Sustainability in the sewing world

ACK!!!  So my perfect system? I FORGOT ONE THING! I forgot about my Dirty Dozen projects - my UFOs!!!  I've been so focused on everything else that I forgot them. Well sort of - I'm still plugging away at that Gingerbread quilt which is on the list.

And here I am wondering what the heck I'm going to sew tomorrow. I'm such a dolt!  OK - I'm not sure where all those projects are but I'm going to try and find one for tomorrow. And I'm going to put ONE of them on my wire rack. So I don't forget the UFOs. Holy - I just get so dang focused that if I don't have lists - well - I'm toast!!!


There's been a series of articles in the Sew News magazine (borrowed from the library in case you're thinking I'm still adding to that stack of magazines!) about sustainability in the sewing world. I think I've shared one or two of them with you. There's a third article in the June/July issue.

It's really quite an interesting topic. Many of us think that cotton and other natural fibers are better than the man-made ones, but are they? You have to look at the entire process - how the fibre was made or grown, then the processing of it and finally what happens to it when we're done with it. All of these steps impact the environment in some way.

There's no right or wrong answer as to what is best. But I love this quote which came from Vivienne Westwood, "buy less, choose well, make it last."  That goes for fabrics, clothes and anything else that we should choose to buy. We've become a throw-away society and it's a very bad image that we leave for our children. I know - I'm as guilty as the next person.

I'm trying to do my part. I have no issues repairing things and there I was the other day with my super glue fixing my earbuds and my rice cooker. So far, so good. Yep - I could have thrown them away, but why would I?

There's another article in that same magazine that talks about the impacts of our crafting and sewing. Should you make your clothes, should you buy them??? Should you keep them and mend them???  All very interesting questions. That second article was written by Katrina Rodabaugh. She has several books on the market including Mending Matters.

Again, there is NO right or wrong in how we do this, but the important is to be MINDFUL. Do you really need that item? Are you going to use it once and then throw it away? Are you going to stash it away??

I do have one regret in life. I wish that I had this mindset when M was little. I know that we bought so much because it was "fun". And as I survey stuff in the basement, I see many craft items that were NEVER used. Still with price tags on them. I will be packing up all the craft stuff and finding a good home for that. Not sure what all that entails at the moment.

I'm not a granola girl. I think it's just my country roots showing through. I still have (and wear) clothes that I wore 30 years ago. OK - so they are my run around the house shorts, but still. I hardly buy new clothes and if I do, I try to make sure that it's something classic that I'll get a lot of wear out of.

Oh dear - I do sound like a granola girl. But honestly, I hate to see waste and there's so much waste in this world. Waste of money (government), waste of time (screen and social media), waste of resources (doing things over and over by the same people). and I could go on and on. But I won't. I think you get the picture.

On that note, I'm out of here. I've got a busy day and I'm not sure how I'm going to get everything done. But I'll do my best.

Have a super day!!!!


Ciao!!!