Organic Fabric Lust List

In my quest to start sewing my own clothes and textiles, I've started looking for fun and interesting fabrics that I can use. I'm under no illusion that it's worth spending a lot of money on fabric when you're a beginner, but I'm definitely planning to treat myself once I've got the basics down and I can trust myself not to mess it up!

Here are some of my favourite organic fabrics that I've found while trawling the web (because if I'm going to give up ready made clothes I might as well go the whole hog and make sure my fabric is ethical, right?! :) )

First up we have:

The Birds & The Bees

Clockwise from top left: Swallows | Deer | Honeycomb | Spokes | Clouds

I've fallen hard for that glorious yellow cloud print, I'm imagining maybe some cushion covers, or a sweet little skirt? (Maybe a Tilly & The Buttons Miette skirt?). 

There are a lot of prints around at the moment featuring animals - I don't think I'm brave enough to pull off some of the more outlandish prints but I love these subtle varieties :)

Next on the lust list...

 Got The Blues

Clockwise from top left: Swimmers | Sails | Stars | Chevrons

I'm a redhead, so I know my natural colourings work well when paired with blue tones. My wardrobe is probably 60% blue tones so it's no surprise that I was drawn to these beauties. How cute is that vintage swimmers print?!

Back to Nature

Clockwise from top left: Trees | Poppies | Clouds | Dandelions | Leaves

Lastly I've found these gorgeous nature inspired fabrics. Is it weird to want a skirt with clouds on? Because I totally want a skirt with clouds on.

Organic fabrics are more expensive, but with that spend you know that the people (and animals) creating your fabric have been treated fairly - which sounds pretty good to me!

What other fabric shops (and patterns!) should I be checking out? :)

Love

Sarah

A Little Inspiration: Some Awesome Sewing Blogs

It's official - I've caught the sewing bug. I've bought patterns, I've got my sewing machine set up and I've been found stroking the fabrics in John Lewis on more than one occasion...

I've actually been wanting to get into sewing for a while now, but it's thanks to some rather lovely sewing blogs that I've finally taken the plunge so I thought I'd share them here in case anyone else is considering it! :) (Thanks also to my mum who has leant me her spare sewing machine. Now I really have no excuse!)

Tea for Two

First up: Tea for Two. Jen and Elena are twins who share a love of crafting as well as a blog! :) They took part in Me Made May this year and it was fun to see what they came up with for the challenge. I'm hoping that by the time it comes around next year I might be able to participate!

What Katie Sews

Katie is one of the original crop of bloggers that I have been following for years. She recently branched out from her main blog to this dedicated sewing blog and the pieces she has created in a relatively short period of time are so inspiring! 

Notes From a Mad Housewife

 Lisa is new blogger to my roll but I'm already enjoying her infectious style - check out these beautiful pink trousers! She also took part in Me Made May, I'm so impressed by all these bloggers! :)

Gertie's Blog For Better Sewing

Gertie's blog is really one of the greats. Not only does she sew fabulous dresses (like this gorgeous hot pink number or this wonderful flapper dress!) but she also has a range of her own patterns and she does guided sew-alongs for them. Yay!

Bonne Chance

Angela's blog is a relatively new one to me but I like her style and perseverance when it comes to making practice pieces (I'm so impatient that I want to dive in and make the real deal first but I know 'practice makes perfect' is a well known phrase for a reason!

Seamless

You might remember Elena from the interview I did with her about her 'Seamless Pledge' back in January. Len has a 'can't jar' that she's slowly working her way through, and is currently creating a maid of honour dress. Talk about pressure! :)

Tilly and the Buttons

And last but certainly not least, lovely Tilly! She's just released her first pattern book (which is fabulous and very yellow, I'm in love ;) ) and her blog is chock full of resources, tips and beautiful, inspiring projects. What more could you need? :)

What sewing blogs do you read? Are you getting the urge to start making some of your own clothes? :)

Love

Sarah

Me Made May 2014

It's that time of year again - wow! Me Made May is a fun challenge created by Zoe from 'So, Zo...What Do You Know?' to encourage sewers to wear and love their handmade items. As someone who is super interested in sewing but hasn't actually plucked up the courage to make anything yet (I know, I know) I'm hoping the participants this year will inspire me to plug in my machine and get crafting! Who knows, maybe by the time Me-Made-May'15 rolls around I'll be taking part ;)

If you've never heard of "Me-Made-May"and have no idea what I'm going on about then read on...

What is Me-Made-May?

"Me-Made-May is a challenge designed to encourage people who sew/knit/crochet/refashion/upcycle garments for themselves to actually wear and love them. 

Participants decide the specifics of their own pledge - a very common pledge is for a participant to aim to wear one self-stitched or refashioned garment each day for the duration of May 2014. The participants can also choose to document their challenge with daily photos (though this is in no way compulsory for taking part)."

Why should I take part?

Zoe put together a helpful list of reasons of why you might want to participate (thanks Zoe!):

• Do your handmade items often get left in the wardrobe rather than worn as part of your everyday wardrobe? Participating in this challenge can give you a bit of a nudge to help you to integrate your self-stitched items into your daily life.

• This challenge may also be useful for discovering the 'holes' in your wardrobe so in the future you are able to focus your precious garment-creating time towards making things that will be useful. 

• If you feel that what you tend to wear, day-to-day, doesn't really suit you or represent who you are, this challenge is a way to spend a monthfocussing on getting out of your wardrobe rut. 

• You may enjoy an excuse to focus on finishing off lingering UFOs (un-finished objects), or to start a project you've had on your mind for ages. 

• If you have been creating clothing for some time and already wear a lot of your me-mades, this challenge might help you to bring newer self-stitched items into regular rotation. If you tend to make all kinds of garments, you may even want to see if you can get by all month entirely without shop-bought garments (with undies or outerwear as notable exceptions, but not necessarily!). 

• There is also guaranteed to be a lovely online community of fellow participants to give support, advice and inspiration.

How do I sign up?

All you have to do is copy the pledge below and post it in the comments section of this post adapted to include your details and the personal specification of your challenge before 1st May:

'I, (insert name here and blog address if you have one), sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '14. I endeavour to wear......................................................... each day for the duration of May 2014'

This is YOUR challenge, write the pledge any way you want, just remember: IT IS A CHALLENGE and not meant to be easy or what you do usually. Push yourselves! :)

You can find all the details about the pledge on Zoe's blog here, and there's also a Flickr group and Pinterest board you can join and post your photos too :) If you're on Twitter you can use the using the #MMMay14 hashtag to keep up with the conversation. Make sure you sign up ASAP tho, as registration is only open until today!

So what do you think, will you be signing up? :)

Love

Sarah

Take The Seamless Pledge!

We've talked a lot about ethical clothing here on the Ears and Whiskers blog, and today Sarah is back with a new challenge for 2014...

I used to love to shop, but lately I've been feeling a pang of guilt every time I walk into Primark or window shop in Topshop. Ever thought that you'd love to spend less time in H&M and more time reworking vintage pieces or amazing finds from the charity shop but aren't sure where to start?

Perhaps you're starting to feel like if you can't guarantee the ethics of shop you'd rather not shop there? Or maybe you're just fed up with seeing people wearing the same clothes as you! (I know I am, always very embarrasing to spot someone else in the room wearing your favourite dress, right?)

If any of the above applies to you and you're looking for a change then why not try The Seamless Pledge!

The Seamless Pledge is all about encouraging people not to buy mass manufactured clothing, and to go out and either make your own or buy something second hand. Hubbard's Cupboard is all about vintage and one of a kind pieces, so I think it fits in with the pledge pretty well! :)

We spoke to Elena Cresci, the girl behind the Seamless Pledge to get an idea of why she started the project :)

How long have you been sewing?

I have been sewing since 2009 I think? I got started in my second year of university (I hand-sewed a wonky skirt), but it wasn't until the Summer I got started with proper patterns and the like. Then, I moved to Germany for a bit, got myself a second-hand sewing machine and tried to improve as much as I could.

What inspired you to create the Seamless Pledge? 

The blog itself actually started as a project for my postgraduate journalism course at university! I was already blogging about sewing at that point, but I kind of wanted to take it to the next level. When I first started sewing, there was a pledge called Wardrobe Refashion, but the woman who had started wasn't able to carry it on. I interviewed Zoe Edwards, another sewing blogger, and we were talking about how it was a shame there wasn't anything like that anymore... enter the Seamless Pledge!

After Zoe shared it, I got loads of people saying they were up for it, it was so surreal. I didn't quite expect it to hit the nerve it did. I think there are a lot of people thinking about the ethical and environmental implications of fashion these days.

How long have you been doing it now? 

I didn't buy any new clothes at all for at least a year, if not more, from October 2011. I'll hold my hands up, I have bought the odd thing since the "official" pledge came to an end in 2012, but I can honestly count on one hand the amount of new clothes I bought in 2013. And one was a Christmas jumper, which I figured was OK because I cannot knit so save my live AND it had a Home Alone reference... Whay!

What are the rules of the Seamless pledge?

The rules

• No buying new clothes for the duration of your pledge. New mean any new mass-manufactured clothes.
• You can buy second-hand manufactured clothes – so be prepared to get to know your local charity shops awfully well.
• Vintage clothing is a-ok!
• Anything you’ve made by hand is definitely allowed. Get your sewing machines and your knitting needles out, because handmade is definitely in!

What are you sewing goals for 2014? 

I had this whole 12-month challenge set out where I was going to pick one sewing project a month to concentrate on. Annoyingly, it's already come to pieces because a) I haven't had a sewing machine for about a month and b) my first challenge of sewing sequins turned out to be THE MOST TIME-CONSUMING THING EVERRR. Right now I'm drafting "the pain of sequins" post in my head - it's been traumatic. But I'm still going to squirrel away at that challenge because it's more about stretching my sewing abilities than meeting some arbitrary sewing target.

I have a 'Can't Jar' so I'm basically picking things out of that and going from there. I sewed my first pair of trousers recently, which was immense. Next on the list will be things like a bag, a coat... next month, I'd like to draft my own dress pattern. That'll be fun

What tips can you give to people who want to move away from mass market fashion? 

Charity shops are your friend. Seriously. They are the best places. And go to the ones in rich neighbourhoods - when I lived in Guildford, there were constantly designer clothes in the local charity shops. You'd be amazed what people chuck away. Also, you may think you can't sew, but it can be pretty easy to whip up a quick pencil skirt. It's having a big resurgence at the moment, so there are plenty of sewing classes around. That said, there is a plethora of material online from various sewing bloggers who are far better at this sewing lark than I am.

What has been the most helpful resource in learning how to sew new things? 

See above - definitely the sewing blogosphere. You'll be hard pressed to find a kinder and more open community of people online. They are a constant source of inspiration and motivation. Some of my faves are Gertie's New Blog For Better Sewing, Tilly and the Buttons and Zoe (interviewed above). Karen of Did You Make That also has a blog on the Guardian fashion network because she is brilliaaaant. 

What kind of sewing seemed daunting when you started that you now feel you've mastered?

TROUSERS! I definitely haven't mastered them, but I'm going to brag about having made a pair forever and ever. Buttons are also becoming less daunting. What I've found is I can fudge things quite a lot so long as I remember that no one has to see how messy my stuff is on the inside...

-

Thanks Elena! :) Do you think you could give up buying new clothes for a month? Six months? ...*gulp* a year?

If the answer is a big fat YES! then here's how to join in:

 

It’s super simple to join up. Just comment on the site with your name, your blog (if you have one) and how long you’re signing up for. Once you’ve done that, you can also add the button to your blog using this code:

[a href="http://seamlessblog.wordpress.com/the-pledge/" target="_blank">[img src="http://seamlessblog.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/button.png" alt="The Seamless Pledge" /][/a] (replace the [ ] with < >)

Replace brackets with < > and stick it in a textbox widget on your blog and/or post the following to your social network of choice:

"I (insert your name here) am taking the #seamlesspledge until (length of time here). http://bit.ly/tktV04"

& that's it! Do let us know if you sign up, and if you have a blog then leave the link in the comments, I love to read them! :)

Love

Sarah