Thursday, October 20, 2016

slow fashion october - long-worn maintenance.

as i mentioned tuesday, i had a bit more to write on the subject of "long-worn" the second prompt for slow fashion october... so without further ado, here it is!

a big part of what keeps my wardrobe going is looking after, and giving love to the garments i own, whether they be beautiful handmade garments, or fast fashion ones i've foolishly indulged in over the years. either way, they're both incredibly important as keeping garments out of landfill is a high priority of mine.

the first step in looking after them, is obviously washing them appropriately.
since seriously getting back into knitting, i’ve been a big advocate for hand washing handknits, and i’ve always separated my light coloured clothes, from my darker coloured ones when putting them through the machine… though since reading this post by elle, i'll be taking a little more care with how and how often i wash things in the machine.

fabric shaving has become quite a fun pastime of mine...

using the fabric shaver on bb's blue jumperone purple sock after fabric shaving, and one before. the difference is very visible!

there's no quicker and better way to bring a hand knitted garment back to it's former glory than with a quick fabric shave!
come to think of it, it's a pretty great way to freshen up some of those nylon-filled, fast fashion pieces too. there are more than a few cheap and cheerful cardigans and dresses that i've breathed a bit more life into with a quick fabric shave!

my third solution for keeping everything functional is mending.

grey cardigan with several skeins of embroidery floss and an embroidery hoop

i've posted here before about mending, with this post being a particularly successful to-do list for me, and this one, being not quite as successful... i never quite managed to get everything fixed 100%. those jean pockets of bb's, they have all new holes despite my repair attempts, and the cardigan i talked about? well it's one of my slow fashion october goals and is pictured above.
i never actually stated any goals in my first post, but they've been percolating in my head a little he he. a dottieangel inspired, woolly tattoo bit of visible mending is what awaits this.
it will definitely be a slow old fix, but hopefully i can pull it off and it will breathe a whole new bit of life into this sad looking cardigan!

wish me luck!

what are your thoughts on maintaining your wardrobe? are you a mender?

1 comment:

Tammy@T's Daily Treasures said...

I'm not a mender, but I am purposely not buying anything new and trying to weed out what I've got, which is too much, and only keep what I wear often, what feels comfortable and what can do double duty. If I put something on and it doesn't feel right, then I give away. I look forward to seeing how you stitch up that cardigan. Tif's work is very inspiring!