Grover said. It’s cheaper to produce more and sell at insanely slower discounts than to produce less, but higher-quality goods. Pattern Projects’ main goal is to laser look at zero waste in fashion stores and clothing stores across the country, so clothes can be cut and sewn on demand, affordably and quickly.
Meanwhile, tailors play what they call the Tetris pattern making the pattern fit into a smaller amount of fabric, said Atia Azmi, 38, a GP and a number of un:CUT: The Makers Podcast. According to the government 2019 Report Fix Mode, as much as 15% of fabric can end up on the cutting room floor. Hundreds of thousands of tons of fabric are wasted during the design and production stages before the clothes reach the customer. In the sewing community, downloadable zero-waste patterns have exploded online.
Reducing the mileage of clothing and its component parts through the supply chain is also a tailor’s agenda. Starting point for newly opened Fix Assembly in Totnes, Devon a two-story hub that offers a craft room, tailoring, repair and recycling workshop is clothing localism, says co-founder Joss Whipple.
In addition to leveraging existing waste streams (recycling old T-shirts into children’s leggings, say), Mend Assembly hopes to work with the nonprofit group’s regenerative agriculture-to-clothes concept. Fiber warehouse, where local demand for clothing is met by using locally sourced natural fibers in a closed manner. We believe that when clothing becomes aligned with local practices, so many of the problematic elements of the global commercial model are lost, from carbon reduction and transportation to deeper connections, respecting and caring for the clothes we own and wear, says the Mend Assemblys website.
The relationship is real to those in the maker community. When you’re wearing something you’ve made, there’s not a second you don’t notice, says danAngelo. Every time I look down I think of the mistakes I made and the way I saved them and I am filled with pride. This is the highest in conscious consumption.
The My Pattern Project dress took four hours to sew, although a professional could make it in an hour. This experience gave me a new appreciation for the skilled sewing of millions of ungrateful garment workers around the world. The more you make for yourself, the more you realize the time and effort it takes to make something and how cheap things are on the road, compared to how long it takes, says Azmi. The value that people place on fashion has diminished due to cost.
For dAngelo, the self-proclaimed mile-per-minute, sewing was the only way I could slow down and give my body space to relax. Morrow, who has made half of the outfits she owns, says: It feels so empowering to create from scratch an extension of who you are. For Azmi, it’s about the morale boost that comes with perfecting the fit. I’m 5 feet 2 inches [1.57 metres], so usually the clothes are too long or the shoulders don’t fit. Now I can customize it exactly how I want it, or match it with a hijab, or make the sleeves longer. I feel more confident when something fits well.
To get involved, dAngelo recommends following the Instagram hashtags #sewfrosting, #indiepatterns, and #tntpatterns. You’ll find monthly challenges based on loose themes, but the main challenge is sewing your entire outfit. Working towards a handcrafted 80:20 ratio for purchased outfits, dAngelo challenged himself this summer to create 15 pieces of holiday wear. Tailoring to the last second, he says he feels like a capable person in a world spinning out of control. Shopping of the past has been replaced with research trips; instead of asking: Should I buy this? he now asks: Can I make one? He said: If I’m not ready to spend five hours making it, do I really want it?
I walked out of the Pattern Project studio in a dress that matched the color I wanted. This kit costs 60. I found myself thinking: What to make next?
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Sources 2/ https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/sep/28/sew-it-yourself-inside-the-zero-waste-zero-sweatshop-revolution The mention sources can contact us to remove/changing this article |
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