IBSN Number and All: Forever in Text

2014 has started well for me, Shed me Clothes and I have been featured in a publication: Alison Gwilt's 'A Practical Guide To Sustainable Fashion' Ta daaaaaaaaaaa..






I’ve been rather quiet on the Sustainable Fashion front of recent months, however I plan to get my teeth back into it this year. Watch this space.

In 2014 I will...

- Read more
- Write more
- Make more
- Travel more
- 'Be more better' (Broad, J., 2014)

After a pep talk with a friend, I have realised that I should set myself goals for 2014. The above goals are vague, but I will expand upon them in my mind and hopefully on this blog.

Motivation is what I need. This is my starting point.

Fix It

With much excitement, I have just discovered the Textile Toolbox. 
 

Textile Toolbox is the TED’s web platform project with MISTRA, that in their words is aimed at creating systemic change within the fashion industry through ‘interconnected design thinking and processes for sustainable textiles and fashion’. 

Stuffed with articles from the industry’s greatest thinkers across a variety of disciplines, this website is a goldmine for discovering new ideas. The articles and posts will form a basis of a report due to be published this year (so watch this space).

Below is a list of the disciplines covered on the website: 

• Design to Minimise Waste 
• Design for Cyclability 
• Design to Reduce Chemical Impacts 
• Design to Reduce Energy & Water Use 
• Design that Explores Clean/Better Technologies 
• Design that Looks at Models from History & Nature 
• Design for Ethical Production 
• Design to Reduce the Need to Consume 
• Design to Dematerialise & Develop Systems & Services 
• Design Activism

Swing on by, have a read and feel inspired.


Image source:Textile Toolbox

On Your Marks..Get Set..SEW!

Currently on our TV screens is another reality competition TV show. But not your usual singing competition that has dominated the TV schedule for so long, oh no, this is a sewing competition. Oh the joy! That exclamation mark is completely valid, I have to say 'I love it'.



Image source: The Mirror  

The BBC is airing The Great British Sewing Bee on a Monday night, much likely due to the success of The Great British Bake Off. Wouldn't the WI be proud?

Like any other competition format, the contestants are set a series of challenges, judged and eliminated with the final contestant adorned the winner. Challenges have included (up to episode 2, sorry I need to catch up on the current episode 3):

• Sew an A-line skirt
• Customise a shirt 
• Create (and design) a made to measure dress
• Sew a pair of mens trousers
• Customise a skirt with the addition of pockets
• Create (and design) a made to measure shirt

The show is brilliant at explaining patterns, how the pattern pieces fit together and specific styling details. I chuckled at the contestants struggling with the fly construction (I remember suffering with this at Uni) and the waistband seam on Mens trousers (my stint as a Menswear garment tech really have taught me a lot). Choice of fabric is highlighted and print placement as other important factors when contrusting a garment.


Image source: sewaholic

Basically, I watch this programme and almost feel like I'm at work (minus the sewing machine) and find it incredibly enjoyable. I have learnt from watching, that I truely love my job and that I miss the creative process and speed of sewing.

I would love to give sewing clothes another bash. My only hindrance being that I'll want a technical sheet for every fabric I choose! You just can't take the tech (or geek, I forget which one) out of the girl.

P.S Hopefully people will develop a new found appreciation of clothing and how it's made from this programme.

Sir Pugsalott Comes to Form

I've been off work ill the last two days and have hated not being kept busy. After numerous lemon and ginger teas and season 7 of The Simpsons I started to get a little bored (of the repetition, not The Simpsons).

I dug out my last knitting project, found a new drama Broadchurch (a fantastic detective programme my mum would be proud of) and made another lemon and ginger tea. With supplies in place I got to work. 

Say 'hello' to Sir Pugsalott. 

 












And, because she's amazing I had to include the inspiration. Doesn't she look happy?













 
Note to Catherine: I'd rather poke my eye with a rusty fork than watch Jeremy Kyle.

And the Winner Is…you?

The Observer Ethical Awards, in association with Ecover, are seeking out the initiatives, campaign and people that promote living and acting sustainability. Held annually the awards draw attention to those businesses and projects that make ethical living accessible while also highlighting the younger members in our society determined to make the world a better place for theirs and future generations.

There are up to 10 award categories that celebrate all areas of sustainable living including retailer, travel, arts and culture and campaigner to name a few. (For the full list of the award categories visit The Guardian website). There are two categories that particularly caught my attention: Ecover Young Green Champion and the Well Dressed Award.

Ecover Young Green Champion

Under 18’s have brilliant ethical ideas and this award is their chance to let everyone know about them. Previous winning ideas have include Fact Fashion that provoke thought through informative slogans on clothing, Savvy BOB Box  promotes indigenous wildlife and the entrepreneurial The Recyclists have created a business by recycling for others on their bikes.

Ethical and sustainable living is creeping into the curriculum more and more making children very aware of the pressures on our planet. Are you, your children or your pupils engaged in such an ethical project? The awards are offering youngsters a chance of winning £6000 to help fund their project.

Not only will the award honour the Young Green Champion, but teachers, parents or Youth Group Leaders also have the chance to be recognised. By offering encouragement and support to their Champions to enter, the nominator could win a three night stay in The Coppice Woodland in Hertfordshire.

Kids have fantastic imaginations making their ideas original and we should encourage them as much as possible. This award is certainly one to watch. I am slightly gutted I never got a chance to enter when I was a youngster.

Well Dressed

Teaming up with the FruGal Challenge this award is looking for someone who lives and breaths sustainable fashion and style. Sustainable fashion can be identified in many ways. Be you a vintage queen, a frequent swisher, an ethical label seeker, a home-made goddess, a made-do-and-mend fairy or a hand-me-down hunter you have the ability to put your ethics before you style yet still turn out the belle of the ball. Good on you.

Simply submit a picture in your favourite outfit along with the story behind it. You could officially be crowned the belle of the ball.

Get involved

Feeling inspired? The deadline for the Young Green Champion Award is 22 March so get your socks on kids and adults get your encouragement on! 

For a splash of inspiration I leave you with the young winners from 2012 while I have a rummage through my wardrobe for my best sustainable outfit. 

P.S. Tim Burgess is on the judging panel this year. How cool is that? 

What Are Friends For?

...Good birthday presents, right?

I arrived at my desk this morning to a yellow giffy bag with a feminine handwritten address I recognised, 'it's Emma,' I thought. My birthday being 4 days away I knew it was present time. Woooooooop.

My usual caffine essential, tea was to be put on hold as I tore the bag open to uncover a beautifully scarf wrapped (note the sustainable packaging) present.

 

Being quite the conscious consumer it's fabulous to receive a gift that truely fits my taste and (geeky) interests. Emma had skillfully selected a war time re-print of Make Do and Mend to satisfy my clothing care interest, Mini Eggs to satisfy my mid-work hunger pangs (and my work pals) and lippy to satisfy my...ego (?) or at least make me look good. Lets not forget the vintage scarf that wrapped the contents. Good works Ems, I love it all.



Below are some snaps from the Make Do and Mend booklet. I particularly like point 3 in the first photo. This really does make a difference. My brother still chooses to ignore me.

A Creative Christmas

Yes, it is now 12 January and does seem a little late to be writing about Christmas, however I made quite a few Christmas presents this year I wanted to share my creativity without compromising the reaction from my gift receivers. 

During a rare shopping trip to Chelsea I spotted a brilliant clearance end of a dog print cotton fabric in Peter Jones (the Chelsea John Lewis is called this for some reason). I simply couldn’t take my eyes off the dogs in jumpers print and decided upon making cushions for my brother and sister-in-law who have a pug, the wonderful Nibbler. 

I tracked down a pattern from the internet, cushions off Ebay and visited, for the first time, the sewing room at work after a day’s slog. I sat at the sewing machine and immediately felt like I was back at the Uni, minus the tirade of banter and slagging matches that used to bounce back and forth between me and my mates. 

On a technical note, the sewing machine was truly outstanding: Brother, industrial, automatic back stitch and an underbed thread trimmer. ‘Glorious’, I thought, I had missed the sturdiness and ease of industrial machines. I confused myself during a few practice runs as to why I kept swinging my knee to the right, until I realised I was on auto-pilot attempting to lift the foot. ‘Duh’. This was the only feature the machine missed, which meant stitching corners was a hassle, but I managed. 

The sewing room also contained an overlocker to my joy, however was threaded up in black and with no white threads to be found I decided on increasing the seam allowance instead as the cushions are bagged out and unlikely to fray anyway. 

Pins and bobbin at the ready I got started: 



 



 



The fabric I brought was just under a metre at around £6. Adding the price of the cushions the final cost for these four beauties was less than £2.50 each.



From my previous posts it may be clear I’m a keen knitter. My brother requested I knit a crocodile for him and his wife, but I was more interested in the thought of my unborn nephew playing with it. Unfortunately I only have some work in progress photos:





Another yarn related gift was a crochet collar I made for my secret santa gift at work. I trawled the internet for patterns and made myself the navy one in the below photos for myself. I eventually found a better pattern with a button fastening. I made one version as per the pattern, however there were too may fan shapes within the pattern therefore I ‘tech’ed’ the collar and reduced out 4 fans and started again. The result was much better, I will have to take a snap of my colleague wearing hers and upload for all to see. 







Moving on to a creative new year, I received the best present from my secret santa. Place your orders for your favourite dog now. 
 

Toxic Chemicals Exposed in High Street Fashion…and Greenpeace Textile Products

Image source: Ecouterre

Last month Greenpeace released a report entitled Toxic Threads: The Big Fashion Stitch Up which exposed numerous global fashion brands for using toxic chemicals during clothing production.

A selection of brands were chosen, clothing items brought and sent to labs for testing to identify any restricted substances. Brands highlighted to be selling clothing with high concentrations of NPEs (hormone distruptive), and/or with the presence of phthalates (hormone disruptive/carcinogenic), amines or azo dyes (can be carcinogenic) included Mango, C&A, M&S and Zara.

I do not agree with such chemicals being used during fibre/fabric/garment production, however I came across a rather interesting article in Ecotextile this afternoon: Toxic Chemicals Found in Greenpeace T-Shirts. Unfortunately a registration is required to read the Ecotextile article, but to sum up it appears that Greenpeace cannot practice what they preach.

Phthalates have been discovered in Greenpeace t-shirts and APE’s in Greenpeace headgear. The article states that Greenpeace has removed the textile products from sale along with suspending other textile merchandise sales. It appears that Greenpeace are none the wiser about what is within their textile products, much like the rest of the industry. The organisation has committed to ‘only be able to sell textiles again when the industry can produce toxic-free fashion.’

Greenpeace are encouraging customers to keep their wears as garment durability is as much a part of their strategy: 

The wearing of our textile products do not pose a health risk. The best way to be environmentally friendly is to make it last as long as possible, so that it stays in your wardrobe and not end up in landfill.

I have tried searching the Greenpeace website for such words, but I cannot find this.

It is interesting how Greenpeace are willing to condemn fashion brands for slip-ups in the incredibly complex global textile supply chain. Will the report be re-issued with their own textile products highlighted within?

Also what will become of the rejected stock they no longer plan to sell. Within the Greenpeace statement they make it clear they do not believe in land filling textile products that have not fulfilled their life. I will be very interested to find out what their solution is with this stock.

In light of the report, Zara has committed to go 'Toxic-Free' and M&S are currently working with Greenpeace to develop new chemical commitments.

Ecovered Up

I was recently given the opportunity, via a work project, to visit the Ecover factory and labs in Belguim. As a keen user of their products along with having a, much higher than normal, interest in all things detergents and the use of clothing I simply couldn’t miss out on this opportunity. 

The visit was a swift one; a day rail trip from London to Antwerp involving an insanely early rise at 5am and an arrival home at 9pm. Oddly I felt refreshed and excited at both 5am and 9pm. 

In case you are not aware of Ecover, let me enlighten you: the company was founded over 30 years ago in Belgium with an aim to produce washing powder without phosphates (linked to eutrophication), instead opting for plant based ingredients to provide the cleaning power. Since those humble beginnings in 1980 Ecover is still committed to using plant based ingredients along with no additional chemicals and now produces over 35 cleaning products in 2 European factories to 40 countries. 



Not only does Ecover aim to reduce the environmental impact of detergents they even built the world’s first eco factory. The factory is made from a pine wood structure, uses no heating or air conditioning and boasts a 6000m2 sedum covered roof (a grass lawn simply grew too quickly!).





It was this factory that I visited and boy was I impressed. At present I have not visited many factories, but the ones I have include a mill in Leeds and that floor tile factory in Coventry my Father used to work in. Both of these factories possessed a rather grim, dark appearance along with a certain musty and dusty smell I only associated with factories. Not now, the Ecover factory simply smelt of…..nothing and the pine structure with roof windows allowed natural light to flood in giving the impression of almost being outside (or at least not in a factory). The spongy, sedum roof was certainly a change to the usual factory along with the insect homes encouraging biodiversity. 



I was given an insight into the R&D department receiving a tour of the labs where an in-house fermenter brews the surfactants for the detergents, new developments are tried and tested, and experiments are undertaken to test the oxygen level/toxicity of the waste water along with competitor like for like performance research. 

Efficiency and knowledge are key to the Ecover operation, which became more evident while chatting with the R&D team who were completely ‘on the button’ and taught me more than a thing or two about washing and detergents (of which I immediately passed onto my Mother upon my return home).
I have always encouraged others to try Ecover for themselves ever since my eczema prone brother brought it home when I was about 14. However I can hand on heart promote the products from this first hand experience and seeing the results against their competitors. I know people struggle to change their cleaning habits, especially when it comes to the change in fragrance (Ecover do not use synthetic chemical fragrances), but please go on give it a go. 

For more information, please visit the Ecover website. 
For more Ecover customer focused fun, visit their online magazine The Splash.

Future Fabrics Expo 2012

‘Tis the season (tomorrow through to Friday to be exact) for another Future Fabrics Expo held at London College of Fashion. The fabric trade show is brought to you by The Sustainable Angle in collaboration with the Centre for Sustainable Fashion, with the focus on encouraging intelligent and creative sourcing decisions in order to reduce the negative impacts that clothing have on the environment, animals and human welfare. 

You may remember my previous post for 2011 and my disappointment as I was unable to attend (my boss’ decision). Well I am happy to announce that this year I have registered and will be attending with another colleague. See you there. 

Shed Me Clothes October Press

I am proud to announce that Shed Me Clothes has received some more press attention this month. Speciality Fabrics Reviews, an American based fabric magazine, has published an article about the project within their Swatches section. 

Click on the below image link to take you to the article on the magazine’s website.

Stripes are back

I've completed my latest knitted creation: a zebra. It does not boast to be sustainable in any way (acrylic yarn stuffed with polyester wadding), however it does have the ability to bring a smile to a face. Or in the case of my brother, a light chuckle.

Friday Late at the V&A

Last Friday's of the month at the V&A are a party. I had a truely enjoyable, cultural and different (well at least it started differently) Friday night yesterday evening.

On offer was sensational knitwear inspired by amour (Juliana Sissons), glowing neon installations (Chris Bracey) and to bring out the child in us all: billowing cloud caves (Jason Hackenwerth). Make sure your there next month.

Trousers to Shorts – A Quick Guide

I recently moved house and upon packing up my wardrobe contents I discovered a pair of (forgotten about) velvet trousers at the bottom of my trouser pile. ‘Success’, I thought until I realised that in supporting the other trousers the wire cage draw had left an imprint on the pile of the trousers on the back left thigh. This was difficult to capture in a photograph, but in real life the cross-hatch was very noticeable. 

Determined not to throw the trousers away, I grabbed my favourite denim shorts and measured them against the velvet trousers. I could chop the trousers down and re-create my favourite pair of shorts into a velvet version. 

Step 1 

Using tailors chalk mark out the length required on one leg. Keep in mind that the leg opening will require hemming so leave at least 4cm on the end for this for my fold method (or 1.5-2cm for overlocking then lockstitch hemming). 

Step 2 

Using fabric shears cut along the line with long, smooth strokes of the shears to ensure a clean, straight cut. 

Step 3 

Fold trousers in half. Using the cut leg as a guide cut the other leg at the same length. 

Step 4 

I chose to hem my shorts using the same method as my denim pair: folding up twice and tacking at the side seams (also the lazier way – using no sewing machine). If you have an overlocker (I don’t) it would be worth overlocking the raw edge prior to doing this to prevent further fraying. 

  

 

Alternatively you could hem on the inside: overlock edge, fold edge up (by at least 1.5cm) and lockstitch. 

Step 5 

Voila: your new pair of shorts. 

Step 6 

What to do with the legs is up to you. Any ideas?

Fur Real?

I have completed Lucy Siegle’s To Die For which I must say I thought was a well researched and easily accessible introduction to sustainable fashion and becoming a more intelligent and informed fashion consumer. The leather and fur industries associated with fashion are areas I have not researched prior to opening this book. The chapter ‘Animal Prints’ drew to my attention these industries, in particular the fur industry.

Although barely out of my Ellesse tracksuit during the mid-nineties and below the age of 10, I strongly remember images of the PETA ‘We’d rather go naked than wear fur’ backed by the supermodels of the era. I wouldn’t start flexing my fashion muscles until at least 2002 when I swapped my tracksuit for flared jeans and a bright pink jacket. Another purchase during this period was a denim jacket with a detachable faux fur collar and faux fur poking out of the cuffs.

I believe this must have been the start of the infiltration of fur back into the wardrobe, or at least the playground. Eskimo coats with fur (definitely fake in my hometown of Coventry) trimmed hoods and pompoms along with jackets similar to my denim variety were a staple for the teenage schoolgirl during the colder months.

Looking back at this period I do not recall considering the PETA fur campaign while sporting my jacket. However I do remember removing the collar due to hating the scratching, cheap quality of the faux fur against my neck. I couldn’t remove the fur at the cuffs as this was sewn in, which frustrated me as the fur clumped together and matted. Several brushing attempts could not revive the fur back to its previous glory.

I can safely say that jacket didn’t last beyond that season; however I do believe it is still at my parent’s house hidden in the depth of the cupboard under the stairs.

Since 2009, fur has officially been back on trend and being used as the main fabric for gilets, jackets and coats. The main focus on this fur trend was the real kind which all the celebs were wearing and could be easily picked up by your average consumer in the trendy vintage shops.

During my 6 month (over the winter of 2010-11) stint at working in a vintage shop in Camden I certainly saw the consumer interest in fur sky rocket. We sold both real and faux and in order to maintain my minimum wage job I had to pull in as many sales as possible. The fur always seemed to do this job well and I kept telling myself and the customers ‘vintage is better, faux is better’.

But is vintage really better? Is it justified that an animal was skinned (potentially still conscious) many decades ago to make it ok to were that pelt now?

And what of faux fur? Animal welfare is maintained, but is it still ok to plummet resources into recreating a product that already exists?

Faux Vs. Real

Here I have tried to compare real and faux fur with the help of Lucy Siegle by evaluating the pros and cons of both (I hope you can read my scrawl):

 

Personally I struggle to evaluate where my opinion swings on this subject as I find both to be just as bad as each other. The shear amount of chemicals used for both faux and real fur makes my skin crawl (this phrase is probably more literal for the workers processing the material).

I have always struggled to develop an opinion on whether fur (faux or real) actually looks good to wear. Our species spent thousands of years shedding our fur as it was completely unnecessary for our survival. It is however now acceptable to throw fur from another animal onto our hair-less frames for fashion’s sake. Cool, eh?

I believe I have developed my opinion: fur is…. pointless.