Handmade and Heartfelt: Why Slow, Homemade Fashion Is Worth Every Stitch

Handmade and Heartfelt: Why Slow, Homemade Fashion Is Worth Every Stitch

What is Fast-Fashion? What is Slow-Fashion? Is one better or worse than the other?


I can’t exactly tell you what to think about that, although I have my personal opinions on it. But for context, Fast-Fashion is where brands rapidly produce cheap, trendy clothes to keep up with the latest fashion trends. It emphasizes speed and low cost, often at the expense of quality, environmental sustainability, and fair labor practices. 


Slow-Fashion, in essence, is the opposite. It’s a movement that promotes designing, producing, and buying clothes more thoughtfully and sustainably. It focuses on quality over quantity, ethical labour practices, environmentally friendly materials, and timeless styles that last longer.


Of course, as a pattern maker, I’m going to be a bit biased in this subject matter. But if you really want my opinion, biased or otherwise, I’ll share with you some of my thoughts on clothing consumption and garment making. And as a history nerd, I want to take you back to the pre-industrial age first. 


There’s often a misconception that before the Industrial Revolution, sewists, specifically women, would be making clothes for themselves and other members of the household. There’s a great video on YouTube called "Get In Loser, We're Going Shopping (in the 18th Century)" by Abby Cox. In this video, Cox discusses the misconception that women in the 18th century made all their own clothes, highlighting that many were too occupied with household chores to do so. She explains that clothing was often purchased from markets or made by professional seamstresses, as the demands of daily life left little time for extensive garment-making.


By today’s standard, we would still consider this to be “slow-fashion”, as it would have been quality garments, made to order instead of on mass, and supporting the local economy (although arguably not always with ethical labour practises or local materials.) The beginnings of fast fashion didn't come until the industrialization of garment making, when clothing was able to be rapidly produced on a mass scale. 


As technology has advanced, we’re seeing more waste being produced from these practices. The fashion industry outputs garments at such a rapid pace to keep up with trends, by the time the trend ends, those garments are often ending up in landfills. Even those items that are donated to thrift stores, often end up being tossed by said stores, as they either have far too much clothing to try to sell, or the garments are so worn out (I.e. made with low quality materials that aren’t meant to last as long) that they cannot sell them. We also need to consider the amount of energy being consumed to produce these clothes. Aside from power needed for workshops, the transportation of clothing around the world is producing a substantial amount of carbon emissions, and companies aren’t necessarily making efforts to offset those emissions. 


With that in mind, “outsourcing” or hiring and employing workers outside the country of the company isn’t the issue, as much as it is the sheer amount of clothes being produced at one time. In addition to carbon emissions, clothing brand ethics are also in question here, as they often will turn a blind eye to the state in which the workers are required to make these garments. “Underpaid and overworked” being the key term that makes these practices unethical. There are arguments as well to supporting local economies by employing workers from within a fashion brand’s country of origin, but there’s also something to be said to supporting communities globally that rely on this kind of work. If that’s the route clothing brands want to take, there should be more of an effort to ensure their workers are being compensated and treated ethically and fairly. 


Side note: If you’re interested in knowing which brands and companies are ethically treating their employees, as well as their environmental impacts, check out Good On You and you can search most major brands, and some smaller brands that the site has reviewed. Good On You has done a great job of investigating companies’ carbon emissions, efforts towards improving the environment of their workers, as well as other things like whether they use vegan materials or not. 


So should you just throw away all of your “mass-production” clothes, and start weaving your own fabric from scratch? Again, not my place to tell you how to feel about all this. I would say, throwing away your clothing is exactly part of the issue - throwing away perfectly good clothes isn’t necessary and just makes for more trash in landfills. Weaving fabric from scratch is a time-honoured tradition and a very cool hobby (in my very nerdy opinion), but it’s also not necessary if you’re not already interested in the craft.


Let’s start by meeting somewhere in the middle here - by looking into local consignment shops. They’re often more curated than typical thrift stores, meaning the owners pick and choose what they want to sell in the store, instead of taking everything and tossing out the rest. By buying clothes from shops like these, we repurpose old clothes and help them gain a new life. Alternatively, try a clothing exchange with friends - open up your closets to each other and trade old items that you’re maybe tired of wearing, but your friend has always loved. Obviously, this works best if you’re similar sizes, but an oversized sweater on one person might fit perfectly on another. 


With that in mind, what about making your own clothes? By learning how to hand-stitch or use a sewing machine, there are more opportunities for individuals to repair or repurpose old, mass-produced clothing. Your favourite jeans might get a rip that can be fixed with a few stitches. Some old band shirts that don’t fit anymore can be turned into a beautiful quilt filled with memories.


 Don’t know how to sew at all? Not only is there a plethora of video tutorials on YouTube and other sites like Skillshare, you’d be surprised how many local sewing supply shops offer classes on the basics of sewing (note: it means they’ll have more customers if more people learn how to sew). 


What if you want to start replacing some of your mass-produced garments in your closet with handmade items? I’ve actually done this myself, and I’m proud to say that about 60-70% of my closet consists of handmade clothes. I’m not a saint, I still have mass-produced items, but I started with a goal of making my closet at least 50% handmade items. I won’t sugar coat it, it did take me a solid 10 years or so to get to where I am now, and I don’t have all the clothes I made in my regular rotation. Your sense of fashion is going to change. Your body is going to change - it happens. But I either have sold my handmade items to other people who get to cherish them, or I keep them as keepsakes in my storage to pull out like old photographs. 


My handmade items have lasted me far longer than mass-produced, and I did my best to rotate out old clothes I bought as they wore out to the point-of-no-repair/repurpose before adding in my new, hand-made garments. I’m also not particularly inclined to make underwear or socks, but if that’s your thing, more power to you! The idea is to make a conscientious effort to reduce our waste and focus on making lasting clothes that will be cherished or used over a longer period of time than most mass-manufactured items. 


Size inclusivity can also be a barrier to making your own clothing items. As part of my pattern making company, I knew this was an issue for a lot of people. Belladonna Patterns have a range from xxs-5xl for this exact reason. Most major pattern companies are especially size inclusive, and this can be very frustrating for some when they find a pattern they love that doesn’t come in their size (You might be saying to yourself, “Really, I can’t buy clothes in conventional stores, and now that I’m trying to make my own clothing, I’m still being sized out of that??”)


A lot of other indie pattern makers are very size inclusive, such as Closet Core and Charm Patterns by Gertie. They have amazing patterns that are very diverse in their sizing. 


The big one I hear when it comes to making clothes versus buying fast-fashion items is the cost. Fast-fashion is inarguably much cheaper than making clothes. Not gonna lie, sewing your own items can be pricey. However, it can also be pretty cheap, depending on how you do things. For example, I will occasionally treat myself with some high end fabric from a local supplier, when I can afford it. When I can’t afford it, you’d be surprised by the amount of fabrics in local thrift stores, either specifically in a fabric section, or that can come from old bedsheets. I made this Persephone Top using a bedsheet I got from my thrift store: 


There are also some fabric and sewing supply shops that resell fabrics from sewists’ old stashes - such as the Green Thimble located in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Rather than tossing out old fabrics, they resell unused fabrics and other sewing supplies so they don’t end up in landfills. 


Of course, fast-fashion is always going to be more alluring - there are brands that are offering more size inclusive items, for cheap, and much quicker than hand-making items. The idea here is to keep in mind, “why are those clothes so cheap?” If it costs so much more time and money to make your own clothes, how are these companies able to produce so much for so little? It goes back to how their workers are treated (poorly), and the quality of the fabric and construction (also poor).


 So when considering, “why should I make my own clothes?” I recommend considering the cost and time, I.e. is it in your budget? And if it is, we should also consider the larger implications of slow versus fast fashion. When it comes to hand-making your clothes, you know where the fabric comes from, you know how much it costs to make, you know it’ll last a long time, and you know you’ll have something you made, with your own hands, and that can be cherished much longer than something that came as a result of a fleeting fashion trend. 

Back to blog

Leave a comment

Please note, comments need to be approved before they are published.