November 2024
Holiday sewing, zero waste news, and some links you'll enjoy
Hi Everyone!
Welcome to the November newsletter, and a warm hello to new subscribers.
December is only next month and Christmas & End-of-Year plans are already afoot at Haywood Homestead. My children absolutely love Christmas time - in Australia, it’s accompanied by six weeks of school holidays, stretching to the end of January, which makes it even nicer. (I confess my favourite time is between Christmas and New Year, in a tidied-up house with great leftovers in the fridge, and not much to do.)
Are you planning to make gifts this year? I am, but since I know the recipients will read this I cannot share plans :)
To help you with holiday sewing, I’ve picked six patterns from my shop which would make good pressies. Please enjoy 15% off until December 31st. The code is ZWGIFTS and this is the link.
Feel free to pass the code onto your friends - it’s not just for newsletter subscribers. You can share this newsletter with this button:
A reminder that there are also free patterns on my website and most are fairly quick to make.
In zero waste news…
Emily Klug of Goldfinch Textile Studio has just released a new pattern, the Lettie skirt. It has some lovely details. View all the tester makes.
Anita of Studio Faro presents a pattern for an Elizabethan shirt, which is zero waste over several different fabric widths.
Are you making the modular jacket from A Year of Zero Waste Sewing? Are you stuck on Step 2 on page 29? I’ve made a short video (1:37min) showing how to cut the front panels.
WasteBanned is a software tool to help design zero waste garments. Read about it in greater detail here. I think it has a lot of potential; zero waste is hard to do on regular patternmaking software.
Some things you might enjoy
Advice on how to sell (and shop for) pre-loved clothing.
Can you guess how many times wool can be recycled? The full research paper is here.
Soex, the world's largest collector of used clothing and textiles and the largest operator of retail takeback schemes (including Levis and H&M) has began insolvency proceedings under Germany's self-administration laws.
3D weaving, or “whole garment weaving” is another way of making zero waste clothes, and the technology already exists. Sports retailer Decathalon, and Unspun, a fashion tech company, are collaborating to scale their 3D weaving technology across Europe. Unspun aims at deploying Vega™ machines to pioneer local, low-waste, and low-inventory production in the region.
In memorium: tributes to Marta Alto are on the Palmer/Plestch website.
Making a catwalk collection from reclaimed textiles.
Helene Myhre of @helenemoo had her Norwegian jumper copied by Shein and she ordered one to see what it was like.
Baroque gowns re-imagined as elaborate cakes
Give the man a medal! Sandwiched between the Paris Olympics and Paralymics, Wisdom Kaye put together alternate national uniforms for various countries. This guy is unspeakably cool, with some totally wow rockstar looks here - some reminded me of young Lenny Kravitz. He styled them on the country's flags, going by the colours. Australia is in there (but, alas, not very Australian - Aussies wear green and gold to sporting events, rather than the red, white and blue shared by many countries. It does look good though. I wonder what you think of your country’s look?). See all the outfits on Instagram here and here.
Looking for new podcast listening? The podcasts that craft podcasters listen to.
Making Zen is back! The Making Zen Online Retreat is a free event that goes from 18 to 22 November, with a line-up of 20 textile artists presenting workshops. Be inspired and learn a new skill. Also, it’s a great resource if you’re homeschooling.
Earlier this year I was contacted by a researcher for Great Australian Walks, for permission to use some photos from my blog. Great Australian Walks is a TV show where the presenters visit an area, do a walk, and talk to people about the area. “My” episode, which visits the Clare Valley and interviews Mayor Allan Aughey, aired last month, and can be watched on SBS on demand, Episode 10, Season 2. Allan’s at the 7 minute mark, and my moment of fame is in the credits at 51:20 minutes. Some of Allan’s sartorial riches can be viewed here.
Surely everyone needs one of these! The Incognitard. It's like a green screen suit, only black. My teen told me about it, in a discussion about whether vampires could go out in daylight (conclusion: it depends which "rules" you follow, Interview with the Vampire or Twilight). Since vampires live forever, it would make sense to get a job and contribute meaningfully to society, but what if you couldn't go outdoors during business hours? "Then you need the Incognitard!" she proclaimed. "It would stop the sun's harmful rays and let you hold down a normal 9-5 job."
Adelaide readers: The David Roche Gallery in North Adelaide has a fashion exhibition on Chester Weinberg. (Who is Chester Weinberg? A name forgotten in the fashion world; he was the fashion industry’s first high-profile AIDS-related death.) The exhibition opens today and runs until January 25th, and there are some talks you can book to attend. Also, I highly recommend getting on the Roche Gallery's mailing list for news on upcoming exhibitions, which sometimes includes fashion ones.
On the blog lately
A roundup of the past month’s blog posts from my website, lizhaywood.com.au.
Feel free to subscribe to my blog for weekly posts direct to your inbox, however, if you don’t need more emails in your life, I always do a roundup here.
Stitching away at the jacket I started for Zero and Zen, with an update a few weeks later here.
An early sample of the wrap trousers from Zero Waste Sewing, which I just couldn’t “work into my wardrobe”, got turned into pajama bottoms.
A book review of Couture Zéro Chutes, a new zero waste sewing book in French. I made some trousers from the book and styled them the following week.
From the blog archives
Taking a look at all the design details of a vintage military coat.
Best wishes,
Liz x