building a sustainable wardrobe

When I fell down the sustainable rabbit hole, I set a personal mission to create my own sustainable wardrobe. I realise this is going to take an extremely long time but I get so much more joy buying vintage and secondhand, over new items, and even more when I am creating or altering something to make it just for ‘me’.

I have a mental plan on how my wardrobe needs to look but is obviously also dictated by what I can find. The main idea is to ensure that I have a piece of a clothing that can cover several reasons to wear it. I also wanted to stop wearing so much black and be a bit more experimental with colour and pattern, which is where this dress comes in!

the dress

I came across this dress in a charity shop and instantly loved the colour, print and the dry-feel handle of the fabric. However, when I tried it on back at home, it was too oversized, and I usually love an oversized dress!

The sleeves were too long and the collars flapped around too much. So, I decided to utilise my design training and sewing skills to make it mine.

the alterations

I was extremely indecisive about the length. I wear both midi and mini dresses but the deciding factor was the footwear I could see myself wearing the most with it, and that was boots or trainers so a mini seemed most appropriate. I would want to style it with delicate sandals if kept as a midi but I’m usually running around in boots!

I used the fabric I cut off and made some waist ties in case I ever wanted to pull it in or wear it loose and breezy.

The sleeves were a huge issue and although it originally had lovely long cuffs with covered buttons, I decided to just cut them off and make the sleeve opening elasticated for comfort and I love a romantic blouson sleeve!

I also stitched the collars back (you may be able to make out the stitch lines on the photo) so there was a definitive neckline to the dress.

The final look was actually much better than I thought! I can see myself dressing this up or down!