FURTHER READING: PATCHING & MENDING

Hello there! If you found this page, you likely came from my minizine on patching! Below, you will find more resources for sewing, patching, and learning about fast-fashion. Will probably get updated periodically!


FAST FASHION CRASH COURSE

In 2018 the US alone produced 12,970 tons of garments and discarded 9,070 tons into landfills (EPA). Textile waste is a HUGE global problem. Google "clothing graveyards" if you want to get really upset.

My goal with this zine and webpage is to help you think about your clothes in a different way. Not so long ago around the world, people didn't have that many clothes. Everyday garments were expensive, extremely labor intensive, and required a lot of specialized knowledge to produce. For a lot of history, people's clothes were tailored to or made for their exact measurements instead of bought ready-made at a size. Quality pieces of clothing could be reworked, used for fabric, or passed down to multiple descendents, meaning garments sometimes lasted multiple lifetimes. People knew how to maintain their clothes; repairing garments was just par for the course. People took better care of their clothes because they were built to last.

Nowadays, new clothes are made with low-quality materials and sloppy construction that sacrifices strength for speed of production. Garments are produced en-masse for a trend cycle that gets shorter and shorter every season. But I don't think it's all the clothes' fault. The rampant consumerism of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have infected the fashion industry and wreaked havoc on people's mindset surrounding clothes. You don't need twenty pairs of pants. You need, like, at minimum, three good pairs. Nice, for important events, a pair for every day wear, and a pair to sleep in. I'm generalizing, of course, but...the average person doesn't need more than that. I think it's worth taking a step back to look at what we need versus what the fashion industry says we need.

I don't know how else to say this. You have to care about what your clothing choices are doing to the planet. I know it's just one more thing about the world that's fucked, but my god. Once you start learning about fabric and fast fashion, you can never un-see the damage. It grinds my fucking gears.


OH GOD, WHAT DO I DO ABOUT THIS?

Great news!!! You have a lot of options!!! :3


PATCHING

The history patching varies depending on who you ask, but the tradition I follow descends from crust punk, a spin off of the punk movement of the 1980s. Although you don't have to be punk to patch your clothes, it's good to learn the history of the practices you are using to express yourself! Punk practices can include teaching friends to sew, utilizing library resources, creating zines on things you're interested in, and listening to local bands :)

A good rule of thumb for creating long-lasting, functional patches is to match your fabrics! I find knit fabrics like tshirts generally work best sewn to other knit fabrics, while woven fabrics like denim, linen, or woven cottons work best sewn to other woven fabrics. In my experience, this is generally due to the stretch factor; knits tend to stretch more and differently from woven fabrics. When a stretchier fabric is sewn to a non-stretchy fabric, weird shit like bunching and wrinkling happens which sucks :(

A note on embroidered patches:
Embroidered patches are not easy to DIY. They are good to sew or iron onto heavier, canvas-like fabrics (like backpacks or totes), and on garments only in places that don't move, bend, or take a lot of stress. They are not a good option for repairing holes and can be uncomfortable on garments close to the skin because of their stiffness.


MATERIALS

Where to find materials in the Bay Area!

SCRAP
Secondhand art supply warehouse. Inventory varies, usually has a large fabric selection. Very cheap.


The Fábrica
Fabric collective. Sometimes has community events. Pay-what-you-can/donation-run.


Your Local Cheap Secondhand Clothing Store:
Avoid vintage, consignment, or trendy/upscale/gentrified thrift stores. You'll get upcharged, and you probably don't want to take apart a really nice vintage piece just for parts.


DIGITAL RESOURCES

GOOGLE DRIVE FOLDER OF SEWING RESOURCES

This was made by by tumblr user and professional tailor @fatmasc! It has sewing basics, textbooks, tailoring and patterning info, and fashion-related extras!


YOUTUBE VIDEOS ON SEWING


SEWISTS TO LOOK INTO

People who do tutorials or show their processes. Most of these have an emphasis on historical clothing & hand-sewing techniques as opposed to sewing machines and modern sewing/fashion because that's what I'm interested in!



If you liked this page, or want to learn more about patching or DIY, some good search terminology to start out with is "mending sewing diy." To find more punk resources, start out with "diy punk patching." AVOID people and sites that are selling you something! If amazon or etsy has it, you can make it yourself.

Fuck billionaires, fuck fast fashion companies exploiting people to create something that is going to end up in a landfill in a month, and fuck everyone trying to sell you a personality. YOU ARE THE OUTFIT!!!!!!!! YOU MAKE THE OUTFIT INTERESTING!!!!!

If you know of a resource or location you think would benefit this page, email me at oliveoilandbalsamic@proton.me!