Zero Waste Fashion
Curiosity and the Two Hats
(or the boring title: An analysis of textile wastage and yield: a case study comparison of two head coverings.) Lately I wondered how much of a fabric saving the zero waste warm hat delivers, compared to a conventional pattern. The zero waste warm hat is a new pattern, and the culmination of 18 months of…
Read MoreOn Designing a Zero Waste Hat
The Making Zen Online Retreat is coming up at the end of this month (it’s free – register here and read more). I’m presenting a sew-a-long for a low waste sunhat. The idea of a zero waste hat has been rolling around in my mind for the past year+, and I’d planned to talk about…
Read MoreHow to adjust a zero waste pattern
It’s not always easy to do an adjustment on a zero waste sewing pattern. This is because the whole cutting layout IS the pattern, and the shared cutting lines mean that if you change one piece, the pieces around it will be affected. There can be a hesitancy to make alterations because “it won’t be…
Read MoreSleeves, Triangles, and the Arc T-Shirt
Last week’s post had (I thought) satisfied the head-scratching on using triangles as sleeves. But was it “correct”? Here’s a quick re-cap: This is how I thought the sleeves might be formed: Here it is tried in fabric, full-scale. It works OK, although I’m not sure how to control the width of the sleeve for…
Read MoreCutting zero waste sleeves from triangles
Zero waste sleeves have been on my radar lately. Sleeves were the theme of the newly-published September zine for A Year of Zero Waste Sewing, and I looked through lots of new and old sleeve ideas while writing it. Of course I turned to the influential and significant Zero Waste Fashion Design to see what…
Read MoreA Better Hat
Last week’s zero waste hat pattern has had a few tweaks and been re-made in a more…erm…exciting fabric (it’s not hard to beat khaki!). I had mixed feelings about the khaki hat, but on the same day as making it, we had a family dinner and it was enthusiastically tried on by all and declared…
Read MoreThe Hat Challenge
I happened to see that #sewover50 on Instagram have a mini challenge to sew a hat. I thought I might sew one, maybe using the free hat pattern on this website. Then I remembered I had a prototype for a zero waste hat lying around behind my sewing machine – maybe now is the time…
Read MoreThoughts on zero waste bias cutting
The bias cut slip dress/pinafore I started last week is practically finished. To re-cap, I’m exploring bias cut & zero waste for the September instalment of A Year of Zero Waste Sewing, a book I’m publishing as zines. I tried out some ideas I had using the slip dress pattern from Birgitta Helmersson’s new book,…
Read MoreA Skirt for All Seasons: Ways to Wear a Bryer Skirt
This month I introduced a new pattern, the zero waste Bryer skirt. This pattern comes in 20 sizes, to fit an 86cm/34″ hips to a 183cm/72″. It has generous pockets, an option for back waist elastic, and the length can be changed. The pattern is in my shop now – please enjoy 25% off. I…
Read More6 Things I didn’t predict with zero waste patterncutting
It’s been just over 7 years since I first encountered zero waste patterncutting and I’m still as enamored with it. At the beginning of 2020, I decided I would only make zero waste patterns from now on. Here are some things I didn’t predict… 1. Zero waste uses less fabric There are some who say…
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