Zero Waste, do you? Sure you do!

 

Visible mending by Collingwood=Norris, pretty awesome

When I see versions online of Zero Waste garments, sorry, they look like either wrapped bath towels or large pieces of yardage pushed into a smaller rectangle made to look like a wrapped bath towel. I have yet to see anything I or anyone I know would wear. I am not talking garments like sheath dresses  where the maker has used the leftover pieces of fabric to make a bag or a stuffed animal or such. I am talking one piece of yardage made into an entire garment. 

I love Studio Faro and their amazing designs. Here is one of their takes on a zero waste design: http://www.studiofaro.com/well-suited/pattern-puzzle-squares-zero-waste  I won't publish any pics as I  have found fashion pics have a way of disappearing from the web over time so please click to get my drift. This is a very creative design but I would never be caught dead in it. Is it brilliant? Total use of the yardage for sure. Would it work in the hills and lakes of New Hampshire Mmmmm......maybe in a local coven. Definitely not for me but could work in a more sophisticated environment like NYC or Milan. 

Now before you think I am anti Zero Waste, let's go back to the very beginning----of time. You've all seen those memes circulating with "old fogies" telling millennials about how recycling and green living were invented  back in the day. They  list things like glass milk bottles being returned and reused each week; paper bags covering books at school; yada, yada, yada. I even remember the ice boats we made from old hockey ice skates, old sheets and some discarded 2x4s. Wow, they flew across the lake and what fun! I am from the pre all plastic generation and it is true. We actually mended clothes and that's coming back now too as if it is the new big thing! I do  think some of  the work of Celia Pym and her peers is positively artful.

Visible mending by Celia Pym 

But let me get to the bottom line here. Who sews and wastes? "Not I" says any passionate needle artist. Who doesn't save, organize or even donate or use for other higher causes their leftover bits and bobs from sewing? "Not I"  screams the driven needle worker. What lover of fabric and fiber does not occasionally scour rummage sales, thrift shops and yard sales for that rare gem of fabric at a bargain price to recycle into their own precious interpretation of great style? All of us sewists, that's who, newbies, experienced sewists and all in between. The thought of forcing yardage into a garment that I don't like and that has been designed without regard to what might flatter a body of whatever shape just to have no pieces of fabric left over is something I find so disdainful and even ridiculous.  I would suggest that those driven but such green ideals, which I do share, look elsewhere in the textile chain to rid this planet of over consumption and manufacturing with disregard to Mother Earth. Sewists are doing just fine with saving the planet. 

Today they are condos.  This is one of  five that we used to make all those suits.

Back when I was fresh out of college and wanted a real job I got one in a garment factory.  At the time it was the largest manufacturer of men's clothing in the world. We had 5000 employees and turned out 150,000 men's suits on an average week back when men wore a lot of suits. I worked my way up from receptionist to admin assistant to the treasurer of the company. It was fascinating. I loved it and was surrounded by fabric. I LEARNED A LOT. All that to say that the mill next door got all our scraps, much of which were 100 % wool. They got all the scraps from all the textile mills in a city of more textile mills than you could count. There was NO waste. They did not bale them up and send them to India or Bangladesh. They "reprocessed" them. The were shredded and chopped and made into tiny litle fibers that went to other clever manufacturers in our city of textile manufacturers. They were  remade into other items from new fabrics to carpet pad and more. I mean, 2021, Duh..... can we not do this??? 

I love that a generation brought up on juice boxes and nylon backpacks destined for landfills is disgusted by what they see happening with the results of Fast Fashion. It needs to change so badly. Sewists are in the front line changing that. Read and have your friends read Elizabeth Cline's book "Overdressed" to see what you can do about this. While we will never go back to the milk man picking up our glass bottles each week and brown paper bag book covers, I do think those in the Fashion business need to use their efforts more responsibly.  Designing patterns for sewists is a waste of time. Get back to a twice seasonal fashion cycle  where quality clothing is the norm, where you buy far less and wear it longer. This would be a world where the skills of dressmaking and tailoring would be just as highly regarded as those of the electrician or plumber and paid accordingly. Those two fields would be so respected by all for their ability to extend the life of clothing  and even change it's look as fashion changes, therefor eliminating feeding the monster in those Bangladeshi mountains of used fast fashion. 

My final thoughts

* Designing Zero Waste patterns for sewists is preaching to the choir. 

* The Fashion Industry needs to wean itself from On Demand inventories, aka, Fast Fashion by becoming more seasonal in its offerings. This demands higher quality garments that use more natural fabrics and better construction techniques. 

* The Fashion Industry can expend it's efforts on cleaning up the environment by utilizing natural fibers and mindful dyeing processes. Anyone who ever lived in a textile manufacturing center can drive through with you blindfolded and tell exactly where the rayon is manufactured, where the big dye works are, etc. They STINK specifically with their unique odors   and pollute their surroundings. Let's use our science and brains in the textile industry to cleanup our act here, not waste time on zero waste garments.

* Lets go back to processes that will reuse the fibers that are left over from manufacture as they were years ago. Where there is opportunity there is money to be made. 

Sewists are so ahead of the game on these fronts. Reading Cline's book will let you know how special you are and how you can influence the future. Just don't get sucked into the myth and waste of time of zero waste garments. Fads can change moments. They don't change the world.....Bunny