Am I Good Enough to be in the Sustainable Club?

** Spoiler alert - yes, I believe I have made the cut.

The word sustainability comes up quite a bit these days - especially in creative circles. Most view making their own - you fill in the blank - as a way to reduce over consumption and ultimately be kinder to the planet. For a while though, I couldn't figure out what that meant for me. Yes, I've created a large portion of my wardrobe to date which has in turn heavily limited my consumption of fast fashion and that does give me a sense of pride as I am no fan - whatsoever - of the fast fashion industry. BUT does it place me into the 'sustainable' category? I like making things so I buy my fair share of fabric, some of it thrifted - most of it not. I also have no idea the process that the fabric underwent to end up on the shelf where it and I ultimately met. It would be naive of me to think that this was a wholly ethical and sustainable process. So again, I arrive at the question - what does sustainable mean for me?

I ultimately arrived at this conclusion: sustainable for me means conscious consumption. It means that to the best of my ability I'd like to stay away from: a) things I like the idea of & b) things that I'll only use just once.

Behold: a real-time picture of my fabric storage situation - water bottle and all.

A. Things I only like the idea of.

This is BIG in the sewing community. You're on the internets or scrolling through your feed and BAM! Look at what so & so made! Do I have that pattern in my stash? No.. Why not? I mean I need it, I literally need it - like now! Okay google don't let ya girl down, lead me to the page to buy the thing that I just saw 5 mins ago for the first time... ever... but it's cool. So & so made it and it. was. Epic! Therefore I shall make it and be epic too! Squeak!!

Okay, maybe it's not the sewing community. Maybe it's just me, it's probably just me but early on in my sewing journey this was a real problem for me. What it lead to was a healthy stack of patterns that I will never make for various reasons. None of which were considered when purchasing said patterns. Or the purchasing of that coveted fabric that all the sewists swear by (ahem, linen) that behaves in ways that does not lend itself nicely to the types of garments that I like to wear or make... Even still it occupies an entire cubby of my fabric stash and has left a dent in my wallet that will not soon be forgotten.

In all honesty, my ability to hone in on these things and notice these patterns has taken over a year and dedicated reflection but from where I sit now I have determined that I do not sew to become a collector of things (unless those things are sewing machines, baby steps right?) What comes into my creative space must be something that will yield a creation. And i know it sounds silly - like who buys things that aren't going to use? To which I would refer you back to the stack of patterns of the cubby of linen that all need to find a new home as this should not have been it's home in the first place. I liked the idea of it but in the end - it wasn't for me.

B. Things that I'll only use once.

This one needs a lot less explaining and may not seem as impactful but is equally important to me and this is the idea of how far can this go in my creative journey? Do I only like one view of this pattern? Not for me. Can these scraps make a cute headband, a needle book - something? Or will it be thrown to the ever growing pile of scraps? Will this serger thread work for multiple projects? Do I even really want hot pink serger thread inside of my garments? If the fabric powers that be turn their backs on me - can I repurpose this fabric or would it only work for this dress? These are all things I like to think about when I'm purchasing new fabrics and notions. Because again, I found that early on when shopping for a project once it was complete I was left with 4-5 things that I definitely wasn't going to use on the next go round. And while that might not seem like a lot initially, 45+ garments later, those things start to add up.

An honorable mention is to thrift what you can. An emphasis on WHAT YOU CAN. All thrift stores are not created equal. I can usually score a really pretty bedsheet or a cute stack of precut fabrics at my local thrift stores but that is the extent of it. While I've seen other thrift stores that carry everything from fabric to notions and even patterns - both vintage and modern! All that to say do what you can with what you have available to you. If you can't source quailty materials for your projects that way, that's okay! If you can then take advantage of both the deal and the chance to extend the life of that particular item.

Until next time! Stay creative and make what you love!