My Slow fashion Story
After giving up on fast fashion some year’s ago I’ve been exploring the idea of slow fashion. There are many very talented people making beautiful clothes in small amounts using gorgeous fabrics that are often dead stock or recycled. The result is well made ethical sustainable clothing that can be worn for many years. The clothes are usually, quite rightly, expensive so need to be saved for and considered, and for me never an impulse buy.
As a keen amateur dressmaker, honing my skills in lockdown I decided to do my own slow fashion project. I bought a pdf pattern for the Sofia dress from Victory pattern https://victorypatterns.com and had it printed at my local printers. I was going to use some African fabric I was given some time ago and then, as lockdown began to ease , I went to a boot fair and among my haul I found a pair of softly faded floral curtains and my project began.
The first job was to deconstruct the curtains. With my trusty unpicker I set to work removing the heading tape and separating the lining from the main curtain, putting the lining away for another time. I then washed and ironed the fabric.
I need to add here that I had to learn how to do shirring. Victory patterns have some good instructions and I also used various YouTube tutorials but because I have a top loading bobbin compartment I struggled to make it work so I had to find a Brother tutorial and then I was off.
Shirring is not difficult , once you know how, but it is fairly labour intensive. First I had to mark up the fabric using a ruler to make sure the lines of stitching were straight and evenly spaced. Next the sewing, watching the fabric gather more and more with each line if stitching was slightly addictive, watching the appearance of the fabric change, especially the print changing from clear floral to almost impressionist blur.. Once both sides of the bodice and the sleeve cuffs done I reset the machine for regular stitching and full garment construction.
I wanted this project to be good I followed all instructions and finished every seam and if I went wrong I unpicked and did it again. I’ve ended up with a garment that I am very proud of. I was going to call it my Maria dress as its made of curtains but now that I’ve worn it I feel I’m dressed for a period drama so I’ve called it my Mrs Bennett dress.
As part of this slow fashion project I have kept a record of how much time it took to make and theoretically paid myself the minimum wage, as I am not a skilled seamstress. I have added costs such as pattern and printing and of course fabric and thread.
Hours taken to complete garment=19hrs @ £8.91 =£169.29
Fabric £1.00
Thread including shirring elastic £8.50
Pattern £12.17
Printing of pattern £9.50
Total £276.96
This project was carried out just out of interest and there are many variable to consider such if I were more skilful it would not have taken so long. If I had used new quality fabric it would have cost more. Definite food for thought on the value of what wear.
