Zero Waste

A blogger I've been following for a little while now is Liz Haywood from The Craft of Clothes who lives in South Australia (so amazing to find Australian bloggers/makers to follow). I don't know how I stumbled across her, but she is a big advocate for Zero Waste design and sewing. I'm intrigued by Zero Waste as the general sustainability situation of our lifestyles continues to be at the forefront of my mind, so I borrowed the book Zero Waste Sewing from the library to investigate. 

I read the book and considered the clothes. Some I liked, others were not my style. A couple of things I was keen to try. The biggest thing for me was having the time and brain space to read through all the instructions. I like to be ale to understand what fits where when I look at a pattern and to mentally connect things in my head before I start. Some Zero Waste patterns are straight forward, but others required a few mental gymnastics to see how things would fit. 

The first thing I tried was a top (could also be made into a dress) from the September installment of a Year of Zero Waste Sewing. I really liked the style and it was fairly easy to get my head around how it would work. I made it and liked it, but was honestly not sure I'd wear it because the back was so low. I know that's part of that style and my sisters assured me if I got the right bra it would be fine, but I just wasn't sure I was ready to commit. 

My next attempt was another Zero Waste top this time from the aforementioned book. I was using up some old bedsheets that a friend had donated to me in the name of sewing to make both of these projects. It's the first time I've used old bedsheets (though I have been known to use a table cloth or two to trial things before) and I really loved not having the pressure of "making it work" knowing the fabric had already had a great life before I took to it with scissors. And really, it was giving itself to the great cause of experimentation and the gaining of knowledge that I would go on to use to sew better and thus waste less fabric in the future. Definitely a good cause. 

Excuse the messy bathroom, notice the HUGE sleeves!

Not sure if this top needed smaller fabric before I started, or if the style is just not me, but it worked out to be pretty enormous. I still like the style, so I did take the sleeves off to see if I could make a sleeveless version work (or attempt to make the sleeves shorter in some way), but we were getting to the report card end of term 4 when I was sewing these last year and then the library told me I needed to return the Zero Waste sewing book I'd borrowed, so it got put in a box. 

I really like the neckline of this with the bow -
but the sleeves were enormous and the bodice might also need darts? 

I hope I get it out again this year, because Zero Waste sewing still intrigues me and I would like to give it more of a go. Wish me luck!