Fashion Archives - MAKE SMTHNG Week

Invite enough friends who have the same size so everyone can share
Everyone can bring 5-10 pieces they are not wearing anymore, that are in good shape. Be ready to really part with those, so you enjoy giving them a new life with your friend. Everyone should clean these clothes before bringing them. To stop clothes hogging why not set some rules of how many items everyone can take, e.g. as many items as they brought in.
Choose a location that allows for you to try on your clothes and show them off before your friends – that’s the fun part of it! At home you will have the most privacy. Ask people to bring snacks, drinks and their favourite tunes – this always makes the clothes swapping party even more fun!
When people arrive, show them where to place their clothes. It’s most efficient to divide the clothes according to categories: shoes, accessories, shirts, pants, skirts, dresses, etc. Make sure all items are in place before you start swapping – this will minimise the chaos. Don’t forget a big mirror so people can check out their new outfits.
If you choose a public space like a community centre or a park, you could bring some washing ropes and cloth to improvise a changing booth. If you want to go big, check out our ideas for throwing a public clothes swapping party here.
One, two, three – go! Let your clotheswappers loose! Dig for treasures, try things on and go for a whole new look!
All leftovers should be donated to a trusted charity shop, that ideally resells the clothes within your home country or even town. Plan this journey to the charity shop at the end and do it together, so you are not left with piles of unwanted clothes as the host.
How often should you swap? Experience shows that if you meet regularly like once a month, it can be worth bringing some of your better clothes and swap them for temporary use as well. This would enhance your fashion options greatly, but relies on a stronger commitment from all of you to be a regular.

Watch this video (German)

Not so long ago, the basic skills needed for repairing and refurbishing – such as sewing, knitting, woodworking and metalworking – were taught in schools. But teaching these crafts is out of fashion. Anyone over the age of 40 today could have used these skills to make, presents for their parents and would have known how to handle small repairs; that fashion is not always readymade by big brands, but that it is possible to create and sew our own clothes, adapt and alter them, repair them, or replace a button.

For the younger generations today, this knowledge is nearly lost. In a UK survey every fourth respondent said they couldn’t sew on a button; every second couldnt repair a hole or fix a seam. Designer and founder of “Fashion Revolution” Orsola Castro knows why: “because of ubiquitous fast fashion a whole generation has lost these abilities”. In the 1980s, followers of the post-punk scene still expressed their individuality by designing and adapting their own clothes. These days, there are prefabricated versions of this streetwise trendy “look” at every fashion discount store.

Consumerism – a vicious cycle

It is difficult to escape the vicious cycle that has been set in motion by the modern consumer society. First of all, cheap products made it unnecessary to make do and mend. Next, we lost our respect for things and the necessary knowledge to maintain them. Now we have lost all our inhibitions about buying greater numbers of new products and using them for ever shorter periods of time. This throwaway culture now is evident in the “fast fashion” phenomenon and in many other everyday products such as electronics, interior design, toys and household goods.

Consumerism is killing our planet. It’s heating up the climate, using too much fossil energy, destroying habitats and landscapes and peoples livelihoods. It is not only nature that is paying the price for this, but the millions of people working in often life-threatening and exploitative conditions.

But we can MAKE CHANGE NOW

People in sewing- and repair cafes, DIY communities, urban gardens, makerspaces and fab-labs from around the world are proving that many people have the desire to create something with their own hands – and that it is easier to do it, if we share the resources, materials and tools for this in communal spaces.

Anyone who once crafted a table or a bed himself will think twice before buying a flimsy flat pack from a Swedish furniture store. Anyone who has knitted a jumper out of real wool will avoid cheap polyester knitwear. And those who have planted a few lettuce heads in their garden, cherished them and defended them against snails, will be reluctant to throw food away – because they know how hard it can be to grow.

If you have made something, you will buy more consciously the next time, whether it’s food, fashion or mobile phones. Your experience of creating an original, will lead you to reflect on your consumption patterns and you will be more likely to find a way to repair, care for and share your goods before throwing them out. Its essential that we share this culture in our communities and make these spaces where skills, knowledge and experiences are shared an essential part of our urban life.

Making meets tech

We are not advocating a return to a time before modern technology where we would produce everything ourselves. This wouldn’t be feasible – but the maker community that has developed in fab labs and maker spaces around the world proves that DIY, the internet and the latest tech are part of the same movement. Modern technologies can connect us with lots of tutorials, knowledge and experiences that can be shared widely with communities around the globe. There are online communities such as Shareable and Instructables that provide us with easy to follow guidelines on how to make and share things. Follow our Instagram channel @makesmthng for further inspiration and to connect with makers around the globe.

These offline and online communities are invaluable platforms for acquiring and sharing knowledge and skills. Thus, they counteract the loss of craftsmanship – and throw a spanner in the works of the throwaway society.

Lu Yen Roloff is the comms lead for the MAKE SMTHNG campaign at Greenpeace. She firmly believes in the power of connecting makers from around the globe to help fight overconsumption. She is totally in love with all the creative ideas from the movement and pledges to spend quieter times to DIY the hell out of the dark winter days! You can follow Lu Yen on Instagram @i.do.lu, Facebook luyenroloff or Twitter @lyroloff

These three makes are amongst my most favourite. They showcase a range of my exploration and love affair with denim. Earlier in the year I was lucky enough to attend a denim workshop led by Endrime at Blackhorse Lane Ateliers, where I made my very own pair of jeans from scratch. Yes from scratch….! Before the workshop my emotions ranged from pure excitement to pure fear! I come from a fine art background and a fairly conceptual take on it at that, as a self-taught pattern cutter/sewer. I did feel slightly nervous. How complicated was this going to be? Would it look professional? More worrying: would mine fall apart after one wear…should I even wear them? What if I get stains all over them…?

But I made them. I wear them. I LOVE THEM! And I freeze them when they need laundering {best way to look after denim!} After this my love affair with denim grew and grew and I became fascinated with the simply sublime architecture of denim garments. I fell in love with the traditional artisan way of felling and the touch of indigo dyed cotton.

My next denim artefact was in fact a £1 pair of jeans… I found these in a charity shop in Portslade and loved the waistband. It was the first thing that attracted me to them, but it just needed shifting over a bit to fit more snuggly. So that’s exactly what I did. I marked out and cut out new button holes and left the rest to show the story of the previous owner and the beginning of the story of their now new owner.

After that I couldn’t resist and went for a ‘hat-trick’. I dug out the two old pairs jeans I had in the loft and created my final piece which I really like. It weighs a hefty amount but that is one of the things I love about denim. Its robust weightiness! Unpicked the two pairs of jeans and re-stitched them together on the inside leg to create a full length skirt…and the Denim love still lingers on. What I particularly like, is that I went through the process of making a pair of jeans from scratch to making only one alteration in the two second pieces. Both confidently inspired by my new found knowledge of jeans making!

Georgina Hooper is an academic, artist and textiles designer, teaching fashion, textiles, art and craft based therapy through the concept and practise of mindfulness. By professional practise she is an Artist who explores the interrelations between performance, fashion and textiles. As a Textile Designer with an alchemistic angle, she is exploring curious ways of merging and cross contaminating processes and techniques together, conceptually, physically and sustainably. She is the founder of SU:STAIN – which is my ongoing research practise exploring mindfulness and creativity through sustainability in the here and now through outreach workshops across the UK and beyond.

Ever since I attended a workshop on plant dyeing in July, I have been fascinated by natural dyeing and actually had a great desire to collect some dyeing plants to experiment with in winter. Unfortunately, the summer went by too fast and I missed collecting the plants. Hopefully, in spring I will remember to seed one or two suitable plants in the garden.

This fact made me even happier, when I discovered that Elke Fiebig from still garments offered a workshop on dyeing with avocado pits as part of the MAKE SMTHNG week. You were supposed to bring a light-coloured pre-washed garment with you, preferably made of cotton or an other natural material. Of course you should bring along an avocado pit as well.

I decided to dye a cheesecloth and make a scarf out of it. For me, as I mainly wear black, a daring idea…

So I started out equipped with fabric and avocado pits. Elke had already prepared the room and equipped it with two large kettles. These were filled with warm water and dye extracted from avocado pits. Apart from me there were about 10 other participants who had brought along different clothes. Elke told us a lot about dyeing, materials and mordanting. Then we got started.

First we moistened our fabric with water and then put it into the dye. Every 10 minutes one of the participants stirred up the bath. In between we had time to talk to each other, to visit the other stations of the event, to buy a cup of coffee or a tasty dish made of rescued food for a small donation.

After an hour we removed our fabrics from the bath, squeezed them and left them to dry later at home. My scarf turned out beautiful. I just have to seam it and then I’ll dress up to show you. The great thing about dyeing with avocado is that you can easily do it at home as well. Because of tannins in the pits this dye doesn’t require a pre-mordant, but note that your colours will be rather light in that case. If you would like to try it for yourself, here are some informations…

Dyeing with avocado pits – this is how it’s done

Ingredients

We had about 150 g dried avocado pits for 100 g of fabric, but you can start with fewer.
White or unbleached fabric made of natural material such as cotton or linen (silk or wool can also be dyed, but make sure not to boil these!)
Large pot with a capacity of 15-20 litres.
Rod or spoon for stirrin.

Preparation
For the color:

At the best, crush and dry avocado pits right after using them, or use fresh ones.
Put the chopped avocado pits and about one litre of water into a lidded pot, bring it to a boil and let it simmer for about one hour on low temperature.
Leave the seeds in the water and repeat the boiling process several times during the week, if your time allows. Add water if lots of steam evaporates.
Usually there is quite a lot of dye in avocado pits and repeating the extraction helps for stronger colours.

Preparing the fabric:

Pre-wash new fabric as hot as possible in the machine to remove any coatings or residues.
Moisten the fabric or garment with water before dyeing.

Preparing the dye bath:

Add enough water to your pot to fit your fabric nicely.
Add your dye.

Dyeing the fabric:

Carefully place the damp cloth in the dye vat, gently bring the temperature below boiling (or lower, if you dye silk and wool).
Stir approximately every 10 minutes so that the dye can enter into all folds of the fabric. Watch out for air pockets which will cause uneven dye results.
Elke recommends to dye for at least one hour (and only start your timer once the dye vat is at your desired temperature). After one hour remove the fabric from the bath, allow it to cool a little and wring it out.
If you’re patient, dry fabric before rinsing.

Färben mit Avocadokern — All the material you need

Molton Tuch Mulltuch Halstuch — Cheesecloth | soon to be scarf

Farbbad rosa Avocadokerne — Soaking fabric in dye

Avocadokerne zum Färben — Draining and wringing out the fabric

Workshops for dyeing with plants

If you live near Berlin or Stuttgart, I can recommend to leave your big pots in the cupboard and register for a workshop at still garments instead. Everything is lovingly prepared, the other participants are really interesting people and your kitchen stays clean.

MAKE SMTHNG – buy nothing
The MAKE SMTHNG week was an international event organised by Greenpeace that focused on sustainability, foodwaste, recycling and upcycling. In Berlin, in the “Ateliers am Flutgraben” in Kreuzberg, there were workshops, lectures and maker-stations with no-waste-smoothies, self-stitched animals out of socks, woven wall decoration from bicycle rims, fermentation of vegetables, a repair-café, and so on, for three days. Most likely this event will be continued in the future and I will be happy to attend it again.

Carolin Engwert is the founder of hauptstadtgarten.de a gardening blog about her allotment „Schrebergarten“ in the former East Berlin. In her articles the readers find advice for sustainable (urban) gardening, upcycling ideas, DIY tutorials, plant based recipes, a calendar with interesting „green“ events in Berlin and stories about all kinds of gardening experiments. Caro wants to encourage people to grow their own food, even if they live in a big city and even if they have only a balcony or a window sill to grow something. She loves to work with her hands and tries to explore different traditional as well as innovative techniques. With her blog, she aims to bring like-minded people together and she hopes to inspire them, to try something new every once in a while.

To this day and ever since I was a little girl, when I ask my mom what she wants for her birthday or Christmas, she smiles and says, “Make me something.” I feel blessed to be raised in a family where a special experience together or a handmade gift is considered far more valuable than purchasing something from someone’s Amazon wish list.

Before I ever started Urban Air Market, a curated pop-up marketplace featuring local makers with socially responsible design practices, I’d host small holiday crafting parties with a couple of friends around my kitchen table. My favorite group project was hiking outside and collecting fall leaves together. Then, armed with white glue and rice paper, we’d make these candles:

When I grew up a little and got married, I liked sending my husband out for the night and having my girlfriends over to make homemade bath and beauty products. We’d save all of our empty glass and plastic containers for a year, study natural product recipes on YouTube, and then get together to make great smelling lotions, toners, and spritzes for our loved ones:

This year, Urban Air Market will have its first Holiday Show in Oakland, California’s Jack London Square. When the venue manager at 55 Harrison St. suggested that we host a community event in conjunction with their tree lighting ceremony on Friday, Dec. 1st, I jumped at the chance to host another crafting party, but this time on a much grander scale. I’m thrilled to see 20 different Urban Air Market vendor-led crafting stations spring to life for our attendees to make stuff together like:

DIY terrariums
Lip scrubs and bath salts with Himalayan salts and essential oils
Bracelets made from paracord and a buckle
Screen printed and ink blocked wrapping paper with silk dyed ribbon
Cold connection accessories and rings
Bandanas and toys for your dogs and cats
Handmade watercolor and collaged holiday cards
Hand bound notebooks
Hand stitched leather and ceramic tree ornaments

When people ask me why I started Urban Air Market, I say that it’s my way of promoting a more sustainable lifestyle, which seems especially important when taking into account how environmentally devastating the fast fashion industry and rampant consumerism are to our planet. I also say that we provide a platform for supporting small creative businesses and allow consumers to meet their makers face to face. Finally, Urban Air Market is a community event that brings people out of their homes, away from their computer screens for a couple of hours, and into real life where they can meet, talk, and laugh with each other.

Just as I was proud to help bring the awareness-increasing mission of Fashion Revolution from the East Coast to the San Francisco Bay Area for the first time, I’m proud today that Make Your Own Holiday Gift with Urban Air Market will be included in the awe-inspiring list of community events on the calendar for MAKE SMTHNG Week this December.

During these uncertain times where people seem more divided than ever, I think it’s important that this holiday season we slow down, reconnect, and get back to basics. What better way for friends and families to share experiences and meaningful time together than through the art of crafting?

After producing successful art gallery events and runway fashion shows, Danielle Cohen got interested in sustainability and her mission to help creators reduce waste. At Urban Air Market, Cohen helps connect independent artists and designers with their ideal customers through a shopping experience that both builds community and supports the local economy. Whether it involves their packaging, delivery, upcycling, recycling, or the way they take the environment into consideration, the designers and businesses participating in Urban Air Market have to incorporate sustainable practices in some way. Follow Urban Air Market on Instagram

MAKE SMTHNG Week is about taking action for a better world.

From Black Friday, Nov 23 till December 2nd, at the start of the holiday shopping season, we want to invite you to make something with us. In cities around the world, makers are gathering to demonstrate how we can unite to create unique alternatives to buying something new.

We are calling all DIY mavens, minimalists, vegans and vegetarians, upcyclers, swappers, sewers, crafters and zero wasters – you’re all invited to join Greenpeace in collaboration with #breakfreefromplastic, Fashion Revolution, Shareable, the Fab City Global Initiative and the Fab Lab community, Arts Thread and many others to inspire you to make the most of our resources.

Many of you have already started to rediscover the art, craft and joy of making: cooking, mending clothes, fixing electronics, upcycling used goods, growing your own food. You’re making your own cosmetics; cleaning with vinegar and baking soda, ditching plastic and sharing your clothes, bikes and homes with each other. MAKE SMTHNG Week is your showcase for creative, innovative and unique alternatives to shopping something new.

Why?

Because we are buying too much stuff. There are billions of people on this planet who all shop for food, fashion and technology. To produce many of the goods we use, companies are contributing to climate change, destroying forests and polluting our oceans.

The amount of waste we create is mind-boggling. Every piece of plastic produced in the last 60 years still exists. As things get cheaper with planned obsolescence built in, we throw them away more often. In our consumerist societies, shopping counts for more than preserving things.

Plastic waste collected in Germany

We buy twice as many clothes as we did 20 years ago, and wear them for half as long. It’s now cheaper to buy new things than to repair them. Even though our technology is advanced enough to instantly connect all corners of the world, we still can’t repair our mobile phones.

We need to shift from a throw-away culture to one where we value things again. We envision a world where we make the most of our resources. Each of us can take small actions in our everyday lives that together create a monumental change.

Make it last

Clothes Swapping Party in Germany

Instead of buying fast fashion and throwing it out after wearing it a few times, we can make our clothes last by caring for them and repairing them. To turn away from mindless consumerism, we can stop supporting companies which produce phones that can’t be repaired or have replaceable elements and start fixing things again.

When we replace meat with vegan or vegetarian alternatives, we turn away from the most inefficient way of feeding the world’s population. And whenever we bring a reusable bag and say no to single-use plastic and polyester fashion, we are preventing another piece of plastic from polluting our planet’s oceans and beaches.

Category: Fashion

2 October 2018

How to throw a clothes swapping party with friends

19 September 2018

How making can help us shop less

2 March 2018

Denim done three ways

16 February 2018

How to dye fabric with avocado pits

1 December 2017

The value of a handmade gift

9 November 2017

Why YOU should become a MAKER

Consumerism – a vicious cycle

But we can MAKE CHANGE NOW

Making meets tech

Why?

Make it last

Help us change the story of hyperconsumption: MAKE SMTHNG and MAKE CHANGE!