handmade wardrobe: slow fashion october 2018 week 4 recap - the end!
happy samhain and thanks so much for joining me for slow fashion october! i had a lot of fun with these posts, and appreciate karen’s facilitation every year to get me thinking deeper into my own slow fashion politics. it’s also kinda nice to write blog posts more regularly - they allow a little more focused conversation around specific topics than instagram or my weekly newsletters, which always have a few things that need to get highlighted. i’ve also been thinking about how i can talk about my designs outside of their releases, because in reality, yes my design work is largely built around photoshoot adventures and the process of knitting each new pattern, but then those samples do go on and live (sometimes very) busy lives in my wardrobe! so i’m going to start writing some semi-regular knit style posts, where i chat about my favourite knits for different real-life scenarios. stay tuned for those!
the final week’s discussion prompts really focused around looking at what needs mending and what can be repurposed in our wardrobes, and what our next steps will be as the month winds to a close. as i stare at the pile of clothes on my closet floor that will be moving along, i’m happy to see that it’s basically all 3+ years old (some of it easily a decade old), still in good condition, and will be a happy addition to other wardrobes that will get more use out of them. as for my own wardrobe, mending and care are definitely areas where i can get lazy (except my boots - i’ve had two pairs resoled this month and my mukluks are waiting for year 10 to get started). but i’m getting better at it! with so much of my wardrobe now made by me, i take more pride in keeping them in good shape. i mend holes slightly sooner than i would have before, i restitch popped seams, and i take the time to do better finishing touches so the item looks the way i want it to because i know it’ll get more wear that way. that being said, i have a gigantic pile of winter knits, sweaters, and socks that need some hand washing, and i only have so much floor space, so i better get to that.
like i mentioned before, i am by no means a minimalist and never will be. in fact, i’d rather make oodles of well-made garments and accessories that get passed down through generations than have a tiny wardrobe. i actually found several furs from my nanny, along with a hand stitched quilt top and pile of wool blankets in the cedar chest last week while i was organizing my design samples! i love textiles and their traditions and the stories they tell about our families, and i believe that there is a happy middle ground between purging everything except for a 10x10 wardrobe and the environmental/human rights catastrophe that is fast fashion.
i don’t know what your plans are for the next year, but i’ve got a lot of knitting up my sleeves (and stuffed in my pockets), new sewing projects percolating in my brain, and hopefully soon a furry familiar who will also be at the whim of my textile adventures (dogs wear bandanas better than anyone, it’s a fact). i’m excited to see what differences in my wardrobe occur between now and next year’s slow fashion october check-in. in the meantime, please enjoy my small contribution to the zero-waste movement - a halloween costume centred around a crown made using weirdly shaped scraps of interfacing and leftovers from my second gypsum skirt! rumpus rumpus rumpus!
