With fashion revolution week upon us, I want to draw attention to something that everyone can do to help with this cause: mending. The number one thing we can do to help stop the fast fashion cycle is to actually love the things we already own. Or as FashionRevolution.org says: #lovedclotheslast
This means cleaning them in a way that preserves the garments and this means mending! And although mending usually brings to mind sewing, that's not always the case. I want to share with you 9 ideas for fixing a variety of wardrobe issues. Even if you have never sewn in your life.

Fashion Revolution Week is an annual remembrance of the Rana Plaza collapse on April 24th 2013, which killed 1,138 workers. All year round, and especially this week, FashionRevolution.org campaigns for a clean, safe, fair, transparent and accountable fashion industry. 

I love fashion, and I love sewing. But I don’t want our clothes or our fabric to exploit people or destroy our planet.

This week is a time for each of us to stop, reflect and ask #whomademyclothes? and #whatsinmyclothes? We can take this opportunity to think about how we (as individuals and as a whole) produce, consume, and dispose of clothes. 

I love my Huxley bag pattern as is, but I also love how versatile it can be. After lusting after a few roll top bags on instagram, I realized that my Huxley pattern could easily be converted to create one of my own! So, I decided one of my #MakeNine projects was going to be a hacked Huxley, with a roll top, using waterproof material. And because I can't go simple, I added in quite a few other hacks too. Here is a breakdown:

One of my Make Nine goals for 2020 was to try out the My Body Model app, which is a way to create a customized croqui for creating fashion illustrations and flats that are specific to your own body.

​I absolutely love the idea behind this business. Going through an apparel design program in college means that I was taught to use a traditional croqui, which, as some of you may know, is very unrealistic. The traditional croquis are intentionally altered to be more of a stylized representation of the female body, with extra height, and extra long legs. The formula for drawing a croqui involves using nine heads as a base for getting the proportions correct. Take a look at this photo to see what I mean.

Let me preface this post by saying that this is a classic example of how I work on my projects. And it gives you a little insight as to why I take so long to get anything done.
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If you've been following me for any length of time, you know that every January my ASDP chapter rents out a cabin and has a sewing retreat. And this year was no exception! We each bring a machine, and a few (or a bunch) of our sewing projects to work on, and we all share some of the bigger sewing tools, like irons and cutting mats. Then, we each take a the responsibility for one of the meals for the weekend, so that you only have to stop to make food once the entire time. The only "rule" is that you can't sew for any clients! (since most of us are professional sewists)
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I had such success with my #makenine challenge in 2019 that I decided to go for it again in 2020! You can read all about my 2019 goals and my 2019 reality in my past blog posts. I didn't finish everything on the list, but I did at least make progress!
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So let's take a look at what I have planned for this year!

I love all things Halloween, and all things sewing, so when I saw this photo on pinterest of a stitched jack-o'-lantern I knew I had to give it a try this year.

I started out by just gutting and carving the pumpkin like normal, with slanted eyes and a wide mouth. Then I used some twine I had and a large needle and got to work.

You all know I love Halloween. And what better way to show my love than to force my family to wear homemade matching Jack-o'-lantern shirts out in public.

One of the things I love about sewing my own clothes is the ability to create meaningful garments for meaningful events in my life. There are the huge life events like my wedding (and yes I did make my own wedding dress) and then there are smaller but still meaningful events like running my first post baby road race. Running after giving birth has been a really difficult transition for me, and I felt like I needed to celebrate the hard work I'd put in to get ready for this half marathon. So of course, what better way to celebrate than by making myself a new Madi tank for race day?! Of course, in the end, life got in the way and I didn't end up finishing it in time to wear it for the race. But I still think of it as my Indy Mini Madi.