Fabric waste and repurposing

 

 Dark and dreary days - I found, in February, that what with my early rising I had NOTHING left in the evening for even small bursts of sewing...

But am catching up now! (March break! I might get a second post this week, if I finish the other project!)

I recently finished a grade 7 Geography unit on Natural Resources... inspired by my colleague NP, who had done this unit through the lens of Fast Fashion I did the same. And while little of this information is NEW to me, it was a reawakening.

In passing, I highly recommend the book "Fashionista; the Secrets behind the Clothes we Wear'" by Dana Thomas.(I purchased the young reader's edition to donate to the school library; this was an excellent read). The book begins with all the bad news, but spends a lot of time on the hopeful news... innovation in both technology and business practices.

(Darn, just noticed that the book is a bit mangled - it got wet when a car sped past me on a slushy day and got me SO Soaking wet - that the slush even went down the inside of my boot😠)

Where am I going with this? Back to my inordinate stash of off-cuts. I don't have a huge stash of fabric (although it did grow during my travels), but I keep everything that could be useful. (And even the really small scraps now, which can become stuffing for a pouffe). I am reluctant to add this to our local landfill. Even clothes that I no longer wear... I worry about where they will eventually go. (Yes, one of the videos we watched in class was about the clothes that end up in Ghana... massive piles of garbage.) I am often torn between - is this item going to become useful to someone else or go to Ghana? No point in cutting up clothing that someone else will wear, but that decision making... YIKES .

I have therefore made it a goal this year to sew up a pile of small-ish projects from my off-cuts and repurposed clothing to sell at a Christmas Craft fair in November or December. (I mentioned this in another post with the first few sewn items).

 

I finished a barista apron. It is based on the one I made myself (same fabric), but fewer bells and whistles: no hardware, for starters (this will make it easier to wash, too!). And I did not put the chest pocket, because when I put my phone there then bend down it falls out! (It fell into the brining turkey at Christmas, but my quick response meant no harm done. Phew!)

 

  

I have also completed a couple small bag:  namely a patch-work mini-duffle bag, and a Komebukuro (traditional Japanese rice bag to bring offerings to the temple). These kinds of  projects take more time than anticipated.... So much cutting and small pieces... and when upcycling, the unstitching can take a while (as in the removed pocket in the bottom piece of the duffle.

The duffle is made with pieces I had previously sewn up into squares, repurposed denim (check out the bottom🙂), and a definitely-nobody-wants-to-buy-this (as in very worn) Lululemon hoodie. This was used as the batting and for the zipper. The bottom is upcycled jeans - note the pocket silhouette. The lining is off-cut from the Liberty print cotton PJs made last Spring.

It is really small... 5 X 5 X 15 inches

bottom..

Liberty lining

  

 

 

The komebukuro is made from the vintage scraps that I purchased in a grab-bag in Tokyo.  It seemed like a good fit. Again, a long process, since the piecing was random, and I had to go from the sewing machine to the iron to the cutting table multiple times! I followed this video (Yoan's Tea Time) as a starting point - for basic measurements. Frankly I did not properly imagine the finished size, which was bigger than I expected.  (It is a cube a bit more than 7 X 7 X 7 inches... funnily, bigger than the duffle!) It would actually make a good lunch bag, although the fabric might be too fragile in this particular make. But I love how it turned out. 

I interlined this with some coated cotton bedsheet, which gives it a bit of stiffness. (In the video she uses batting.). The lining is also from the Tokyo grab bag, but not pieced (well, only where I needed to piece it to make a big enough square, but all the same colour for one square). 

inside

 

Bottom

I worry that these projects won't make a dent in my off-cut stash, though! And in the making I do make more... scraps - the smaller pieces. 

I also sometimes suffer from what one Pattern Review friend called 'FOCO' (Fear of cutting out). If I cut this now for this, I won't have it in the future for that other as yet unconceived project! 

So I forced myself to use the Liberty offcut for the duffle bag lining, since the pieces were big enough.

Another longer term project is to make some kind of patchwork piece from which to make a housecoat (robe). I would line it with wool batting (am working on getting some!). I am cutting out very small diamonds for that. It is definitely a goal for next winter.