Check Your Thread: Sewing More Sustainably

This is first of a two-part series about sewing and saving and buckle up because it starts with an unapologetically political rant about the current cost of living crisis. I then explore the question, ‘Can sewing save you money?’ looking at mending, garment making, quilt making and making reusable products. I also share a listener question about opportunities to use sewing skills in a voluntary ca...

Writer, podcaster and speaker Jen Gale is one of my biggest inspirations. She is a busy mum of two living a ‘normal’ life, whilst continually seeking out ways to limit her family’s environmental impact. She shares her discoveries across different media, including via her books and her podcast, Sustainable(ish), which is an amazing resource for fascinating, inspiring conversations. In this episode...

In last week’s episode, we heard about the journey that led designer Birgitta Helmersson to create clothing and sewing patterns that follow zero waste principles. This episode (#55) features the second part of our conversation, and in it we get stuck into Birgitta’s process and the challenges faced when producing ZW designs. Birgitta also talks about her deep love of textiles, the roots of which s...

This 54 is the first of two featuring a conversation with Swedish-Australian designer Birgitta Helmersson . Known in the sewing community as a zero waste pattern designer, Birgitta also produces a range of ZW clothing which she sells from her shop/studio in Malmö. Prior to this, Birgitta had a diverse and convoluted career in fashion design, costume, alterations, pattern cutting and garment manufa...

The Check Your Thread podcast is one year old!!!! We just took a fortnight off after creating 52 weekly episodes, and today we’re back with an ‘Ask Me Anything’ episode! Aided by friends-of-the-podcast Julia Hincks and Naomi Bancroft, we read out and discuss some awesome questions submitted by CYT listeners. We cover favourite scrap projects, how we interact (or don’t) with sewing trends, what giv...

For the 52nd episode of Check Your Thread, I’m speaking with a fascinating and multi-faceted creative named Bella Gonshorovitz . Originally from Tel Aviv and currently living and working in London, Bella is a fashion designer, maker, author and collaborator who has recently had her first book published. ‘Grow, Cook, Dye, Wear - From seed to style the sustainable way’ is about creating garments tha...

Barley Massey is the owner of Fabrications , a wonderful shop, studio and maker’s space on Broadway Market in East London. Barley is an artist, maker, teacher and activist who uses her space to explore and to teach resourcefulness through creativity. A fundamental aspect of Barley’s work is the fostering of real-life community, providing support, connection and inspiration in an area with increasi...

In Episode 50 I report back from my recent visit to the Future Fabrics Expo in London. I got to discover what fabrics, fibres, textiles and haberdashery with more sustainable credentials are already on the market. Plus I learnt about some exciting new products and technologies currently in development that offer creative solutions to some of fashion’s biggest issues. I share all this plus my predi...

Textile activist Shams el-Din Rogers is back on Check Your Thread! In this episode, #49, Shams shares more powerful and thought-provoking ideas focusing on sewing as it relates to sustainability, economic self-sufficiency, feminism, gender/relationship dymanics and cultural appropriation. For example, she encourages us to question how and why those of us who have periods have become reliant on dis...

Episode 48 gets stuck into the sizable ‘sister’ topic of how to knit more sustainably! I had the pleasure of talking to knitting podcaster, community leader, marketing expert and former yarn-shop owner, Saskia de Feijter from Ja, Wol and A Smaller Life podcast as the second part of our recent podcast swap. She explained to me how as a beginner knitter, I could approach knitting from a more sustain...

This episode is something of a love letter to my favourite mending technique: patching! Mending with patches is a beginner friendly option for giving most types of clothing and fabrics a longer life. Depending on your choice of patching fabric, it can be a bold statement, or a subtle repair. It offers plenty of opportunities for creativity, it can be achieved without a sewing machine AND can be de...

Daisy Braid, AKA DIY Daisy, produces fantastic garment-making tutorials. Available via her website, and in a newly released book called ‘Sew It Yourself’, Daisy has made drafting and sewing simple, stylish garments incredibly accessible. By removing the need for prior experience of drafting or even using sewing patterns, Daisy’s designs can be created for bodies of any size with just some basic se...

For Episode 45 I have a fascinating talk with Noah Hirsch, a maker, artist and scavenger based in Washington, USA. Both in his employment and in his spare time, Noah works to keep materials, particularly textiles, out of landfill. Noah tells me about the motivations behind his activities, his approach to repair and reuse and how to talk to others to inspire them to keep items in use for longer. In...

As this year's Me-Made-May challenge draws to a close, Episode 44 offers us all an opportunity to gain insights from the experience. In this solo episode I share my thoughts and observations on what was different about this year’s challenge. Plus, I launch my free resource, the Me-Made-May and Beyond worksheet, which will help YOU capture your experience and take away key lessons from your challen...

For Episode #43, I’m speaking with experienced clothes-maker Kate Ng, who has spent years learning and thinking about conscious clothes making, and how to communicate these ideas. Through her wonderful blog and Instagram account Kate has dedicated untold hours to battling over-simplified messaging and greenwashing in ‘sustainable fashion’ and ‘sustainable sewing’. In this episode we also learn abo...

In this episode we’re getting conceptual! Episode #42 explores an idea that is fundamental to living as sustainably as possible: keeping resources at their highest possible level of use. This conversation is with awesome return-guest Shelly Sommer, who lays out the principles of a circular economy and why we should be aiming for this important goal, within our making practices and beyond. Shelly s...

Sewing patterns are often the starting point for those of us who make our own clothes. In recent years we have witnessed an explosion in the amount and the variety of sewing patterns available to us. Plus, developments in technology and the sewing industry have resulted in patterns being available in different formats. Then, once we’ve bought a pattern in a particular format, there are options of...

This episode is the second featuring my conversation with mending-legend, Erin Lewis-Fitzgerald. Two years ago Erin wrote a book called Modern Mending, which I legitimately feel may be the very best mending book out there. In this episode we hear all about its creation and the concepts behind it, including the concept of ‘experimend’! She shares some important tips for beginner menders, including...

This episode (Ep. #39) is the first of two featuring Australia-based mending expert, Erin Lewis-Fitzgerald. In this one we hear the tale of how a baby journalist with zero formal sewing training grew to become a mending legend. Erin tells us how quitting her former career and the fall-out from her breast cancer diagnosis led her to refocus her energies on repair and reuse. Her experiments taught h...

Ep. 38 is the third and final episode in the mini-series all about the Me-Made-May wardrobe challenge. Expanding on last week’s episode about setting your own unique pledge, today we’ll flip it and discuss super-simple, basic pledges that still offer heaps of learning potential. If you’re just not sure what your wardrobe goals are, or you don’t have the headspace for anything complicated right now...

This is the second episode in the mini-series all about the Me-Made-May wardrobe challenge. If you’re not sure how to get the most from taking part in MMM, this episode offers a guide to crafting your own, tailor-made pledge. Included are examples of a variety of unique pledges that might click with you, and lead you to heaps of useful lessons and insights about yourself and your wardrobe needs. W...

Me-Made-May is a popular annual wardrobe challenge that helps participants improve their relationship with their handmade wardrobe. It also gives you the opportunity to learn lots of useful lessons that will inform your making going forwards. Episode #36 is a deep dive into the challenge that I inadvertently created thirteen years ago. Whether you’ve already heard of MMM, have taken part in the pa...

Shortly after the COVID pandemic reached the UK in early 2020, artist and maker Sophie Passmore responded to the craziness and confusion by founding the Mask Makers UK community. This Facebook group became an important hub providing information, assistance and support to thousands of voluntary mask makers. More than two years later, Sophie is still keeping abreast with developments in mask-related...

Before many of us were even aware of the damaging aspects of fabric production, Charlie Bradley Ross was researching better alternatives. Her desire to share that extensive research and the connections she made with ethical and more sustainable producers grew organically (excuse the pun) into her business, Offset Warehouse, and later The Sustainable Fashion Collective. For Episode 34 of CYT, Charl...

Sewing and mending are important life skills, as well as being a source of fun and creative expression. However, with fewer and fewer schools offering any kind of sewing or textiles lessons, are us adults doing enough to pass on these skills to children and young people? After all, the planet will be in their hands before long. In this episode (Ep.# 33), I argue the case for encouraging kids to se...