Fashion Revolution Week 2020: get your fashion fix!

Refashioning, upcycling and mending have been some of my favourite topics to blog about, and if you look back through my blog you’ll find a variety of projects, from adding pockets to turning skirts into trousers. I love that Fashion Revolution’s campaigns also cover our responsibility as part of the fashion supply chain - as wearers of clothes, and the people who determine a garment’s fate once it’s been bought, the way we care for our clothes can reduce our environmental impact. Being able to mend clothes, or refashion them if they no longer suit our body shape or personal style, reduces the amount of new clothes we buy and keeps wearable but well-loved clothes out of landfill.

While more and more people are embracing this new mending revolution, there are sadly still plenty of people who think of sewing as old-fashioned, and refashioning as unfashionable. To try to dispel some preconceptions I’ve selected four examples to showcase for Fashion Revolution Week, to show that there are minimalist, flamboyant, practical and even silly ways to get your fashion fix on.

Visible Mending

Darning is a traditional skill but it’s having a bit of a moment right now, thanks to visible mending artists like Celia Pym and Tom of Holland. This old cardigan was one of my first visible mending projects, thanks to its popularity with clothes moths, and I’ve recently had to mend another couple of holes in the sleeve. I love the contrast of the bright yellow darning wool with the dark stripes of the knit, and I couldn’t resist embroidering antennae and legs, adding another couple of beetles to the swarm on this cardi! 

Upcycling

My sister grabbed this silk blouse as an upcycling project for me from a sample sale - the sleeves were unhemmed and were very tight and ill-fitting but the rest of the blouse looked quite nice. I removed the sleeves, then used some fabric left over from a dress I’d made for a friend to create some frills in a contrast colour. The blouse still looks neat and smart, but the pop of colour makes it unique and eye catching.

Refashioning

I’ve featured this blouse on the blog before, but I think it’s a good example of a “minimalist” refashion/upcycle and also illustrates an important point about the relationship between our bodies and our clothes. This blouse used to be a dress, but over the years since I bought it I’ve put on some weight on my hips and the bottom half of the dress had become uncomfortably tight. The top half still fitted well though, so I simply chopped it off at the waist and hemmed it, creating a boxy blouse that looks great with trousers or a skirt. Refashioning or upcycling doesn’t have to be about adding new features, it can be about taking something away, particularly if you prefer a minimalist style. I think it’s also important to remember that we should be altering our clothes to fit our bodies, not altering our bodies to fit our clothes. 

Invisible Mending

This jumpsuit is an example of invisible mending, which is something I get asked about when clothes have ripped around the crotch! I got the jumpsuit at a clothes swap, and when I tried it on at home I noticed there was a hole at the bottom of the zip where the fabric had frayed away - right on the butt. The key to invisible mending is to patch the hole from the back, then catch down any frayed fabric or loose threads with lots and lots of tiny stitches. It’s fiddly, and you’ll probably discover you need glasses, but it’s worth it when you get a smart garment looking as good as new. 

I’ve loved learning how to sew and constantly improving over the years, and I also love teaching people to sew in a creative, relaxed way - no one is going to want to learn something if it feels like a chore. The key to getting good at sewing is practice - try out ideas on old clothes that are heading for textile recycling anyway, or master a technique on a piece of scrap fabric first before making the real thing. Your projects can be flamboyant or practical, depending on your personal style and clothing requirements. I find sewing calming and meditative, especially when my anxious brain wants me to keep endlessly scrolling on my phone. If you feel like you might need a new lockdown hobby, grab some fabric, thread and a sewing needle and see where your imagination might take you.

Fixing fast fashion: adding pockets to your clothes

“I like your dress”

“Thanks! IT HAS POCKETS!”

If you’ve spent any time on the internet in the last few years, you’ll probably be familiar with this meme. If you’re a person who wears dresses, chances are you will have said exactly the same thing when someone compliments your outfit.

Everyone seems to love pockets, but fast fashion cost-cutting means that they are often left out of dresses, skirts and even some trousers designed for women. Visiting the Balenciaga exhibition at the V&A last year, I was struck by how many of the couture evening coats and capes had pockets; private clients must have been requesting pockets for occasionwear as well as more practical everyday clothes. It is frustrating that at a time when we have devices that help us to live our lives on the go, we have nowhere to store these devices about our persons. My smartphone is at the small end of the scale, and I wouldn’t trust it to stay put in some trouser pockets. Rachel Charlton-Dailey points out the disparity between the sensible-sized pockets in clothing designed for men, and the frequently useless or fake pockets in womenswear in her article for the Nopebook,  Pockets Are A Tool Of The Patriarchy.

One solution is to add pockets to our own clothes, the easiest of course being a patch pocket, a square or rectangle stitched onto the garment around three sides. If you prefer a pocket that is less of a design feature, it’s easier than you might think to add a pocket into the side seam of any garment that isn’t skin tight. I’ve chosen this skirt to demonstrate on as I was going to shorten it to mid-calf anyway, so I’ll have enough fabric to make my pocket bags from the piece I cut off the hem. If you want to add pockets to a garment that you aren’t planning to alter, buying a piece of fabric about 30-50cm wide in a similar material to your garment should give you enough to make two pockets. 

To work out the size of my pocket bag I used my hand as a guideline; allowing at least 3-4cms all the way round means I have a decent sized pocket and enough seam allowance. 

I cut out two pairs of pockets (4 separate fabric pieces) and overlocked them together around the bottom and ‘inside’ edge. It’s easy to do this with a regular sewing machine too: sew a line 1cm away from the edge of the fabric, then use a zig-zag stitch on the edge to stop the fabric from fraying.

I am extending my pocket bag up into the waistband to anchor it more securely, but you can cut your pockets without this if you are short on fabric. If you’re doing this, your fabric pieces will look more like a pair of mittens without thumbs, so you can sew all the way around your pocket pieces at this stage, just leaving the opening for your hand.

You will need to unpick a section of the side seam of your garment to insert the pocket; it’s easiest to start at least 3-4cm below the waistband. I unpicked a section that was 15cm long, then backstitched the ends of the original seam so that they wouldn’t unravel any more. I then marked a 15 cm gap on the open edge of my pocket bag and finished off the edge above and below these marks, leaving a 1cm seam allowance around the open edge of my pocket bag.

To attach the pocket, pin the seam line on your garment to the seam line on your pocket bag with the right sides facing each other. Machine stitch all around the opening of the pocket, then finish off the raw edge with a zig-zag stitch.

You can then press the edges of the pocket so they lie flat and don’t show against the edge of the garment. If you are attaching the top of the pocket bag to the waistband, you can do this by hand if you don’t want to open the waistband up. Otherwise, you can pin the top edge of the pocket bag into place and sew from the right side of the garment so your stitch line will be as unobtrusive as possible.

And... you’re done! Sling your phone, keys or bus pass into your new pockets for a low maintenance life on the go. Now, when someone compliments you on your outfit, you’ll be able to say “Thanks! It has pockets!”

My refashioning "haulternative" for Fashion Revolution Week

It’s Fashion Revolution Week this week (23rd-29th April) so it’s time for my refashioning “haulternative”: find out how my upcycling projects turned out! (Check out this blog post for "before" photos and the first part of my "haulternative" video)

I was really shocked by the amount of clothes we’re wasting here in the UK: the average woman has £285 worth of unworn clothes in her wardrobe, and considering the price of fast fashion, that’s a lot of outfits we are missing out on! As a country, we’re hoarding £30 billion worth of unworn clothes, and the amount of clothes we discard every year could fill Wembley Stadium!

This seems like a horrifying waste of the earth’s resources, the hard work of the people who make our clothes, not to mention our own money. Writing this blog has made me very aware of the contents of my wardrobe, but I still buy vintage bargains that aren’t quite the perfect fit, or take hand-me-downs or swaps that go straight into a “to fix” pile. Fashion Revolution Week isn’t about horrifying statistics, it’s about making changes; calling for companies to make their supply chains more ethical and transparent, and also working out what changes we can make to our wardrobes to make sure we wear and love all our clothes. I’ve made some quick and easy alterations that have transformed three maxi dresses that weren’t really wearable into versatile clothes that I’ll want to wear all the time.

As I unpicked the grey dress at the waistband, I realised the skirt and top had been made separately and then overlocked together at the waist. The overlocker (a four-thread sewing machine with a blade to trim the seam allowance off) had cut a few holes in the waistband, but it was salvageable. I hand-stitched the waistband back together (if you keep your stitches small but not too tight, it’s not too difficult to hand-sew a stretch fabric) then inserted a band of elastic (use a safety pin attached to one end to push the elastic through the channel) and machined the ends together securely.

Removed from the skirt, the wrap-over top seemed much too short, so I added a band of black jersey from my fabric stash, with narrower ties at each end. I machined a buttonhole onto the band that was wide enough for one of the ties to thread through, so the top would wrap around snugly and neatly.

The red dress itself was easy to alter; I just unpicked the shoulder straps at the front, pinned the new shoulder draping on my dressmaker’s stand until I was happy with the result, then stitched the shoulder straps back on.

The lining was another story; I put it on the stand to see how much fabric I had to play with; I pinned away excess fabric in the back and side seams, and gave the slip a nice neckline. I used the excess fabric from the side seams to make straps, and I was able to let down excess fabric in the hem so the slip is almost as long as the dress. A top tip that I used for both the slip and the grey skirt: use a synthetic thread if possible when you are sewing stretch fabrics; cotton thread is stronger but doesn’t have the “give” that will allow the thread to stretch with the garment.

I decided I wanted to keep the blue print dress a bit longer in the skirt than I had originally planned; this meant that I had less fabric to work with so I had to re-think my original design idea, which was to make a little bolero or shrug to go with the dress. Instead of making a separate garment, I cut the leftover fabric in half along the side seams, hemmed each edge, and used the pieces to make a very simple sleeve that also functions as a shoulder strap. I put the dress on the stand to work out a pleating pattern over the shoulders so the sleeves would drape down nicely over my arms, then machined the pleats into place.

These aren’t the most groundbreaking or elaborate refashioning projects, but I wanted to do something straightforward; showing that altering your own clothes doesn’t have to be complicated or time-consuming. I didn’t draft any patterns, I just used what fabric I had, or pinned a new shape into place. Don’t be afraid of trying out an upcycling or refashioning project with an unloved item of clothing from your wardrobe. The worst-case scenario? You still won’t wear it, but you will have discovered new sewing skills. The best-case scenario will see you reunited with a unique piece of clothing that is truly “you”.

Here’s my haulternative video; please have a look, and support Fashion Revolution Week by taking to social media to ask brands “who made my clothes?” I’ll have some extra content up on my Instagram during the week, and back on the blog on Friday, so check back soon.

Futuristic Fashion: 3D Printed Sunglasses

As well as being an ethical fashion fan and general costume and sewing nerd, I also love geeking out about sci-fi and fantasy, and the way that futuristic or alternative worlds are brought to life. I do love a good future dystopia - Mad Max Fury Road being my current favourite - but when they start being referenced by politicians in a “this country won’t end up like that, honestly!” kind of a way, it’s a sign that things are getting too real and I need to look for my escapism somewhere else.

I’ve been finding Star Trek’s utopian vision of the future very soothing, as well as loving their costuming choices (I wrote about my favourite fictional fashion icon, Lwaxana Troi, for Women At Warp) and their magical piece of zero-waste technology, the replicator. I don’t think the show has ever reliably explained how this microwave-sized machine can produce anything from a cocktail to a costume for a holodeck adventure (something to do with gel packs??) but I’m happy to suspend disbelief for the notion of a device that could make whatever you needed and recycle it for you afterwards. No trips to the charity shop or time spent separating glass, cans and plastics for the crew of the Enterprise. 

The closest we’ve come to a replicator so far is the 3D printer, which has been used to great effect to make unique costumes for fantasy films. Costume designer Ruth Carter cleverly fused tradition and technology to create a headdress and mantle for Angela Bassett as Ramonda in Black Panther. The garments feature traditional lace patterns, but were 3D printed to suggest the technological capabilities of the fictional African kingdom of Wakanda. 3D printing produces show-stopping costumes, but to make use of the full potential of this technology on a larger scale we need to find a way to use it to produce everyday items, preferably in a closed loop system so we are not adding to the problem of plastic waste.

Dutch start-up w.r.yuma have done just this, making 3D printed sunglasses frames from recycled plastic bottles or reclaimed car dashboards. I supported their kickstarter in 2017 and received my fab sunnies earlier this year (just in time for the snow!) which come with a foldable case made from Portuguese cork. It was really interesting receiving updates as the making process was underway (I probably found the “outtakes” of the printers failing to print sunglasses  - and creating little abstract sculptures instead - much funnier than I should have) and a reminder of the effort that small brands are going to in order to make a big difference.

I wanted a suitable top to wear with my futuristic sunglasses, so I picked up a long-abandoned refashioning project: a cropped, short-sleeved sparkly silver sweatshirt. At some point in the past, I must have thought I’d rock a baggy cropped sweater (and been mistaken) as this is the second one I’ve had to refashion. It’s a good reminder that on-trend pieces are only worth adding to your wardrobe if they are going to work with your favourite clothes.

I had already unpicked the sleeves and hem before abandoning the project, so I marked a new side seam, and used the pieces I had cut off to add an extra band between the shoulder and the sleeve to make the sleeves a bit longer. This has added a nice little design detail to a straightforward project, and the finished sweatshirt feels much more “me”. The project wasn’t completely zero-waste, but a handful of off-cuts that are only a few centimetres long isn’t too bad.

The Barbican seemed the ideal location for some photos: it’s an amazing example of the futuristic architecture that was meant to usher in a new era of utopian living in post-war Britain, and there’s a slightly fantastical element to it (I can never find my way in by the same route twice!). Of course, the weather in Britain being what it is, it had snowed the day before we had planned to go there, so I wore a second-hand velvet skirt and vintage boots to complete the outfit.

I hope my zero-waste outfit will encourage other people to realise that futuristic fashion isn’t just the stuff of fantasy films, it’s becoming accessible to us here and now, and we can (and should!) support the innovators who are making closed-loop clothes manufacturing a reality.

Fashion Revolution Refashioning Project

The fifth Fashion Revolution Week is happening this April, from the 23rd to the 29th. Originally set up to call for change after the Rana Plaza factory collapse in 2013, in which 1138 garment workers lost their lives and many more were injured, Fashion Revolution has grown into a movement to promote transparency and sustainable working practices across the fashion industry.

The simplest way to participate is to take to social media to ask brands “Who Made My Clothes?” Increased transparency in the industry’s global supply chains means that exploitation of workers is less likely to go unchallenged, and helps us all to remember that our clothes are made by people, not machines. 

Fashion Revolution also challenges us  to form a different relationship with our clothes: to resist seeing them as disposable, to choose clothes we love and look after them properly, and to see their potential as possessions that can change with us. 

I’ve made a “haulternative” video for Fashion Revolution Week: instead of showing off a heap of fast fashion purchases in a “haul” video, I’m showing off three maxi dresses that aren’t earning their place in my wardrobe, and discussing the alterations I’m planning to make.

The first dress might look familiar to people who have been following my blog for a while; I acquired two of these dresses from sample sales via someone who worked as a buyer because I loved the fabric, but the skirts aren’t full enough for me to walk normally while wearing them! I refashioned the first one into a jumpsuit, and I’m going to shorten this one to knee-length and use the leftover fabric to make a little sleeveless jacket, to create a late 50s/early 60s-style two-piece “costume”.

This grey maxi was a hand-me-down from my sister. I love grey, but this much grey doesn’t do wonders for my skintone (I’ve had to crop my feet out of this picture because they looked distinctly corpse-like) so I’m going to split the dress into two pieces along its waist seam, and flip the top around so I end up with a maxi skirt and wraparound top.

I’m going to keep this red dress (found on the bargain basement rail of a vintage shop) as a maxi dress, but I need to make a few alterations before I can wear it. The cowl neckline is a bit deeper than I’d want for a wearable day dress, and the lining situation is rather strange. The top has no lining at all, and the skirt has a lining that is only sewn in at a few strategic points as it doesn’t stretch as much as the dress does. I’m going to detach this lining and make it into a slip, so I can preserve my modesty and feel more comfortable wearing the dress.

You can follow my progress as I work on my alterations over on my Instagram, and I’m also doing an Instagram stories takeover for The Up Effect on Sunday 8th April so give them a follow and see what I’m up to. I’ll be revealing my refashioned dresses in all their glory during Fashion Revolution Week, hopefully in another video, so stay tuned!