How can my sewing be more sustainable?

Sustainability is an incredibly important issue and and an incredibly overwhelming one.

Where do I start?? 

With my fabric? My thread? My wardrobe? My energy provider?

When businesses talk about sustainability it's often to sell us something, and it often costs a little more.

But hear me when I tell you: 

The biggest environmental impact is from small habits you do regularly.

Here I am going to talk about the small changes you can make which will make your habits more sustainable. And I promise I won't tell you buy a new eco-fabric!

Simply put we need to Reduce , Reuse and Recycle!

You can do this when lingerie sewing by:

Reduce the wear and tear of your lingerie by washing it by hand.

If you machine wash do it at as low temperature as possible.

Always air dry never tumble dry (ever).

Mending when you can.

Reuse parts of old lingerie into new ones!

Hardware from bras can be reused in new projects.

The easiest and most versatile are the rings and sliders with the hook and eye closures.

You will need to do a shape check on underwires and use your best judgement.

Check if the wire can still hold its shape and compare it against a patterns size guide.

Elastics and the fabric from used bras and undies are not usually worth using again.

This is because the qualities in the fabric are likely to be worn down. 

Recycle old clothes into lingerie and swimwear

Underwear is a great thing to make when recycling old clothes.

Not all fabric should be underwear - if you can check the label for the composition. 

Natural fibres e.g. 100% cotton is perfect for pants, smaller scraps are perfect for gussets. 

Clothes with spandex or polyester can become great bikinis or sports bras. 

Recycling clothes into undies is harder than reducing and reusing because of the technical nature of lingerie fabric.

I recommend you start by recycling your old vests and soft t-shirts into comfy undies first. 

I made a swimsuit from a green dress, its composition polyester and spandex. But the fabric was thinner than regular swimwear, meaning all my lumps and bumps under the fabric shone through. I fixed this by using a power net lining.