How do we decide when it’s time to throw a piece of clothing out?
Buying, mending, and disposable fashion.
Writing about mending my favorite pair of jeans last week got me thinking about how we decide when it’s time to throw a piece of clothing out.
How do we decide it’s time to throw a piece of clothing out?
Or rather, when do we decided it’s time to donate a piece of clothing, so someone else can throw it out?
When a piece of clothing can easily and cheaply be replaced, it’s almost never a case of necessity that prompts us to dispose of a piece of clothing.
And more than that, when the common avenue for disposing of our clothing is by donation, then we’re asked to donate them in “good working condition” – way sooner than the end of a piece of clothing’s life cycle.
It used to be (not that long ago) that clothing was designed, patterned, and manufactured with the idea that it would be altered, worn, altered, worn, passed along, altered again, worn, altered, worn, mended, worn, altered, worn, mended, worn, and re-purposed until they became rags.
Clothing was designed, manufactured, and purchased with an intimate understanding of how labor intensive & expensive making fabric is.
Wide seam allowances & generous hems make it exceptionally easy for garments to be altered – both to fit the original purchaser, and also to fit whoever ended up with the garment next. Consumers knew what a quality garment was, and shopped with quality (as well as price) in mind.
Disposable fashion isn’t disposable until we throw it out.
When it comes to fast & disposable fashion, tons of attention is given to the beginning of a garment’s life cycle. Lots of focus is put on manufacturing clothing in ways that is less devastating to the people making them, and the environment.
With all this attention on the creation of a garment (which should absolutely be getting attention), it’s simple to forget about the end of a garment’s life cycle.
What exactly happens after we donate a piece of clothing is information that is readily available with a quick google search, but hadn’t entered the collective public consciousness in the same way the exploitation of garment laborers has.
Which is kind of a shame, because the end of a clothing’s life cycle is something we, as consumers, have a tremendous amount of influence over.
Just because a piece of clothing was designed to last for 30 seconds, doesn’t mean we have to pass it along after 30 seconds. Disposable clothing and fast fashion, aren’t disposable until we dispose of them.
We can mend our clothes. We can alter our clothes. We can re-purpose our clothes.
And they might just last longer than we think they will.
a tale of two bodices – Ditching & Rethinking the plan for my Anna Maxi Dress from By Hand London
Rethinking the dress
I realized a couple weeks ago (while I was asking and answering “why am I sick of all my clothing?”) that I really didn’t want to make an Anna Maxi Dress from By Hand London.
I mean I did/do. And at the same time, I really don’t.
It is true that I want to make a couple maxi dresses as part of my summer wardrobe infusion.
And it is also true that I don’t really/often “do dresses.”
I was initially attracted to the Anna Maxi Dress because there aren’t a whole lot of independent maxi dress patterns, and also it seems to look good on everyone who’s made it.
But I kind of overlooked the fact that I highly doubt I’d enjoy wearing the top half of that dress.
On me – I don’t like dresses hitting at my natural waist, or high necklines.
Luckily I figured this out before I cut the bodice.
But since I figured out that I want to ditch the bodice – I’ve been mulling over what to replace it with, and haven’t quite managed to settle on something.
The Bodice – what do i think I want?
After mulling it over in my head for a couple weeks, and not settling on something, I turned to the magical visual search engine that is pinterest, and tried to come up with some criteria for what I wanted the new bodice to be. I pulled my inspiration together in a “Style | figuring out what dresses I’d actually wear” board.
And based on what I’m taking away from that board, my criteria are turning out to be…
: V neck or lower scoop neck
: flared skirt (check!)
: raise or lower the waist (aka doesn’t sit on my natural waist)
: sleeveless
: thin spaghetti straps or wide-verging on kimono sleeves
And here, I think, is my dilemma.
I can envision this dress with two, quite different, bodices.
The Two Bodices
I can see this dress with a dropped waist, a V neck, and kimono sleeves – built super simply with 4 rectangles (two for the front, two for the back), a center front seam, a center back seam, and two side seams.
OR
I can see this dress with an empire waist, a scoop neck, and spaghetti straps – based on a super simple camisole.
So the question becomes, which direction do I want to go in?
The Skirt
I cut the skirt based on the Anna Dress pattern, and sewed it together with 1/2 an inch seam allowance (rather than the 5/8th seam allowance called for in the pattern – which gave me a little more skirt to play around with).
So I know I have enough length and width in the skirt to raise the waistline.
I also know that I don’t have a whole lot of fabric left over to build the bodice out of.
The pattern for the Anna Dress calls for 3.8 yards (3.5 meters) of 60″ wide fabric, and I have 3 yards – so the original pattern would have been a pretty tight squeeze (which I knew going in).
On top of that, I added length to the skirt (just in case I wanted to raise the waistline), and so I’m left with even less fabric for the bodice than I would have had if I had actually cut the skirt as written in the pattern.
Back to the contemplating bodice
So I have two directions I could go in for the bodice.
I think I’d like (and wear) either direction.
I have limited quantities of this fabric to work with. And I definitely don’t want to use a different fabric for the bodice.
If fabric weren’t an issue…
If fabric weren’t an issue I think I’d go with the dropped waist, V neck, kimono sleeve version of this dress. Because I think it would add a nice bit of variety to my wardrobe – and I think this print is subdued enough that the maxi skirt plus full bodice wouldn’t be overwhelming.
However…
Since fabric is an issue, and I do have another bodice option that I like, that I will go with my second bodice option – the empire waist, scoop neck & spaghetti straps.
At least that’s what I’m currently thinking.
And of course the lining…
In addition to mulling over the bodice, I’ve also been mulling over what I want to do for the lining.
I’m leaning towards a lighter blue cotton (definitely not a white), but haven’t run into the perfect thing – so I think it’s time to go hunting for it.
Now that I know what I want to do for the bodice. And I also know that I need to go hunting for the lining, I can keep trundling forward with this project. (And also with my whole summer wardrobe infusion plan).
easy, breezy & beautiful – it is time for a summer wardrobe infusion
For the past fifteen and a half weeks, I’ve been living out of a suitcase I packed in the middle of December.
We’ve been getting up into the 70s and high 60s pretty reliably the past couple days – beautiful! And luckily I packed this suitcase for Northern California weather (basically a NYC spring wardrobe).
But! we’re meandering towards summer weather, and I don’t think there’s any sort of suitcase wardrobe that could (gracefully) deal with both NYC winter, and NYC summer.
And so, I think it is high time for a summer wardrobe infusion.
What I want to make…
: a couple black tank tops
: a couple black camisoles
: a couple long, loose, lightweight over-shirts
: pj bottoms
: a couple maxi sundresses
: that no-longer neglected, lace weight sweater
(and by “a couple” I mean one or two)
Tank Tops & Camisoles
I live in them. I think they’re pretty self explanatory? (if not, tell me). I self-drafted a pattern at the beginning of my self-made wardrobe project, and have been wearing that pattern ever since.
I just need to pick up some jersey, and find my self-drafted pattern (or draft a new one). If I have to draft a new pattern, it would be sad, but not the end of the world.
Long, loose, lightweight, over-shirts
When I was packing my suitcase capsule wardrobe. I threw in a lightweight, semi-sheer, long & loose black t-shirt. I didn’t really think about it at the time, and wasn’t expecting to wear it all that much, it was just a “nice option to have.”
I’ve worn that damn shirt more times then I care to count. It’s easy & breezy and looks good with everything – so I think it might be time to give this piece of my wardrobe some companions.
I’m pretty open to the exact form (color, pattern, style) that these shirts could take, but I know I want them to be versatile, comfortable, light, go-to pieces.
PJ bottoms
Quick & easy shorts (probably in black).
A couple new maxi sundresses
I have one maxi, summer, sundress that I live in every, single summer. (One of the perks of spending this winter on the west coast is I could wear this dress all winter long too.) It’s lovely and cooling and always looks good, and I want more of them.
I’m thinking one in a solid color (not black) or a subdued print.
And for the other, I’m thinking the pink/yellow/white/brown plaid I picked up in SF. It’s bright, and loud, and I was originally thinking another Archer button up shirt, but it’s a light cotton gauze that (with a full lining) would make a lovely summer dress.
Pattern wise, I’m really hoping to not draft my own patterns for these dresses. I don’t really have the time, or the desire, to draft a whole personal dress pattern (or two) right now. So, I’m searching for the perfect maxi dress patterns.
Fingers crossed.
That no-longer neglected, lace weight sweater.
I sat down last night and finished the first sleeve! So there’s half a chance I’ll finish it before the weather starts wandering in the direction of 90 degree days.
How I want this to happen…
The name of this wardrobe infusion is easy, breezy, and beautiful (covergirl).
So I want those qualities infused in the pieces themselves, and also in how I make them.
I want to make them with intention and focus, but I don’t want to over-think or over-analyze them.
Easy, breezy, beautiful making.
Easy, breezy, beautiful pieces.
Easy, breezy, beautiful wearing.
Yes please!!
