Rethink - making upcycling economically viable

By now you all know that I don't believe our current rate of resource consumption is sustainable. 

I believe that money as a medium of exchange is useful, but I wonder how we can pivot to an economy that is more sustainable and more just.  It seems to me that we as humans have set up our whole economy - actually our whole society - on consumption.  As the pandemic just demonstrated, if I don't consume, someone else will not eat.  

In the previous blog post, I solicited a government perspective on reuse and asked about the economic incentives around reuse. In this one, I talked to Kristen McCoy, co-owner of Rethink Tailoring and Sewing Lounge, which helps people upcycle their current wardrobe. I talked to her about how you turn reuse into a successful business. 

Kristen has been upcycling for a long time. She grew up on a farm. There wasn't a fabric store nearby and not a lot of disposable income either. Kristen wanted to sew and she made purses and the like from hand-me-down clothes from her sisters. "This was what I had around. I didn't realize I was being an artist," she said. 

When Kristen started sewing clothes she found it harder than she imagined and she stuffed a number of unfinished projects in her closet.  That prompted her to enroll in an apparel technology program at Minneapolis Community Technical College.  

At MCTC, she realized that polyester and PETE 1 water bottles (the clear ones) were the same thing and we could recycle food containers, but we didn't recycle cheap blouses. Later years took her to Washington DC, where she says she "accidentally" started a tailoring business as a result of people wanting to alter clothes purchased in a vintage shop she worked at. 

Kristen has thought a lot about the environmental impacts of clothing and the working conditions of those making it.  "We are so far removed from our garments and how they are made,"  she said. "Twenty dollars is not a reasonable price for an article of clothing. To do that you have to sacrifice quality and fair labor."

I have found upcycling time consuming. Some of the upcycled dresses I made last winter took two to three times longer than if I had purchased new fabric. So I asked Kristen how, given the labor involved, upcycling becomes economically viable for a business owner.   

Rethink Tailoring is a relatively new business that opened its physical doors right before the Covid 19 pandemic so Kristen is still waiting to see if the business is profitable. Her business model involves a variety of services she hopes will provide different sources of revenue.  For those who are interested in sewing their own projects, Kristen offers both classes and coaching sessions.  Because she has formally studied apparel construction, she knows things that a self-taught sewist may not and can teach them. 

For projects that she or her staff sew themselves, she is working from existing material so customers pay for labor.  Kristen employs people locally and pays a fair wage. Many of the items that people bring to her to refashion have sentimental value so people are willing to invest in them. 

When Kristen worked in Washington DC, she tailored new garments, but she know that her passion is upcycling and she has decided that is where she will spend her time. While doing that she has found that a community of people that are interested in reuse and sustainability and she believes that every garment that someone upcycles is a "step in the right direction."

Garden Apron from Old Jeans

I belong to a few international Facebook groups for sewists who make upcycled creations. A few weeks ago, a fellow sewist posted a picture of a garden apron with pockets she made. I immediately thought, "I need something like that."  I am always setting tools down while gardening and then losing them. I still haven't found a pair of pruners I set down in our strawberry patch several months ago.  My spouse went out and purchased a replacement pair, which is not very eco-friendly. 

The first thing I needed was a pattern or model. I looked at a couple kitchen aprons we owned and didn't love their shape. Then I went online. I found some patterns that used flowery quilting fabric. I wanted something a little more durable. Then happened upon this apron pattern from Sew4Home. I liked the idea of durable and the split skirt.  Sew4Home has a more detailed pattern and instructions if you want to make yourself the more traditional way. What I will do is to tell you more about how to make an upcycled version of this apron.  

I started with two pairs of jeans offcast by my neighbors. One was darker blue and had more useable fabric and the other pair was lighter and a little more worn.

The pattern called for starting with a big 20 X 31 inch rectangle. I didn't have a piece of denim that large so I had to piece it together. On the darker pair, I cut the pant legs off just below the ripped area.  I used the seam ripper to take apart the flat felled seams. I could have cut the seams but I was in a seam ripper mood. I kept the inside serged seams intact. I also used the seam ripper to detach a couple of the pockets and belt loops.

I was left with two pieces of flat fabric that were not square. I pressed the two pieces then pinned them together right sides together and serged them together on the diagonals with what was the bottom of the jeans facing in opposite directions. After serging I unfolded the fabric and pressed the fabric so it laid relatively flat

From there, I cut the 20 X 31 rectangle, then used a printed pattern to cut the armholes.  I was able to cut out the two smaller rectangles for the split skirt from the other pair of jeans without piecing anything together. 

I wanted moderate cutesiness with this apron so I cut flower, carrot and leaf shapes from the denim to form applique. I used a fine zig zag stich to attach them to the pocket or the apron it self. I stitched the applique onto the base in a random order (some before I started sewing on the skirt, some after) because it was the fun part and I was alternately wrestling with my serger and sewing machine so sometimes I would be frustrated and switch to a task that I could do on the other device. 

I deviated from the pattern and did my own thing with the pockets, topstitching two of the existing pockets on and also adding a few beltloops to hang sharper tools, I put a small piece of denim on the back to add some stabilization to the belt loop areas. For the bottom pockets  I used the bottom of the pantleg and and part of the seam on another leg and another piece of fabric. 

In order to sew the bottom rectangles onto the top ones, I used a four thread serged stitch instead of the flat felled seam called for in the pattern.  

To hem the apron, I serged to finish the edges and folded over once and topstiched.  The pattern calls for folding twice and my machines are just not industrial enough for too many layers of denim. For a more fitted item of clothing, you might have to do some calculations on how this will affect the size, but this was an apron so I didn't really care, I wasn't in the mood to piece together the fabric for the ties because my denim wasn't long enough so I went into my stash and found  bias tape that would work.  I sewed that on using a box pattern. 

You can see a picture of me using the garden apron. This project was a family breakthrough because my spouse said he wanted one too, but in a more masculine pattern. 

P.S. After I used the apron I decided I am going to add some belt loops toward the sides of the apron to better accommodate longer tools. 

Taking a break from sewing to sow

I took a break from sewing this week to sow - that is winter sowing seeds in my garden. This is the first time I am attempting winter sowing so I will have to write an update on how it goes. Winter sowing is a method in which you start seeds in plastic containers you set outside in, as you guessed, in the winter. The plastic containers serve as greenhouses. This way you don't need grow lights and other fancy equipment. The seeds will sprout when they are ready. It is a perfect way to use materials that you already have. 

Before the pandemic, we rarely ordered takeout because of all the waste it created.  We would eat in and bring leftovers home in our own reusable containers we brought for that purpose. However, over the past year, we have wanted to support local businesses and we are simply not going to dine in until we are all vaccinated.  So we have ended up with way too many plastic containers. 

I used a couple containers that entrees from the homemade noodle shop down the street Magic Noodle came in, other take out containers and clam shell packaging that once held salad greens. I poked holes in both the top and the bottom of the containers and filled it with potting soil I had purchased. I planted the containers with cold hardy plants including peas, lettuce and spinach. 

I am going to have to remember to remove the lids on warmer days so the containers don't heat up too much. Last year I had the inspiration of making a mini greenhouse from a plastic bin and I ended up frying a bunch of plants. 

I have taken other upcycling steps in my garden. Last year, I walked down our alley, collected branches and made this trellis. I started the project using hammer and nails, then switched to lashing with string. Then a neighbor stopped by.  She said, "I have some hemp twine you can use." Then she went home and came back with it. That was a good string to use. 

I am hoping to make more trellises this spring and will post a how-to along with my gardening update

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Towel to cake strip upcycle

This is the second of two blog posts about what you can do with a towel that is showing wear. In addition to sewing, I also like to bake.  And cake is one of my favorite things to bake. 

If you want your cake to turn out flat you need cake strips. You wet the strips and wrap it around the pan. Then you put the cake in the oven. The evaporation of the water will cool the outside of the pan so that the center of the cake cooks at the same rate as the outside, preventing the cake from doming. 

This is a cake strip that I bought ready-made several years ago. As you can tell it is on its last legs. The heat resistant coating has burned off in places.  These strips were purchased to replace a set of cake strips I had made from an old towel as suggested by a cake decorating instructor.  

 

I used the purchased cake strips for many years, but honestly my old ones made from a towel, worked better. They soaked up more water, the cakes turned out flatter and the strips fit my pans better.

So when one of my hand towels was showing wear, I decided I should make cake strips with it. First I trimmed the edges of the towel. Then, I cut the towel into thirds length wise. The pieces were approximately 4.5 inches high and  24 inches long. I was aiming to make two cake strips. The length of the towel was not quite long enough to use as a cake strip so I took one of the thirds and cut it in half so it was about 4.5 inches high and 24 inches long. 

I pieced together the 4.5 x 24 inch piece with the 4.5 X 12 inch piece. I used an elastic stitch so that I would not have a bulky seam. I went back and forth a few times. I used 100% cotton thread because I did not want melting thread in the oven.

 

Then I folded the towel in half and sewed a zig zag stich near the raw edge.  I also added a zig zag up the middle to help reinforce the towel where it was worn. I do own a serger, but I did not feel like creating three or four cones of all cotton thread, so I used the sewing machine. 

Here is the finished product around the pan, attached together with all metal pins. I don't generally bake cakes for myself and a cake this size would need to be eaten by several people so there is no batter in the pan. I can't wait until I can bake for people again.