In true Pippa style I am a little late to the Slow Fashion Party… But I have been getting on with some things in line with the Ideals of Slow Fashion but now I’m going to knuckle down and put down in words my ideas about what slow fashion means to me.
Soo Much Skirt!
So Slow Fashion October was created with the idea to showcase knitting works which were a bit too warm to wear in the sewing heavy Me-Made-May but has evolved along the way to express the ideas of producing long lasting garments etc.
In some ways home sewing is a way to fight back against the “fast fashion” trends, clothing made in a sweat shop on the far side of the world, not that it has ever been about that for me. But more and more we see people churning out outfit after outfit, lovely floaty summer dress after summer dress. I often wonder how much of this stuff actually gets worn, I know a lot of my earlier makes never get worn, partly they had fitting issues but also I made things that were ‘fun’ but not necessarily useful. Recently I have made a lot more Cake and much less Frosting… and that is something I really want to focus on, making things I will actually wear, making them fit right and making them in a way that will last.
So the first weeks prompt was YOU.
“Week” 1, October 1-4: YOU
First let’s introduce ourselves: Where are you at with all this / What first got you interested in Slow Fashion / What are your skills / What do you hope to get out of Slow Fashion October / What are your personal goals for the month / Do you have a special project you plan to tackle this month?
Well…
Where am I with this, I’m not sure, having just moved I have gone through my wardrobe and thrown out two bags of clothes and moved a big Ikea box of tops and trousers here and a hug Ikea bag of jumpers. I still have some more stuff at ‘home’ with Nikki but this is most of my non special occasion clothing. I have a number of Me Made tops but not much else Me Made and I would like this to change. I first heard of the challenge through the Craft Sessions in relation to her Stash Less series which is something that I really have to think seriously about as we are running out of space in our house!
That right there is the crux of this all I think, I need less stuff! With this in mind I need the stuff I do have in my wardrobe to be more multi functional, I would never survive with a capsule wardrobe as such but I think my things need to be able to go with a lot of things that I have to make them much more versatile.
My Skills: Sewing, quite advanced, I’m not a professional by any means but quite competent with more aspects.
Knitting, coming along, one jumper down, two more on the go. Pretty much eveyone got hats for Christmas last year!
Boat Maintenance, well I get paid to do it! Ok so not strictly relevant here but is a skill that takes time and well skill so is a good window into why I find this idea so appealing.
My aim/plan/project. Well I would like to finish my two jumpers if possible. I also have 3 ballroom dresses that need varying levels of attention which by their nature are ‘Slow’ projects, hemming 15m of skirt doesn’t come quickly! One of the dresses needs to be completely re-made and decorated which takes a lot of time… Also I want to think about my clothing situation, since I am starting half way through the month, with a few projects on the go I probably wont be able to do any more than that but I want to work out which of my clothes ‘work’, what I wear all the time and what I need more of/what I don’t really need.
Lots of words here and lots to think about…
