This post has been such a long time in the making. After a good few months at school, I finally finished making my denim jacket and it deserves a post dedicated to itself, therefore I’ve put together a compilation of slightly blurry, candid shots (oh and me looking like a 12 year old in the first pic). These photos have also made me realise how much I need to get a haircut, I need my short hair back.
Unfortunately, it’s not made with sustainable materials but it is more ethical as I know exactly who made it and that I don’t think I could ever let it become obsolete, this is definitely going to become a sentimental pieces – literal blood, sweat and tears have gone into making it so I’m keeping it for my own appreciation. Will it make an appearance in the outside world? I have no idea. It’s bold, bright and possibly a bit too outside my comfort zone but I’m always saying to take risks with your personal style and the more I stare at these pictures the more I kind of love this jacket I think it will make it out the house.
The jacket is meant to be based on the 70’s era although I feel like its an amalgamation of the 70’s and 90’s, the crochet makes it 70’s right? I’m so tempted to make a crochet top for summer with my new found skill, I now own a range of crochet equipment and I feel like a fully fledged textiles geek.
If you don’t have the budget for buying an ethical piece or charity shopping doesn’t suit your fashion tastes, making your own clothes is so incredibly rewarding. It does require you to have a sewing machine but once you have one the possibilities are endless. Youtube videos like those from withwendy provide a plethora of different patterns (that don’t actually require you to have a commercial pattern). Just googling the pattern or product you want to make will lead you to delve into a whole world of textiles heaven, if you want an hour (or a day) to kill then making your own clothes is the place to start.
Like the yokes of this jacket, little embroidery motifs can upcycle any textiles piece, it doesn’t have to be sewn from scratch. My school is fortunate enough to have a computerized embroidery machine however you can find patches to sew on the internet or do a little bit of hand embroidery to create your own unique motif. There’s something so rewarding about making your own clothes that just doesn’t come from buying a garment, a sentimentality and the pride that it is something you’ve created.
The eager sewer that I am didn’t want to finding this project and then have nothing to do till summer. Revision hasn’t sucked the life out of me just yet. I ordered a skirt and a dress pattern that I think I’m going to adapt but one look at the pattern and I realised this is more than just an hour sewing to achieve it. The projects may be postponed till summer but I will make sure to blog about it. If you wanted to know places to buy sustainable fabric the best place I’ve found (and bought from before) is organiccotton.biz there’s a whole range of fabrics such as linen and printed cotton.
Lots of love, eleanor //
(There’s no Thursday post up this week due to my mock exams but I’ll be back with lots of newness next Monday, I hope this post will suffice till then).
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