Sustainable Tips Blog

Japanese Sashiko style quilting is a fun and easy way to repair many holes and worn fabric. The materials needed are simple and can be found around your home. If you enjoy this technique you may want to upgrade your materials to the Japanese needles, thread and thimble that are intended for this type of repair. However-since the objective is repair and to keep our Earth beautiful - please don't let the correct materials stand in your way! We realize that the future of the apparel industry is in buying new clothing that is quality and made to last and to repair and mend as things wear out. Quality clothing is worth the time! We love the story that clothing...

We know that the hardest thing to buy online are denim and trousers so we've put together this handy guide to help you measure your waist at home!  Same rules apply to measure your hip.  Simply repeat over the widest part of your bottom. Drawn by contributor Brenda Chi.  Check out her pieces for sale on our website here.  And her website here!

One thing we do to stock our store is look through 1,000 lb bales of vintage t-shirts that have been sent to a rag house in Compton who will cut them into rags to be used for clean-up in the auto repair industry.  We are looking for shirts we can salvage - by washing and sometimes garment dying to save them from ending their garment lifecycle so soon.  Sometimes those shirts can't be saved or we will crop or cut them leaving behind fabric remnants.  Since our mission is zero waste we will try to use them in a rag rug.  It's a time consuming process but it's fun and requires no machine... just scissors and some safety pins. I used...

We found an awesome vintage Levi's jacket that had seen better days.  The back had many holes and there were some dark oil looking stains.  The denim around the holes was in great condition making this the perfect style for some denim sashiko mending. For this project I chose to use some denim scraps and a patch drawn by our friend Fos that says "Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds".  I used Olympus Sashiko thread and needles (made in Japan and available in the store). First thing I did was trim the loose threads from the holes.  And then using my thread and needle I did rows of stitching for a basic Sashiko.  The finished product covers all holes and...

Sashiko was developed as a resourceful way of extending the life of garments in rural Japan.  There are traditional ways of doing it - but the concept is this... Hand quilting patches or scraps of fabric over holes, stains, abrasions (and today maybe even to cover an occational corporate logo)  Imperfections are welcome and patches can be hand made, decorated or just scraps of fabric.  Your new patch will weaken the fabric around the patch so eventually it will strain the fabric and you will need to add more patches.. and your garment story telling begins!