There is a maker inside us all. People often speak of the soothing and satisfying nature of making for relaxation, reward or reinvention. In earlier times, working with our hands was how we explored and became connected to the world. Then with industrialization and the feminist movement, many of us shifted away from making and towards higher-status thinking careers. Working with our hands was often associated with home-based domestic work – and we didn’t want to be trapped there.
The COVID-19 lockdown gave pause, for some not on the frontline, to explore making and creating with our hands – gardening, cooking, baking, sewing, knitting and mending clothes. We are ready for more conversation about slower living, adaptation and resourcefulness – using our hands, head and heart to create change.
During my career, I largely kept quiet about my making. Then I found a way to integrate it with thoughtful work, by exploring strategies to reduce textile waste and be more engaged with what we wear through making, mending, reviving, adapting and salvaging resources. While industrial solutions for textile waste problems may emerge, repurposing what is to hand using our own energy is a valid activity. You are not buying new resources and instead finding alternative uses for what is otherwise wasted.
In this video made for WOW Global 24, I’m wearing old t-shirts that I refashioned and eco-dyed in 2015 – it makes me feel individual and independent. I show you how to make yarn from t-shirts that are surplus to society’s requirements. But first I share photos of some pandemic projects – reusing natural fibres on a chair and in the garden, photos of accessories made earlier as workshop examples, and a short video about slow clothing philosophy made by Finn Buckle.