Recycled Denim

Fashion is one of the most highly wasteful, polluting and exploitative industries on this earth and the sad truth is that we the consumer are driving it.  Sure we've been suckered in by clever marketing, conditioned to believe that we must always have something new, that we must update constantly.  At the end of the day however the decision to buy lies with the individual.  I guess it's been on my mind more than usual as the Climate talks in Paris are underway.  

The challenge I set myself was to make up a new pattern I'm working on called the ESSENTIAL WRAP SHIRT completely out of recycled fabric.  Importantly the desirability of the finished garment could not be sacrificed.  The adaptation below was cut from a couple of pairs of old jeans I found at The Salvos.  Over the next few weeks I'm going to show you how I did it and hopefully in the process encourage a mini Salvos stampede or at the very least a pre-Christmas donation.

The pattern for the ESSENTIAL WRAP SHIRT will be released shortly. It's shown here with another classic, THE LONG SKINNY made up in a animal print patterned mesh found at Tessuti in Melbourne.  Another wardrobe essential I've made and worn many, many times.

I like shopping for fabric at Tessuti, the range is extensive and I particularly like the way the fabrics are ranged in colour groups rather than by fabric type, very restful for the eye.  A large proportion of the stock is sourced from manufactures selling off excess from their production runs, who knows where the fabric above came from but it's another example of putting left overs to good use.