These desperate times have made me rethink a thing or two about my life. Mostly about how desperately I want to switch visas and ditch the full time grind (not being permanently stressed and tired was a revelation in the two-week coronacation we were given), but also about fast fashion and how much I am a slave to it. So I’ve made the decision to become more sustainable with fashion.

And a plan to actually stick to it.

The sustainable fashion plan:

Make a ‘style’ moodboard ☑

My first step was to browse all of the image curating platforms I could in search of different kinds of outfits, styles, or patterns I was most drawn to, then copy them all into a digital style moodboard. This quickly showed me that style I was curating was definitely more girly with flairs that leaned into 50s and 70s vintage. Kind of an everyday princess vibe. Lots of pastel colours, with some grounding darks (red, I like reds and burgundies), stripes and checks, with squarer, wider, or sweetheart necklines. They’re things I already knew I liked, but I guess I was just confirming it more concretely.

Purge the current wardrobe: ☑

Step two in becoming more sustainable with fashion was to purge my current wardrobe. No easy feat when you’re sentimental about clothing, and a lot of your current wardrobe features things that you bought with your first year of Actual Disposable Income.

It was hard to cull a lot of the things that I loved wearing a lot in my first year back in Korea. I was able to rationalise enough that those items didn’t really fit in with the wardrobe that I was trying to curate, as well as the quality not being the best because I was mostly purchasing items at shops with a very fast product turnover, so parting ways wasn’t too bad.

Buy a sewing machine ☑

You may have seen (if you’re subscribed to me on youtube) that I recently bought a sewing machine. It’s not as fancy as the one I had in the UK, but shipping them is expensive and I can’t exactly ask my parents to reserve a hefty amount of suitcase space and weight just for that when they visit. But it will do the job(s) I want it to do, and I’m excited to get going.

The sewing machine that I got is a Singer Simple 3221 with blue accents. Clue is in the name here – it’s pretty basic and fair few steps down from my last machine in the UK (Singer 7463.Cl Confidence), but also it was considerably less expensive. It’s a good machine to ease myself back into making clothes, and I can easily upgrade when the need arises. I purchased my machine from G-market, and it came with extra presser feet, so I’m pretty well stocked now!

Even though that logic might be a little counterproductive (it makes more sense so spend the money now and just get a machine with all the bells and whistles that I need/want, right?) it does mean that I had a little extra wiggle room in my budget to help build the rest of the sewing inventory that I need. Like shears, thread, needles, embellishments, buttons… all those extras your mum has stashed away somewhere as hand-me-downs from her mum, that I don’t have in Korea. We all know I like to hoard things a little, so having nothing to having enough has been pricey. So the cheaper sewing machine makes sense.

Get inspired

The last thing that is on my list to become more sustainable with fashion is to get inspired. I have a ton of Pinterest boards to help oil the mental creative gears: style inspiration to pull trend aspects from, a dedicated board called sewing: diy’s for patterns and tutorials, and lastly a board for fabric patterns I like. I also pin a lot of embroidery designs, as well as niche fashion subcultures like Lolita and Gyaru, I have a board dedicated to Korean fashion, fashion sketches, and individual clothing elements. I like fashion. I like pinning. 🙂

I have also fallen down the rabbit hole of DIY / sewing-tube youtubers. I’ve been subscribed to With Wendy for a looooong time, as well as Coolirpa and Annika Victoria. My most recent find has been Madebyaya, and I’m so excited to try and flip some thrifted men’s shirts into cute dresses using some of her tutorials. If you have any more recommendations for nifty sewing-tube youtubers please give them to me!!!!

Other than that, I’ll keep my eye on the new-in sections of the fast-fashion websites and the apps on my phone like Zig-zag, Brandi and Ably, as well as seeing what designers are putting out for new season collections. They’re a great source of inspiration, and it’s fun to make things yourself rather than shelling out a lot of money or harbouring guilt of feeding into fast fashion (me, with the last haul that I have still yet to post/film).

Rules

Although I’m not going to be incredibly strict with myself, I am setting some rules. It eliminates a lot of grey area I can find myself in, so it’s easier.

• No buying of fast-fashion. Anything cheap, with loose threads and flimsy material is Not Entering This House.
• Thrifted, gifted, second hand items are OK.
• I can buy shoes and bags (cause I’m not about to take a shoe making course I do not have space or time)
• I can only buy something new if I absolutely cannot make it myself.
  

So! Those are the steps I’m taking to become more sustainable with my fashion. I’m excited to start planning projects and making things that I really struggle to find in shops. I’ve managed to get some uncut vintage patterns from the 70s that I’m excited to get started on, and I’m just generally so buzzed about this new direction with fashion for me.

If there’s anything you’d like to see blog posts on in relation to these please let me know (also, sewing-tubers please please please)!! I’m mostly self taught, apart from 2 years of GCSE textiles (lol), so I’m learning how to pattern draft myself. Join me on this adventure~~