Posts by lizhaywood
3 sewing ideas to save your back and neck
If you’ve had your head down churning out scrubs and masks for the past few months, you’ll be familiar with how unkind repetitive sewing can be on the body. I have no idea how sweatshop workers cope, but my own clothing factory career (as a cutter) was only kept afloat with regular chiropractic care and…
Read MoreZero Waste Fashion exhibition
As restrictions ease here in South Australia, an opportunity which I thought was lost has been offered to me again. The garments from Zero Waste Sewing are now on display in a gallery here in Clare for the month of June. The exhibition was going to be in April but by then everything was in…
Read MoreReflections on Me Made May 2020
Me Made May is over for another year. This was the fourth time I’ve done it and I think it was the hardest. Me Made May is an annual event which you can read more about here, where you wear your me-made clothes during the month of May, as a way of wearing them more…
Read MoreMaking buttons from milk plastic
During the week I happened to see a homeschooling family’s experiments making buttons from milk. Since my children are still at home, we gave it a try. It was a big hit! Milk plastic, or casein plastic, is something I’ve vaguely heard of, but it was very common from about 1900 to WW2 and was…
Read More7 challenges of zero waste patterns
Zero waste patternmaking is going through a time of experimentation, both with actual patterns and how it can be applied to clothing manufacture. I’ve been experimenting with zero waste patterns for the past 4 years and been challenged, had fun, stretched my brain and found it unexpectedly freeing. Here are some of the discoveries and…
Read MoreNew zero waste pattern: Lillypilly Dress
Hello All, today I’ve released a new zero waste pattern, which I feel very excited about but at the same time a little bit sad. It’s one of the projects I was going to present at a workshop at the Australian Sewing Guild’s convention later this year, which like most gatherings is now cancelled. The…
Read MoreDoing Me-Made-May 2020
For the fourth year now, I’m doing Me-Made-May. It’s an annual event which you can read more about here, where you wear your me-made clothes during the month of May, as a way of wearing them more often, or in a different way. It’s meant to be a personal challenge but most importantly it’s meant…
Read MoreCelebrating 21 years
It’s our wedding anniversary, and I thought I’d give the dress an airing. Trying on this dress feels like the glamorous antithesis to the hospital scrub sewing which has gripped our household for the past couple of weeks. To be honest, I was apprehensive about trying it on, in case I got stuck like last…
Read MoreMaking Danielle Elsener’s zero waste scrub top
The free scrub pattern I did last week led me to Danielle Elsener of DECODECODECODE’s zero waste scrubs, and I thought I’d give them a go. I’m fascinated that two patternmakers living on opposite sides of the Earth both endeavoured to make zero waste scrubs, took very different approaches, and produced such different-looking patterns which…
Read MoreFree pattern: scrubs
Folks, there’s a shortage of hospital scrubs in the world. There’s a shortage in Australia, in the UK, and no doubt in other countries too. This week I attempted to make a zero waste scrubs pattern. (The full pattern is at the end of this post – beset by technical difficulties, the only way I…
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