The Christmas Brighton Craftaganza!!!

(source)

Thanks Ryan, that would have been very helpful last Saturday when it was the Christmas Brighton Craftaganza!!! Actually, I have a 'Ryan' of my own who was incredibly helpful setting up tables, carrying boxes, handing out flyers, being 'official Craftaganza photographer', having banter with the stall-holders, furnishing me with hot chocolate to help me thaw-out when I needed it and much more besides.

If none of what I'm saying is making any sense to you, let me explain. For over a year now I've been the co-organiser of Brighton Craftaganza, a Brighton-based craft and handmade market. The aim is to promote the work of local creative peops and, more broadly, to show the non-crafting public that handmade products are just as good, if not far better, than their mass produced equivalents. What better time to do this than at Christmas, eh? Our first event was back in March, and our second event was last Saturday.

It's a very involved process, this craft-market lark, from the endless planning and organising all the elements that go into making an event like this happen, to the actual day itself: lugging tables, hustling punters into the venue, trouble shooting, trying to perpetuate a good vibe, and so on. I was meant to be co-running the TRAIDremade stall where we were selling a selection of the clothing, bags and accessories that my boss and I make for our day jobs, but that kind of went out the window and my boss and her friend Erica dealt with that on their own.

One of my favourite parts of all of this was selecting a great variety of high quality handmade product ranges to be sold at the event from all the applications we received. About a third of the sellers at this event had a stall with us last time, and the rest of the crafters/designer-makers were either previously unknown to us or new to selling their work at craft fairs/markets entirely. Picking who to assign stalls to wasn't an easy task: there's no way of knowing how attractively a seller will set out their stall on the day when all you've seen are some jpegs of individual products, but all the stalls looked wonderful last week.

When assigning the stall positions to the individual sellers, I really tried to create a mix of products, for example, no jewellery sellers next to each other, or knitwear producers and so on. Even though we tried to select designer-makers from each disciplines whose work was very different to each others', I wanted the public to be blown away by how varied and fascinating handmade products can be. It's about trying to rid the public of those preconceptions of what to expect from a craft fair in a drafty church hall (and our venue very much IS a drafty church hall!).

The other wonderful part about organising Craftaganza, and the main thing I was looking for when I agreed to get involved, is the ability it has given me to meet talented, interesting and creative people living in my local area. I'm pleased to say that almost everyone I've come into contact with through Craftaganza has been lovely. This seller even gave me a gift of several sets of AMAZING buttons to thank me for my hardwork and attentiveness! I've even met some great people who I now consider friends (especially if you define 'friends' as people you go for mulled wine and a gossip with!). I also get to meet lovely people who come to check out the market. Last week's event gave the opportunity to meet the gorgeous Alana from Lazy Stitching!

But it is pretty stressful as well, and you end up feeling really responsible for the outcome of all the stall holders' days. There are definately things that I need to focus on improving in the future to make these markets better for the sellers and more appealing to potential punters. And now that Steph and Lisa have both stepped away from their involvement in Craftaganza (for very good reasons, I may add, Steph's planning her wedding and doing a degree, and Lisa is writing a book and expecting a baby) it's going to be all on me for the future events.

I'm not concerned about taking it on single-handed. I don't think that it'll ended up feeling like that much more work. The time that was previously spent keeping each other updated about the various elements that go into planning these events can instead be spent just doing the stuff that needs to be done. Plus, there are a few changes I'd like to make. For example, I'd like to introduce a few more sellers that make very contemporary products to create a fuller spectrum of what 'handmade' can mean. Hopefully those sellers will cater more for the younger 'hipster' crowd (sing with me, 'I believe that children are our future..'!) and I'd like more sellers which create things for guys (call that the 'blue-pound' if you will).

The concept of a 'Spectrum of Handmade' really interests me. Facetiously put, that 'spectrum' might include moutasche badges at one end and hand-felted scarves at the other (no offence to anyone, there is a place for all!). The only criteria I have for what belongs at Craftaganza is that it is good quality and locally made. That local part is because I'd like to prevent lots of London-based sellers coming down for the day and monopolising the Brighton craft 'scene'. There are some incredible London-based creators of course, and a lot of excellent London-based markets for them to sell at (soem fo which I've sold at myself when I loved in London). Brighton is a popular destination for holidayers and day-trippers, and if they come along to Craftaganza, I'd like them to be able to buy something that represents this area. It would be depressing to attend a craft market in East London and another in Bristol and another in Brighton with the same sellers appearing at all three. That homogeny is the preserve of the High Street, and we are trying to create an alternative selling/buying set-up here.

Another hope I have for Craftaganza is that it can become somewhere that other crafters are drawn to visiting. This was actually one of our founding aims but I feel it got a bit lost somewhere along the lines during the actualisation of the last two events. Everyone knows that makers often go to shops, blogs and etsy for inspiration and to see what other creators are up to. Hopefully Textile Garden will choose to sell with us again (us? me? I'm not sure about the phrasing of this anymore) with their incredible selection of buttons and Japanese braids. If you are a crafter/sewer, what would you like to see at a craft market?

So, if you've read this far down into my witterings about this particular on-going project of mine, then you are a diamond and deserve lots of chocolate and/or wine. I cannot buy you all chocolate and/or wine to reward you, but let it be known that I would if I could. So instead, I'll pick your brains some more. If you visited any craft markets/fairs this year, please let me know what stood out to you about it. Maybe it was the layout, or a particular seller, or a table of free cakes, or live music, please share!!! Thanks in advance my friends.

The Story So Far...

This post is a little personal reflection about the 'journey' my sewing has taken over the last few years. I didn't want to illustrate this post with images of projects I've already shown you, nor did I want to smother it with pictures of 'me in stuff I've made' or something like that! So, instead I've chosen to illustrate it with images of vintage sewing pattern I wish I owned!

About three years ago, I basically went mental about sewing. Like, properly mental. Before then, I'd been making bags and skirts for friends, myself and to sell off and on throughout the five since university. I'd enjoyed it and made a little cash from it, but all-consuming passion hadn't yet taken hold. But around 2007 my involvement in a London-based sewing group, the discovery of the online sewing community (Burdastyle inparticular) and growing concern about sustainability and sweatshop labour opened my eyes to the idea of creating a wardrobe of handmade clothing. For the year or so after, I began dabbling further into sewing different types of garments, using different techniques and working with different fabrics. But it wasn't until 2009 that I found myself in a situation that was really conducive to totally indulging this interest that had grew into an obsession.

So, why did my sewing explorations explode in 2009? At that point I was finally pretty stable in terms of living arrangements (I hadn't been made to move out of a flat for at least four months), relationship and emotions. I was working part-time so I had a solid couple of daylight hours each day in which to sew undisturbed. Also, I was living in a place (Barcelona) with two official languages, neither of which I could speak much of, beyond explaining how I took my caipirinhas. I really believe that this last point really freed up a lot of my brainspace for creating, as I wasn't watching TV, listening to radio or paying much attention to anything that I didn't choose to. Basically, I was living in a bubble of sewing, blogging, friends, food and cocktails. This self-indulgent lifestyle drew to a close in the Summer of 2010 when we moved back to the UK.

Nowadays, my life is wider and fuller, but I can say that my sewing explorations haven't suffered. In fact, I get to sew more these days than I ever imagined could be possible, and have my sewing ability tested, pushed and challenged on a daily basis thanks to my job at TRAIDremade. Actually, if I hadn't had that year and a half in that sunny, drafty, beautiful and bizarre flat in L'Eixample, Barcelona, churning out garment after garment (some more successful than others), I doubt I would have achieved the level and variety of skills required to land me the TRAIDremade job after my repatriation.

But back to that time in that Barcelona flat. I had started to get really into the idea of having an entirely self-stitched wardrobe. I had been signed up to the Wardrobe Refashion pledge as a 'lifer' since 2007, promising to not buy any new clothing again ever, aside from undies. In the UK, I had been able to make frequent additions to my wardrobe through charity shopping, but that wasn't really an option in Spain. It was becoming clear that adding to my wardrobe would only be possible if I made everything from here on out from scratch with my own hands. This wasn't a frightening prospect: I absolutely relished this challenge (still do). I got really into the idea that I was now self-reliant, and had to step-up so my sewing skill would match my clothing requirements.

At some point around this time, I concocted the idea for the very first me-made/self-stitched challenge (Me-Made-March 2010), which was initially a solo project where I decided to see if I could wear only me-made from scratch clothing (exclusing bras, tights and socks). Creating that further challenge for myself put a massive rocket up my bum to learn how to make the variety of garments I wanted to know how to make because now I had a deadline after which I would either be clothed successfully, or freezing cold/inappropriately dressed for an entire month!


Well, I can't say I was totally cosy for the whole of March 2010, but I completed that challenge successfully and have been challenging myself and encouraging other to challenge themselves in a similar vein ever since. However, my personal one-woman mission to clothe myself from head-to-toe with handmade garments has altered. I've had a few revelations/made a few revisions since 2009. For example, I always assumed that I'd learn to knit and crochet so I could provide myself with knitwear. But my desire to create my clothing sustainably (which, by my own definition means not buying any new fabric or yarn) has become more important to me than that initial quest. I love to make knitwear from cut-and-sew knit fabric when I can get my hands on it, and by refashioning/upcycling existing knitwear/sweat garments. I'm also back in a land with charity shops, so I buy second hand cardigans these days too when I find something that fits well and suits my taste.

I also envisioned that I'd eventually add self-stitched socks and bras to my repertoire, and possibly even shoes!!! But none of those things look likely in the near future. But I am by no means static when it comes to new sewing challenges outside my working day. For example, all these babies my friends have started to produce are providing mini baby-shaped challenges to clothe and make gifts for. Plus the ongoing aims to make clothing that really reflects my personal style and fits my body well are things that will never be able to be 'ticked off' some list!

Style Inspiration: Kitty, Daisy & Lewis

Today’s post is a fairly picture-heavy affair. I want to document and celebrate my newest stylistic inspiration source, the band Kitty, Daisy & Lewis. These three siblings from London create awesomely fun music with a vintage R&B/swing/country and western/blues flavour. They are ridiculously young and ridiculously talented. Check this tune out:



All three of them play pretty much every instrument you can think of and when they play live, as I witnessed them doing last week, they swap positions behind each the instruments throughout the set, each having a turn at vocals as well. Oh, and their mum and dad play with them when they are on tour to produce a fuller live sound. Too. Cool.
This band were kind of drip-fed into my consciousness, I can’t remember exactly when I first heard about them but I do recall Harriet (of the Poetry and Clothing Project fame) at some point this year insisting that I ‘You-tube’ them as she was convinced I should love them. They are a fascinating bunch. They’ve been playing together onstage, as a family, for over ten years, which would mean the youngest was in single figures at that point. Lewis in particular has a deep obsession with the technical aspects of recording music (as this article proves). He even built and later expanded a recording studio using predominantly pre-1950s equipment which spread through their family home. This was whilst he should have been doing his A-levels.

How this family managed to develop and explore this jointly shared passionate for the same types of music PLUS sustain a working relationship that spans the entirety of three separate adolescences is beyond my comprehension. However it was/is achieved, it provides the Kitty, Daisy & Lewis band some depth that you hope will provide the longevity that young acts rarely achieve. All I can say is that I guess none of them spent too many evenings with their mates drinking cider and smoking fags down the park.



Their influences are worn firmly on their sleeves as well as imbedded in their music. It’s unlikely to have escaped your notice that I’m a fan of retro/rockabilly style in general and I find their take on it really fun. Kitty and Daisy wear retro-style modern garments as well as original vintage pieces. They usually through it all in the mix, with kitschy makeup and hair styles straight from 1950’s Hawaii. I love that the evolution and experimentation in their looks reflects that they are real young women (currently aged 18 and 22), not manufactured pop starlets with stylists calculating their looks for each appearance and photo shoot. These girls clearly dress themselves. They look like the most exciting characters in Grease. They are the girls at school who’ll teach you to smoke and let you hang around as long as you carry their bags and don’t expect a smile from them.

So, how are their looks comprised? They can often been seen in Pin-up girl separates like high-waisted shorts, tight scoop neck tops, halter-neck tops, diner-waitress blouses and hip-hugging capri pants.

When it’s time to go glam, they opt for stunning vintage wiggle dresses. The demure length of the mid-century wiggle dress off-sets the figure hugging silhouette, references their curves whilst still looking totally chic.

The vintage dresses they wear are usually made from the most awsome fabric, reflecting the craziness and imagination of many of the 1950s/60s fabric designers. I wonder how aware they are that their clothing reflects their music so well? Gingham (country and western), leather (roll and roll), early 1960s dress silhouettes (R&B), and so on, I find it fascinating. I'm also so happy to see a clear dose of Hawaii-iana. I'm really obsessed with that whole mid-century tiki vibe. I should make like Kitty here and russle up myself a look to reflect that in time for next summer:


Are there any bands or musicians that are inspiring you stylistically at the moment?

The Capsule Wardobe

Whether you are a sewer, shopper or both, I think most women living in developed countries would admit to feeling overwhelmed at times by the choice of clothing and accessories to buy or make. You could be wandering down the high street, or surfing Burdastyle in search for inspiration; there is just so much on offer that we are almost drowning in options of ways to clothe ourselves. But it is fashion magazines that provide the arena in which this clothing claustrophobia reaches fever pitch. Their pages are flooded with ‘key trends’ and ‘current looks’ which intend to throw us into wardrobe-turmoil by insinuating that without them, our appearance (and therefore how we will be perceived) is not up-to-date or relevant.

The magazines then act like a trusted friend, promising to aid us in figuring out how we can adopt these looks with helpful articles like ‘How to Wear This Season’s Colour/Boots/Trousers/Prints/Whatever’ whilst coincidentally both pedalling the wares of their advertisers AND the idea that fashion magazines themselves harbour ‘fashion insider’ knowledge that make them indispensible to us uninformed mortals. There are, as you may have guessed by now, not enough words in the English language, for me to fully express my dislike for this process.

Don’t get me wrong, I truly believe that clothing and style can be fun and are great tools for self-expression. And fashion trends can be fascinating windows through which to view shifts in wider social cadence. But the fashion press and clothing brands work together with one primary aim: to make money. Nothing more noble than that. And they achieve this largely by trying to make women feel irrelevant, lacking and rubbish about our appearance. They offer ‘solutions’ in the form of products to buy, but the speed of the turnover of these ‘must-haves’ means that us consumers will never feel satisfied and relevant for long unless we pump some more of our wages into the machine.

Therefore, it is fascinating, is it not, that even fashion magazines’ writers and editors apparently aspire to ‘evolving’ beyond the frivolity of the never-ending cycle of new looks and trends they adopt, season after season, in order to stay on top of their game. It is as if they are acknowledging that the money-making merry-go-round their roles perpetuate is not sustainable, and they are looking towards the future when they will have been exhausted by their professions like race-horses being put out to pasture. I am talking, of course, about The Capsule Wardrobe.

The research conducted by Courtney Carver, author of Project 333, leads her to define The Capsule Wardrobe in these terms:

1. collection of clothes and accessories that includes only items considered essential
2. a person’s basic collection of coordinating clothes that can be used to form the basis of outfits for all occasions
3. a set of clothing, normally around 24 items, which can be mixed and matched to create a wide variety of outfits.

The Capsule Wardrobe is a something, paradoxically, that fashion magazines (and now increasingly fashion blogs) have devoted a lot of column inches to over the years. It is treated with the same tone of the rest of the standard fashion press copy: that it is the ‘fashion insiders’, rather than the general public, who are most qualified to determine what such a precisely crafted, carefully edited selection of garments should comprise of. The extent of the dichotomy that fashion magazines are also permitted to state what a basic, trend-less selection of clothes should look like, is frankly alarming to me. The definite article (The) in The Capsule Wardrobe, as these things are always discussed, would also suggest that it really is a singular entity that all women must yearn for. Such articles are never titled ‘A Capsule Wardrobe’, are they? Yet the magazine articles and blog posts on ‘The Capsule Wardrobe’ never managed to agree on what that should consist of. Anyways, there is a lot to take issue with here, regarding both the assumptions of what a capsule wardrobe is, and who gets to shape it.

The first is the idea of ‘essential’. That is an incredibly subjective term, both in terms of what society you live in, and within your own society. In fact, I doubt that even my best friend and I could agree on what garments we consider ‘essential’. Ditto with the term ‘basic’. Why do so many of them always contain a basic white buttoned shirt?! What good is that to a woman with a toddler, or who works with animals?! I haven’t worn, or had use for, a white shirt since I was a waitress in a pizza restaurant some eight years ago! Why is so much of it black, white and grey anyhow? Isn't the colour and the print, for many people, the fun bit about getting dressed each day? Also, from a fashion writer’s perspective, what a capsule wardrobe would consist of changes with the seasons, years and decades anyhow, so why all this time spent trying to define the indefinable?

Of course, there have always been some writers and bloggers who deal with this topic with a more relaxed definition of ‘The Capsule Wardrobe’ means, taking into account the individuality of both style preference and lifestyle needs. Currently, there are whole blogs devoted to creating a 24-piece ‘mix and match-able’ collection of clothes which can, presumably, be altered to accommodate new trends as the owner desires. But isn’t that actually just ‘A Wardrobe’?

If you believe the statement that women in Western countries usually wear 20% of their wardrobes 80% of the time, and 80% of their wardrobes only 20% of the time, then aren’t we usually dealing with a limited section of our clothes at any one time anyway? Are they suggesting that we get rid of everything else we already own? What happens when you fall behind with your laundry and a proportion of those 24 things are dirty or hanging on radiator to dry? What happens when you don’t live in LA and actual weather systems kick in, and ‘The Dressy T-shirt’ and ‘The Basic Shirt’ just aren’t going to cut it and you’re wearing ‘The Cardigan’ and ‘The Sweater Vest’ together every single day for three months until Spring shows it’s face again? What happens when you get bored of staring at yourself in the mirror in your one basic cardigan? Are we meant to be operating on a one-in, one-out system here? If something new gets bought, does something else need to be discarded?

Obviously I’m being facetious here, I doubt anyone writing a magazine article or blog post about creating a Capsule Wardrobe is genuinely proposing there are strict guidelines to be adhered to, or that ‘24’ is some sort of numerological lucky number: the Holy Grail of wardrobe contents if you will.

I’m all for halting mindless and panic actions in favour of making well thought-out selections of what to add to our wardrobes (be that through shopping or sewing) in the attempt to reduce the quantity of landfill and amount of damage clothing and fabric production reaps on our environment. It makes sense to make selective decisions about what to consume and what to pass on to if we no longer wear an item and someone else could benefit from it. But forgive me for being suspicious when it’s fashion ‘experts’ who are dictating this process.

The basic crux of what I’m saying is this: normal women (who don’t make their money by having the contents of their wardrobes scrutinised) really don’t need fashion writers telling them what their wardrobes should contain. We already all have our own ‘Capsule Wardrobe’. It’s the stuff we wear most of the time anyway. What that consists of should be as personal and individual as you are (and it already is). For example, since I made it, I wear my leopard collar batwing top as often I can get away with because I love how it feels, it looks good with my black jeans and generally it reflects a casual version of my personal style as it stands today. To me, it is both ‘essential’ and ‘basic’. Yet I wouldn’t expect, and certainly wouldn’t want, to see someone else to rock a similar top several times a week. Your jeans that you wear pretty much every day because they are comfy and make your bum look good? They are ‘The Jean’. The boots you wear a lot because they don’t leak when it’s been raining? They’re ‘The Boot’. Your plain cardigan with the loose button that you haven’t had a chance to stitch on again because you’re wearing it most of the time? You guessed it, ‘The Cardigan’! See? You’ve already got a capsule wardrobe. Let’s spend more time enjoying getting dressed and being ourselves, and less time worrying whether it is all mixes and matches!

I believe the tone of many fashion magazines and fashion columns, that they possess superior knowledge of how everyone should present themselves, is insidious and damaging. As I say, clothing styles and trends are interesting: they can reflect certain social and personal moods, and they can be fun to dabble and play with. But anyone pretending to have any more of a handle than you do on deeply personal areas like what you wear, how much you weigh or what shape your pubic hair should take, is both mistaken and can piss off, IMO. Women have enough hoops to jump through and ways in which they are made to feel inferior and unworthy. Do you think men give a shit about how many garments they own, or should own? Or if they have the definitive basic peacoat?

It also interests me that The Capsule Wardrobe is, in many ways about restriction, self-imposed restriction. That in an era when we have so much on hand, we are implementing rules to help us negotiate all this choice, be it food or possessions, including clothing. But that’s an area I’d like to expand upon another day. Right now, I’ve got to go and count my pairs of trousers!

Sales Techniques for People who Hate Selling: Free PDF

Maybees you are aware that when I'm not working for Traid, writing this blog or sewing stuff with anchors on, I also co-organise a Brighton-based craft market called Brighton Craftaganza. The first event was in March this year (see above and below), and maybe I'm biased but it kicked arse!!!! Well, the next event is THIS SATURDAY!!!! I'm not too panicked because I think all is in hand. Anyways, back to the point of this post....

Back at that first event in March, whilst Pat (Mr 'So, Zo...' and official Brighton Craftaganza photographer) was wandering around the stalls, he noticed some of the sellers had pretty killer sales techniques and were generating lots of interest in their products and yielding a lot of sales, whilst some sellers were almost off-putting in their passivity. Now, of course, not everyone likes to be approached when browsing at a craft fair or similar event, but the evidence of how many sales the more interactive sellers made in comparison to the others stood for itself. As a designer/maker/seller myself, I am more than aware of how difficult it can be to know how to act towards potential customers, where to position yourself and how to broach a conversation, if at all.

It’s no secret that most creative people hate selling. It can be awkward and embarrassing to sell in a face to face situation to people you don’t know. This is especially true when selling stuff you have made yourself. We are such critical ‘parents’ that we forget that the stuff we make is unique, handmade and therefore of great value. The paradox is that selling more stuff is brilliant for makers. The more you sell, the more time you can spend making more stuff. It is a positive cycle.

Pat, who has undertaken lots of sales technique training for his job, and read a lot about selling to improve his skills as a freelance copywriter, really felt that there are many simple-to-apply techniques that would help the crafting/handmade community generate more sales out the interest their work receives. We had several long discussions, also involving Anthony, an experienced Sales Trainer and then colleague of Pat's, where we figured out the most useful tips and tricks from a crafter's perspective. We turned this into the format for a symposium/discussion and hosted it at the Handmade shop back in September to a room full of crafters/designers/makers, many of whom will sell with us at the Christmas Craftaganza event. It was really great to be able to offer this event for free to local creatives, as Brighton Craftaganza is all about supporting creative talent AND proving that handmade products are just as good as, and in many ways much better than, their mass produced equivalents.

We received very positive feedback from that free event, but seeing as there was quite a lot of take on board, and many people who had wanted to attend but hadn't been able, we made a free downloadable PDF document (pictured above) covering the key points discussed in that symposium.

The document breaks down and analyses the structure or 'anatomy' of a sale. It discusses how to use basic selling theory to open communication, build rapport and communicate just how special and desireable your work is and, finally, some basic strategies to CLOSE THE SALE. If you are selling some of your work this Christmas, or know anyone else who is, feel free to download our document and see if it contains any tips that might help make the event even more of a success than it will already be!

Mariner T-shirt

Yep, I think I may have almost (but not quite) scraped the barrel for nautical-inspired names for my creations!!!! However, if you think it's therefore time for me to make a departure from this genre of style, I think you'd better get those thoughts in check because that isn't going to happen in the foreseeable!

So, here we have my very latest completed creation. I'm more than a little in love with it. With all the planning and prepping for Christmas present sewing that I've been obsessing over, it was a relief to make an off-the-cuff unplanned creation that resulted from the day's events. At work on Friday we had our usual bi-monthly delivery of old garments and unwanted fabric for us to create clothing from. Except this particular delivery was unusual in that it contained a wealth of lovely stretch jersey sample fabric from a fabric producing company. Lots of it came in the form of stripes, and in the kind of quantities that could easily sustain me making something for myself without making the slightest dent in it all.

I had already booked the afternoon off but planned to stay in the studio and work on my own projects. Pat is currently eye-ball deep in a copy writing deadline and I thought it best to keep away from the flat until the evening! So after I spent some time altering a pattern and cutting out a garment destined to be another Christmas present, with over an hour left before it was time to head home, I felt justified in turning my attentions to making something for myself.

Although it pains me to admit it, my stripey T-shirt is really starting to show some negative signs of repeated wear, so I decided that it made sense to make a replacement/addition. I chose a lovely medium weight red and white striped sample piece, but try as I might, I couldn't get those original stripey T-shirt pattern pieces to fit. That's when necessity became the mother of invention (as she so often does!). I realised the only way these pattern pieces were going to fit was by making it shorter in sleeve and body length OR but adding contrast yokes to squeeze the rest of the front and back pattern pieces out of the stripey fabric that by now I was determined I wanted to use.

So Mama Necessity gave birth to the idea that I could include this anchor jersey! My boss gave me an old and misshapen vintage 1970s top covered in anchors not long after I started my job and divulged to her my fixation with all things nautical. Since that time, so for about a year now, I've been hoarding that anchor-coated top with the obsessive mania of a particularly aggressive squirrel. But when I saw those stripes I just knew now was the moment to crack it out.

As I say, I used the same pattern that I developed for my original stripey top, save for making the neckline a tiny bit wider. The whole thing was constructed using an overlocker (serger), then I overlocked round the hem and sleeve hems and turned them back and stitched them down using a three-step zigzag stitch on my normal sewing machine.

The sleeves are a little long, but I'll wait until it's been laundered until I alter those to the correct length. I'm super-vibed it looks good with my red cardi because who needs a wardrobe-orphan that is only wearable for the limited number of warm days the UK weather feels it shall bestow on us?!

See the pic below? I have the lovely Santie to thank for photographing me after a sighting of one of our Brighton Craftaganza Christmas craft market posters in a pub. Shameless plug: it's next Saturday (December 10th) if you happen to find yourself in South East England with nowt to do!!!!

At ease, shipmates!!!!

A Word With John-Paul Flintoff

Have you ever read a book that, upon completion, made you think, 'I really enjoyed that, what the author had to say really chimed with me and it's given me lots to think about. But, AGH!!!, now I want to know a bit more about them and their views!'? Well, after reading 'Sew Your Own' by John-Paul Flintoff, I told my mates about it and wrote a post about it on this blog because I felt it focussed on issues that deserve peops spending some brain-time on. The inclusive and accessible nature of his writing and his obvious willingness to engage with people, whether they had anything directly to offer him or not, made me feel he might enjoy a bit of reader participation. So I found his email address (which really didn't require as much internet-stalking as I was prepared to undertake!) and let him know about the post, which had garnered some lovely positive comments from my readers by that point, plus inspired a few sales I might add. He sent a charming response which put pay to the adage, 'Never (e-)meet your heroes'!

But as the book addressed many of the topics that I usually have running through my head, and in fact added more facets to those topics, I really wanted to pick his brains on a few things plus get a bit of an update on his crafting-activities since the the book was published. So I chanced my arm, having already made contact with him, and he graciously agreed to a mini-interview which I would, of course, love to share with you...

Me: Your book was first published in 2009, are you still making and modifying your own clothes?

J-P: Yes, very much so, though I've found it hard to do as much as I would like to do. This week I invisibly mended a second-hand Harris Tweed jacket I bought in Edinburgh last Xmas. I also bought recently a rather girly piece of fabric (floral, washed out) that I thought looks very slightly like camouflage and am planning to macho it up a bit, if you see what I mean, but making a fitted military style shirt with epaulettes and two front pockets.

Me: Have you been allowed to apply your skills to your wife’s wardrobe yet?

J-P: Harriet, eventually convinced that I knew what I was doing, asked me to make her a pair of jeans, which was a huge breakthrough in itself. I bought the denim, with a bit of stretch in it, but subsequently decided never actually to get around to making the jeans because if I did, and she didn't like them, she would feel bad and I would feel bad too. The great thing was to be asked. Having said that, I did make her a loose blouse for her birthday, which she seems to like.

Me: Do you teach your daughter your make-do and mend skills?

J-P: It's very slow progress. She doesn't want to be taught, as such. She has enough lessons as it is. So I have to do it "inadvertently". One thing I do is repair her beloved teddy, as holes appear at regular intervals. It's like painting the Forth Bridge. I told her that one day when I'm very old she will have to do the darning herself. She consented to let me buy her a little sewing kit, in preparation for that terrible eventuality. Also, she recently had a sewing party for her birthday (not my choice, as it happens) and was also given presents (by others) that have to do with sewing. So I think it will happen.

Me: How have your investigations into climate change, Peak Oil and sweatshop labour effected your buying habits?

J-P: I have become a terrible consumer - or a good one, depending on how you look at things. I buy very little indeed, which is not doing much for economic growth. When I do buy, it is often second-hand. I don't think about this very much, it's become almost instinctive. I recently went into a clothes shop and thought, oh, yes, there are shops. But it got to a point where my obsession with home-made was becoming a bit obsessive. I needed a break. So Harriet just went to Gap and bought me some corduroy jeans and I have to say I like them very much. I don't have a clue what kind of conditions they were made in, or who grew the cotton, with what kind of inputs, but it's really important, I think, to learn to relax and recognise that we can't fix everything.

Me: Considering the damaging effect of fabric production, but consumer’s desire to support local independent fabric shops, is it ethical to buy new fabric or should we seek out existing unused fabric to sew our clothes with?

J-P: I do think it's a good idea to seek out unused fabric, obviously. But it would be a fairly miserable world if nobody were able to make new things, ever.

Me: What can someone who lives in London do to prevent sweatshop labour

J-P: Well, buying clothes from a place that makes a point of sourcing clothes ethically is one idea, but it's likely to be a bit more expensive, and not everybody can afford that. A cheaper solution might be to buy second-hand clothes, which may of course have been produced ethically, but by reusing you are reducing the impact of that a bit, I think. (Halving the bad karma, if you like, of the previous owner.) The absolute best option is to make things yourself: there is no sweatshop labour in my house, and nobody is exploited in the making of my garments.

Me: How do you remain positive despite all the realities of Peak Oil, climate change, global inequality and the reluctance of political leaders to effectively address these issues?

J-P: I think there is no option but to remain positive. It's difficult at times not to feel a bit glum, but actually I think that moving away from expecting anything whatever from political or other leaders is rather rewarding: you recognise that you can make a real difference yourself, and if you work with enough other people the political change you want to see will happen automatically. The alternative is very disempowering: to think that things will only be "fixed" by somebody else, eg, government.

Me: Have you considered starting your own craft/sustainability blog? Your approach and engaging writing style would make it a massive hit with the on-line creative community!

J-P: Thank you very much! I would love to do that, but it's hard to find the time to do all the things I want to do and also document them. I do blog occasionally about things that interest me, but not only about craft and sustainability. http://jpflintoff.tumblr.com/

I would like to thank John-Paul enormously for taking the time to answer my questions so thoughtfully. And if you have any mates that have taken an interest in DIY activities, you could so easily flow them a copy of 'Sew Your Own' this Christmas which may provide them with the motivation to start their own creative journey!