To sew your own sustainable clothes meaning ditching fast fashion, and using green fabrics and recycled thrift shop finds, to sew your own clothes and accessories. Here are a few good books to help you get started.
Homegrown Flax & Cotton shows how to plant, grow, harvest, process, spin and weave your own breathable cloths, in colder or warmer climates, with tips on sewing pieces together. Keep fabric scraps away from pets and children, and keeps pins and needles securely stashed.
Mend It, Wear It, Love It is a practical guide to mending your clothes, and upcycling your wardrobe. With fast fixes and clever techniques, this illustrated sewing book has all you need to mend, customise and care for your clothes.
Parting with damaged (yet beloved) clothes can be sad. But what if you were able to repair, refresh and extend the life of your threadbare favourites? In this book, find simple fixes and advanced techniques. Inside, you’ll find:
- Beautiful line illustrations to demystify mending.
- How to make clothes last longer, with clever storage & stain removal
- Thrift tips to help upcycle pre-loved garments
- The sustainability benefits of mending & caring for clothes
- Repair a seam & mend a hem
Serena Sews shows you how to make sustainable clothes of your dreams, to forget fast fashion and cheap trends. Serena Baker is the youngest ever (and first Scottish) winner of The Great British Sewing Bee, and thrilled judges with her distinctive ‘refashioning projects’, putting sustainability at the heart of her creations.
Whether you are new to sewing or already know the ropes (but fancy trying something a little different), in this book you’ll learn how to:
- Master zip insertion to pressing perfection
- Boost your sewing confidence
- Give garments a professional finish
- Work with basic pattern blocks to adopt and rework existing items
- Turn an oversized shirt into a summer dress
- Turn an old pair of jeans into a cute crop top
Choose pre-loved garments and fabrics for your projects, and let Serena breathe fresh life into making one-off, long-lasting items to cherish. This book is brimming full of sewing happiness – for you, your family/friends and the planet.
14 Stylish Freehand Dressmaking Projects
Sew Chinelo is a book of 14 stylish freehand dressmaking projects, to make your own clothes in a sustainable and ethical way. Chinelo shows how to upcycle, and make stunning new items from old garments. As well as make clothing using interesting new fabrics, without need for sewing patterns.
The book features instructions to turn a man’s shirt into a fashionable dress, and an old pair of jeans into a sassy tutu skirt. Also learn how to turn a shirt or pair of jeans into a child’s dress. Projects in the book include 11 projects for stylish women’s clothes and 3 projects for children’s clothes including:
- A date night dress
- An angled-overlay pencil skirt
- An asymmetric peplum top
- A one-shoulder jumpsuit
- A shirt to button-back dress
- A pencil dress refit
- A signature collared top
- A versatile maxi dress
- A strapless wrap dress
- A child’s peekaboo-back dress
The book is packed with tips, techniques and inspiration. It also reveals secrets to producing sustainable wearable clothes with feminine glamour, and a professional finish that fits perfectly, every time.
Chinelo Bally was born on Nigeria and appeared on BBC’s Great British Sewing Bee, where she wowed judges and fellow contestants, with her freehand cutting method. She is an expert on the BBC2 show ‘Saved and Remade’.
DIY Style: Sew It Yourself is a book for intermediate sewers who know the basics, but need more reference material. The author shows how to define your personal style, then covers all the basics, to plan out a wardrobe of your own. She walks you through 15 projects for the staples, with detail on how to alter them to your own personal taste.
From lingerie to active wear to evening dress, this collection covers all the basics, and the tutorials included will have you sorted in no time. You’ll learn how to make:
- Lingerie & workout clothes
- Shirts, t-shirt & jeans
- T-shirt & jeans
- A pencil skirt
- Trousers & blazer
- Knit dress & sun dress
- A pair of shorts
- A long cardigan
- A cocktail dress
- An outdoor coat
Erica Bunker began sewing clothes as a child, and then received more formal training where she learned to read sewing patterns. After not sewing for years while a stay-at-home mum, she fell back into her hobby and now she sews most of her own clothes and partnered with sewing brands. She wants to empower home sewers to look beyond outdated patterns and teach themselves to sew.
