I came across Gary Harvey when I was looking for upcycled clothing ideas on pinterest. He is a designer that uses unwanted clothing to create extravagant and gorgeous dresses.
He is trying to challenge the notion of throwaway fashion and get people to consider the cost of the garment they are buying. Not just the monetary value but the cost of production, the chemicals, the people that make the clothes. Like me, he thinks that it is very wasteful of us to not use our clothing to their full potential. The dress below is made of old pairs of Levi's jeans, these jeans were made to last but because they are now deemed a fashion item they are being thrown away as if they were just a £10 pair from Primark. If something is made to last then we should bleed it dry, wear your clothes until they are falling apart or at least upcycle or recycle them so that the materials are not wasted.
This dress was made using 26 baseball jackets, an item originally intended to be suitable for sports use and therefore hard wearing. Now that people are wearing them for fashion purposes they are being discarded at the end of seasons instead of cherished and worn.
Just because you are upcycling an item of clothing it doesn't mean the new product needs to be clothing too. I have taken this gorgeous skirt and turned it into a pair of even more gorgeous cushions. All the raw materials were there, including fastenings because I was able to re-use the zip of the skirt and use the vent for an over-lap cushion.
From this:
To these:
I love my cushions! I used some embroidered fabric I'd bought ages ago to make them more bling. I think they look fab!
Dubbed the 'Queen of upcycling' Orsola De Castro, founder of the labels From Somewhere and Reclaim to wear, is working to encourage people to turn to upcycling and move away from fast fashion. She mainly works with off cuts from factories that would normally be thrown away and any garments deemed unfit for sale. She believes that with the right imagination and an open mind even the most ugly scrap can be made into something beautiful.
Orsola De Castro is also the founder of Estethica, an initiative of the British Fashion Council, that showcases and supports eco/green designers at London Fashion Week.
Most of us only consider the amount of waste generated post-production and I think it is wonderful that she is working to minimise waste before the garments are even sewn. If there were people campaigning to cut down the waste before and after garment construction then the fashion industry would become much more sustainable.
De Castro gave these tips in an interview with the telegraph:
'Buy clothes with longing and desire, don't buy on a whim, and always buy thinking you will pass it on to someone else. That way you will buy good quality and classic styles. Take the time to learn how to sew and mend. Sewing machines are very exciting objects and one can be very creative with one's clothes'
To read the rest of the article visit - http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/news-features/TMG7205477/Orsola-de-Castro-The-ethical-fashion-designer.html
I found this dorothy perkins dress in a charity shop in Whitstable, I really like the print and the general shape of it but I'm not a fan of the frilliness.
So, what do you do when you don't like something? Remove it!
I have cut off the frills, turned it into a top and hemmed the bottom and arm holes. I think it looks much better now...
I was lucky enough to get this book for my birthday, it is gorgeous (but lets be honest most things from Cath Kidston are) and, as the blurb on the back cover describes it..
'Sew! is a treasure trove of over 40 simple sewing projects - bags, cushions, quilts and much more - all designed by Cath Kidston using her signature printed fabrics.'
The book is well designed and the projects are all practical and enable you make things you may actually need around the home like aprons, peg bags and oven gloves. For the fashion focused there are bags, purses and gadget cases.
The tutorials are well written and easy to follow and are rated according to their difficulty level which I think is handy because you can start off with an easier project and work your way up to the more difficult ones.
There is a good introductory guide to basic techniques at the front of the book explaining things like seams, fastenings and decorative elements.
I already know most of what is included in this guide so I found it very easy to understand and therefore could easily follow one of the tutorials, I wonder, would it be so easy if I was a complete beginner who had never sewn before?
Also I found it very peculiar that the seam allowance changed on each project, some had a 15mm seam allowance whereas others only had 6mm allowance.
Included with the book was a pattern sheet for you to trace off the relevant pattern for the project you are working on. It took me a while to get my head around it because of the amount of patterns squeezed onto one bit of paper. Each of the patterns are colour coded though so at least it was easy to follow each line and not get them confused.
I am going to make something from the book to find out just how user friendly it is. Wish me luck!
From a shirt to a cushion in 30 minutes.
You will need:
- Paper
- Pencil
- Ruler
- Cushion filler (I bought mine from Wilkinson for £1.35)
- An old shirt large enough to cover the cushion
- Scissors
- Sewing machine
Instructions:
Make the pattern - Measure the width of the cushion, draw a square of the same size onto paper, add 1cm seam allowance around all four sides. Cut out.
You should have something that looks like this....
Make the cushion cover - Pin the pattern onto the shirt, lining up the centre with the middle of the buttons. Cut out. Un-fasten the buttons and pin along the button wrap to keep it lined up when sewing. Pin the two squares of fabric right sides together and sew 1cm from the edge. Remove the pins from the button wrap and pull the material through the hole so that the right sides are facing out. You should have something that looks like this....
Finally, put the cushion filler in and fasten the buttons!
I believe I first heard about this company via the everso awesome website Lost at E Minor (http://www.lostateminor.com/). They create beautiful pieces of jewellery from the metal of landmines and unexploded ammunition in the hope that they can 'support sustainability in post-conflict countries'.
This is upcycling on a whole new level. Working in Cambodia, Saught are removing the harmful waste products of war, educating people in Cambodia about design and manufacture, employing them so that they have money and security and educating us, the consumers about the importance of their work. The profits made from each piece of jewellery are re-invested into supporting sustainability. I think it is a fantastic idea!
My only complaint is that I cannot afford to buy any of it! Why do upcycled and eco friendly products have to be so much more expensive?! I want to do my bit but I just don't have the money. For the meantime I will just have to keep upcycling as much of my own stuff as possible.
To find out more about Saught visit: http://saught.com.sg/
So, when I first decided to do this project all everyone would say to me was research Junky Styling so I figured I'd best do that.
So, Junky Styling is a fashion brand from London that are famous for their fabulous upcycled designs. Their tagline is....
'Timeless, Deconstructed, re-cut and completely transformed clothing'
As well as making collections out of second hand clothing they have a wardrobe surgery service in which customers can bring in their own clothing for them to deconstruct and turn into something unique.
Originally they started out making clothes because they wanted to create outfits that were unique, this developed into upcycling as they realised that the best way to acheive this was to use second hand clothing for material. Even if you use exactly the same pattern, no two dresses will be the same if the material has come from different sources.
I came across an interesting news clip the other day that I thought was really interesting. I have never really thought about what happens to our clothes once we have put them in the clothes bank, I just knew it was better than throwing them away.
This clip shows us what happens to our unwanted clothing once we have put it in for recycling...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mus2pv_R8us
It takes a little while to get to the good stuff but it is definitely worth a watch.
I found this skirt in a charity shop, loved the print, hated the length. I have shortened the skirt and made it much more wearable. I now don't feel like a complete frump wearing it!
Before After
After making my mittens I thought about how I could use the rest of the jumper material. I thought considering the fabric I should continue down the line of winter warmers. By simply tracing round shapes and drawing my own patterns I have been able to create a hot water bottle cover, a heat pad/wrap and 2 sets of hand warmers.
This boring old jumper that cost me £3.99 has given me 5 winter warmers that if I had bought from a shop would probably have cost me well over £30! I am very impressed by how much I was able to get out of 1 item of clothing. Just goes to show what a bit of creative upcycling can acheive.
I know it's spring and that its not really the right time of year to be making winter warmers but lets be honest, the weather is hardly warm and sunny at the moment.
Here is a tutorial for making a cosy pair of mittens out of an old or unwanted jumper.
You will need:
- 1 Old jumper
- Scissors (paper and fabric if you have both)
- Pencil
- Paper (normal A4 will do)
- Sewing machine
- Needle and thread
- Pins
- Lining fabric (I have used some old cotton I had left over from an old project)
Instructions:
Making the pattern:
Trace around your hand, then draw a mitten shaped line about 1.5cm bigger than the outline. Finally add a 1cm seam allowance around the edge before cutting out. You should have something that looks like this:
Now that you have a pattern you can start cutting out....
I have put the pattern above the ribbing along the bottom of my jumper to give it a bit of extra length on the wrist. Make sure the jumper is taught and lying on a flat surface when you pin it to stop it from twisting.
Get ready to sew....
Pin the mitten right sides together then sew 1cm from the edge, leaving the bottom open. Use reverse stitch on the machine to reinforce the ribbing so that when the mitten is turned through the stitches don't tear.
I have had to make a slight adjustment around the thumb to make it longer. Turn your mitten through to the right way and try it on, you will see if you need to make any alteration as the fabric will not sit right and will probably be gathered/bunched.
Now repeat...
Cut out and sew 1 more mitten out of your jumper and 2 mittens out of your lining fabric. When cutting out the lining leave a section of fabric roughly the same length as the ribbing underneath the pattern, you will need this at a later stage to finish the mitten. It should look something like this...
Now make your finished mittens...
Trim the seam allowance around the edge of the mittens so that there is only a few milimetres fabric on the outside of the stitching line. This will reduce bulk once the mitten is turned through. You should have something that looks like this...
Turn through the jumper mittens so that the right sides are facing out. Do not turn through the lining.
Put the lining mitten on your hand as if you were wearing it with the wrong sides visible, take the jumper mitten and put this on top. You should be wearing a mitten that has the lining on the inside with the right sides facing in and the jumper on the outside with the right sides facing out. Take this mitten off and repeat on the other hand.
To finish...
Fold up the ribbing on the jumper. You should have the spare bit of lining fabric we cut out earlier poking out the bottom. Fold this in on itself so that the raw edge is between the lining and the jumper and therefore not visible. Pin the folded edge to the ribbing, trying to keep the same distance from the edge all the way round. You should have something that looks like this...
Now, using a needle and thread sew an overcast stitch around the fold line to secure it.
Repeat this process on the other mitten.
Fingers crossed you should now have a finished pair of mittens!
This craft book is dedicated to creativity and essentially, upcycling. It is about taking things and turning them into something better and truly exploring what you can do with your hands, a bit of glue or a sewing machine.
The projects range from tops to tiaras and lie somewhere between insane and useful. Some of the projects are a little obscure and I don't know that many people would want to make them but on the whole the projects are practical and fab ways to breathe new life into old crap.
It is targeted at a more funky, young audience than my other two books which is fantastic as it will hopefully get more teenagers upcycling.
I have recently signed up to the site Pinterest and I love it!
The idea of pinterest is that you create 'pins' (aka photos/images) which other people can view and 'repin', comment on or like. Your pins are put on 'boards' which are essentially online moodboards.
It is a great way to get inspiration for everything from crafts to architecture. I love seeing some of the fantastic ways other people are upcycling and because all of the pins are linked to the original source (usually a website or blog) you can often stumble upon a fantastic blog or a great little website full of ideas.
Unfortunately I am a bit of a technophobe and have no idea how to get the 'follow me on pinterest' button on my blog. However, I hope that you can access my pinterest boards by using this link...
https://pinterest.com/celialoves/
I thoroughly recommend it to everyone, I hope you love Pinterest as much as I do. Happy Pinning!!!
I stumbled upon this label when researching shirt upcycling. They make gorgeous outfits out of recycled fabrics that are bold, bright and wearable. I think they're doing a really good job. Here are a few examples of their upcycled creations:
To find out more about Love me again visit:
http://www.lovemeagain.co.uk/about.html
This is a book that my mum bought for me via her school, I am sure she said it was from The Book People but it is also available from Amazon. (http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Sewing-Book-Alison-Smith/dp/1405335556/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1337359954&sr=8-1)
It truly is the Bible of sewing, it has everything from pattern cutting, to embroidery to the different types of sewing machine feet. I always refer to it when I have a query about sewing and dress making.
The instructions are clear and easy to follow with photographs to demonstrate the steps. The book is suitable for beginners as well as experienced sewers as it ranges from the very basic (how to sew on a button) to the more difficult (how to make a toile). Even though I have been taught many techniques in school and at Uni, I can still learn a lot from this book and it has helped me out with a lot of my home projects.
In relation to this project, there is a section on Mending and repairs showing you how to darn a hole, mend a seam and replace a zip, all valueable things to know if you want to make your clothes last longer.
I thoroughly reccomend buying this book!
Last year when I was doing a project for uni about haberdashery I found some ribbon that I loved but at the time couldn't afford. Anyhoo long story short I went to buy that ribbon today and stumbled across something I'd forgotten about but are relevant to my upcycling endeavours; Clothes Plasters.
Clothes plasters are iron on patches for embellishing or repairing clothes. Here are a couple of examples...
I think they're really cute and I love the packaging! I just hope that they're actually big enough to cover holes because from the picture they look pretty tiny.
I personally wouldn't use them to repair my clothes because they're just not my cup of tea but I do think they're a fanastic way to encourage kids to repair clothes rather than throwing them away. All kids know that when they get a cut they get a plaster to make them better, by calling the iron on patches clothes plasters it will hopefully teach them that quite often clothes can be made better too.
Many charity shops now have a 'vintage' rail with some really lovely clothing that would probably cost twice as much from a vintage market or shop. I found this lovely lambswool and angora jumper from St. Michael (aka Marks and Spencer) for just £4 in a Charity shop in Folkestone. Its lovely and soft and rather wonderfully made in the U.K!
(appologies for the wrinkles, I've been wearing it all day)
I have got so many items that have minor faults with them that I have never got round to fixing. A cardigan with a missing button, dress with a broken strap, slippers with a missing pom-pom etc. Being a bit of a hoarder I've kept them with the intention of fixing them again but alas, they've end up gathering dust instead. I am finally going to tackle these forgotten jobs to show myself just how easy it is to fix old clothes.
Here I have removed some broken straps from a summer dress. It has been sitting in my room for nearly 2 years. It took me 5 minutes to remove the straps.
I feel like such an idiot for not doing this sooner. Now I can actually get some wear out of it.
A fantastic way to stop landfill and save money is to buy your clothes from charity shops instead of heading to the high street. It may seem like an 'uncool' thing to do but you can actually find some really good buys. I found this pair of Topshop jeans in a charity shop in Winton. They are as good as new...
As you can see from the label, I only paid £3.50 for them. Looking at the Topshop website I have found that a brand new pair of baxter jeans would cost me £40! What a steal! I have saved myself £36.50, more than I would have paid if I had bought them with my student discount.
If, like me, you are appalled by the landfill statistics here are a few things you can do to make sure you contribute to the problem as little as possible:
- Buy fewer clothes. I know its hard to resist the perfect top or that cute little clutch bag but when you pick something off the rail think to yourself 'do I really need this?'. Nine times out of ten I bet the answer is no.
- Fix it! If a button falls off, sew it back on or if you have lost it, buy some from a charity shop and replace all of them, giving an old cardigan a new look. Broken zip? Take it to a repair shop. It is amazing how many clothes you can save by fixing them.
- Get the most out of the clothes you do buy. Who cares if it's not 'in fashion' anymore? If its comfy and it looks good, wear it!
- Buy good quality clothes. They may cost a little more but at least you know they will last you years. Clothing should be an investment, I have had a pair of jeans for 7 years and I still love wearing them, definitely money well spent!
- Donate old clothing. Shwop it, charity shop it or recycle it; just don't throw it away! Somewhere there is bound to be someone who can make good use of your old clothes, give them that opportunity.
- Encourage your friends to do the same.
Clearly it is not just me that think that the amount of clothes being sent to landfill is ludicrous, Marks and Spencers have started a campaign to get shoppers to recycle their old clothing. They call it Shwopping!
The basic principle is that when you go to a M&S store you can put old clothing in their Shwop box for reselling, recycling and reusing. Working in partnership with Oxfam they aim to encourage people to donate their old clothing rather than send it to landfill. The profits made from reselling goes to Oxfam. I think this is a fantastic idea and really hope it works.
My only grumble is that M&S is not a shop usually frequented by the people who are buying the fast fashion and therefore contributing the landfill problem. I think that shops like Primark and H&M need to start Shwopping too as they can target the campaign at the people who need to Shwop most!
To find out more about Shwopping go to....
http://www.marksandspencer.com/Shwop/b/1672188031?ie=UTF8&pf_rd_r=0C5WSD4V3BS54ME5YX7Y&pf_rd_m=A2BO0OYVBKIQJM&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_i=1723541031&pf_rd_p=467421113&pf_rd_s=global-top-10
- We spend £38 million a year on clothes
- The amount of clothing taken to landfill has risen by 30%
- Only 16% of our unwanted clothing gets recycled
- 1.72 million tonnes of fashion is consumed in the UK each year
- 1.5 million tonnes is thrown away
- Which means we are only keeping 220,000 tonnes of what we buy
Please tell me I am not the only person that thinks this is ludicrous! Why are we buying so much if we are just going to throw it away? I refuse to throw something away if there is nothing structurally wrong with it, I have had a pair of jeans for nearly 7 years now they may be 'out of fashion' but they fit, why would I throw them away just because coloured jeans are in this season?
As mad as it may sound I genuinely think that as a nation we need to be less fashionable. If it weren't for the demand for the latest trends and the pressure to wear the right colours or the correct fit of trousers we wouldn't be discarding perfectly wearable clothing for brand new (usually over-priced) ones.
I am not afraid to admit that on occassions I am a lot like my mother, I wear clothes for function rather than fashion. Yes, I do buy into some of the latest trends and treat myself to the latest chiffon shirt but they are usually the items that stay hidden in my wardrobe whilst I revert back to the ever so reliable (not to mention hard-wearing and comfortable) jeans and jumper combo.
Ironically I sometimes think that by being unfashionable I actually stand out as being more unique than the girls that follow all the trends because I am not just another walking Topshop or Miss Selfridge mannequin. By buying the latest fashions they end up looking just like everyone else.
Hi there! Welcome to mash up and make, a blog about fashion recycling, upcycling and clever ways to shop. Did you know for example, textiles are the fastest growing sector in household waste, with homes in the UK sending 1.2m tonnes of clothing to landfill sites each year! This is ridiculous and it needs to change!
Mash up and Make aims to alter people's perceptions about fashion consumption; encouraging them to be less wasteful and be aware of the benefits of being more thrifty.
