Sew chic
Sewing is simple once you have learned a few basic stitches. Ruth Harwood offers a guide to get you started
We throw away an estimated one million tonnes of textiles every year – much of it clothes destined for landfill. But what if you want to revamp your old fashion favourites rather than throwing them away?
Learning to sew is a simple way to breathe new life into old clothes. It’s also a great opportunity to tap into your creative side, whilst learning a practical and money-saving skill. And arguably it’s a more eco-friendly and ethical option than buying high street fashion.
Fix it
Small repairs needn’t be a drag - with just a little know-how, it’s quick and easy to sew back on buttons and stitch new hems. For tips on hand sewing and the four essential stitches, check out Start Sewing’s Basic Sewing by Hand guide.
You’ll need some basic equipment to get you started: thread, tape measure, tailor's chalk, dressmaking pins and a few hand-sewing needles. Beginner’s sewing kits are widely available online and on the high street.
Sharp dressmaking scissors are also a smart investment as they make it must easier to get a clean cut on fabric. But every beginner’s essential has to be a quick un-picker: things can go wrong and this little gadget undoes a cranky seam or a crooked hem in seconds and only costs about £2.
For a hands-on learning, try an evening class, where a teacher will guide you through the basic sewing skills. Several local authorities offer classes for beginners and intermediates. Visit your authority's website for more information.
Clever customising
There are lots of interesting and fun ways to customise your clothes. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
- Change the buttons on your clothes, either by using buttons from other garments that you no longer wear or picking them up from charity shops.
- Simple, hand-stitched embroidery can transform a garment.
- Adding beads or sequins to clothes is an easy way to dress up an otherwise plain garment.
- Buy clothes from charity shops and practise on them – it’s best not to use expensive material to start with in case things go wrong.
- Cut up old T-shirts – the material doesn't fray.
- Use parts from clothes and turn them into something else: several pockets can be linked together to make a belt; shirt sleeves could become a scarf; the lapel from a man's jacket can be refashioned to make a halter-neck waistcoat.
- Pick up sewing machines on freecycle.org or eBay, buy thread in charity shops and try car-boot sales for any other equipment.
Sewing communities
For more inspiration there are plenty of online sewing communities and websites selling interesting, quirky materials. Craftster, for example, is an online community for offbeat craft projects that has detailed tutorials on everything from making a prom dress from scratch to transforming a pillowcase into a ra-ra skirt.
And sites such as bootyvintage.etsy.com, borntoolatevintage.com and misshelene.com specialise in selling lovely vintage sewing patterns.
Reprodepot.com offers vintage reproduction and retro fabric, plus hard-to-find Japanese import fabrics. They also stock unusual buttons, iron-on patches, and pretty ribbon and sewing patterns.
For speedy, precision needlework, you can’t beat a sewing machine. If you're thinking about learning the tricks of the sewing machine, check out StartSewing’s step-by-step, instructional videos for a complete beginner’s guide.
For really tricky tasks, you might be tempted to call in the experts. Green fashion label Junky Styling, for example, offers customers a “wardrobe surgery” service. The east London-based company promise to give their customers’ old, worn out clothes a complete transformation.
Team Green Britain and London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Ltd (LOCOG) do not endorse any of the products, companies, organisations, opinions or websites that have been mentioned in this article. The content of this article has merely been provided as background to, or discussion on, various topical issues relating to the environment and it is not necessarily representative of the views of Team Green Britain and LOCOG. Further, any figures and calculations noted in this article are estimates (unless otherwise specified), and may vary in light of numerous factors and readers are advised to undertake their own research in relation to the facts and figures applicable to their particular circumstance.