Zero Waste Fashion
Making Mompei trousers
Weaver Kaz Madigan of the Curiousweaver studio alerted me to a free pattern on her website for making mompei trousers, a traditional Japanese pattern. The pattern was originally published in Curious Weaver mag 25 years ago and is ideal for narrow widths of handwoven fabric. A Japanese friend said her grandma used to wear them.…
Read MoreSummiting Mt Kiabi
Yay! I finished it! Or rather, them. It’s been a slow but fun process constructing Zero Waste Design Online’s Kiabi windbreaker (read the first post where I started this project). Last week I decided to make two separate windbreakers rather than one double-layer reversible one, and this week I finished them. How much time did…
Read MoreThe Kiabi windbreaker: change of plans
Serious sewing has begun on the Kiabi windbreaker, a zero waste pattern which you can read about in last week’s post. I’m in familiar sewing territory with this project, because I used to work in a factory that made similar things. Don’t envy me; it was during The Great Parachute Tracksuit Era, circa early 1990s.…
Read MoreMaking a zero waste Kiabi windbreaker
The Kiabi windbreaker is a gender-neutral zero waste pattern originally developed by French brand Kiabi in collaboration with Mylène L’Orguilloux, co-founder of Zero Waste Design Online Collective . It’s been adapted into a pattern that can be sewn at home. The pattern is available here. Here’s a short video showing the design process (4:23min) The…
Read MoreOkay, final words on the zero waste undies
Thank you everyone who’s followed and participated in these blog posts on Zero Waste Wardrobe’s free underpants pattern. There were lots of good ideas on leg bands, gussets and bottom cover. The first post on these is here and the second is here. Last week I had the situation of a non-zero waste gusset in…
Read MoreRevisiting the zero waste underpants
I’ve been thinking about the zero waste underpants I made last week from Zero Waste Wardrobe’s free pattern. Since then, some others have tried the pattern. Donna-in-the-comments made some in swimwear fabric. She left the legs unhemmed and cut a conventional gusset from a different fabric. @duckgoesoink made a beautiful red pair with lace trim.…
Read MoreZero Waste Underpants
Yep, on the weekend I made a pair of zero waste underpants. The pattern is by Zero Waste Wardrobe; it’s a free pattern that’s part of a personal design project by clothing and costume designer Saara Jolkkonen. The mission of the project is to provide a free (creative commons licensed) collection of zero waste patterns…
Read MoreMaking Holly McQuillan’s zero waste spiral trousers
In the world of zero waste pattern cutting, Holly McQuillan’s spiral trousers are considered a must-do/bucket list pattern. These unusual trousers have been on my mind for some time, but I didn’t feel brave enough to try them until I saw Sue Stoney’s blog post on them and saw Holly demonstrate how they’re constructed at…
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 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…
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