What does Recycle Sewing Mean to You?

Here's what Recycle Sewing Means to Me

My Vision:

Maintain a wardrobe which is comfortable, suits my personal style, and is suitable to different occasions; and help my family to keep their clothing in optimal condition too; as well maintain household linens.   

 My Recycle Sewing Mission Statement:

I use 'recycle sewing' and careful buying strategies in order to economize on the purchase and maintenance of my clothing and household textiles; to minimize textile waste; and to contribute as little as possible to the support of exploitative practices in the fast fashion industry.

 My Recycle Sewing Strategies:

A simple, invisible mend is my best practice, when it is possible; and for me, it is vital in repairing business casual or dressy clothing, rather than using visible stitches or patches.

I may use visible stitches and patches with care and discretion on casual clothing; and whenever possible, I try to make it look decorative and/or intentional. In many cases, both darning and patching work well in conjunction with one another.

 A worn-out item can be used to repair another item, for example, I have used part of the back of a worn white dress shirt to make a patch to repair a large tear in a white bed sheet; or parts of one colorful casual shirt to patch and decorate a complementary casual shirt.  

 If the knees of a pair of pants or the elbows of a shirt or are beyond patching, I might cut them off and make it into shorts or a short-sleeved shirt. (This is a little trickier with sleeves than with pant legs because in shortening the sleeves, the amount cut off affects how they hang.) If an item of clothing no longer fits me, I will try to alter it, if I can do that simply.

 I save buttons and other trim and hardware when I assign a worn-out item to scraps or rags. The buttons can be used to replace lost buttons, to change out a whole set of buttons for a different look, or as decoration.

Slow Fashion, Slow Hobby:

 In keeping with slow fashion, and with this being my relaxing hobby, I try to work on only one project or two at a time. I do not follow a current trend of buying used clothing for the purpose of deconstructing it to use the fabric to make something new. Maybe, someday, I will sew clothing from scratch again as I did as a child, perhaps deconstructing something I no longer wear; but for now, my primary form of recycle sewing is to use what I have, wisely…or, occasionally, a bit whimsically. 

What does recycle sewing mean to you? Or are you just hearing about it recently?  When I am in the problem-solving stage, I often go to YouTube to see what people have done before me, and how. If you are interested in how you can do something, you can often find lots of ideas there, and even instructions.