Check Your Thread: Sewing More Sustainably

In recent years there’s been a growing amount of research and understanding around neurodiversity: the variety of ways in which different people’s brains and nervous systems work. With more and more people getting formerly diagnosed, or at least identifying as being neurospicy to some degree, regular guest, Kim Witten, who is a coach, writer and one of my cleverest friends, is back on the podcast to explore what it means to be neurodivergent, and how neurodivergence intersects with craft. We consider if and how neurodiversity might affect someone’s engagement with craft, and also the role that craft might have in functioning well as a neurodivergent person. 

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You can find my other podcast, ‘Can I Dig It? Food Growing for Busy People’, wherever you listen to podcasts. 

Kim Witten (@witten.kim on IG) is a transformational coach and writer:

She has appeared on the following previous episodes:

What are the biggest challenges AND the biggest joys of running a business making products from upcycled textiles? Legendary guest interviewer, Kat Camfield, has rounded up three intensely talented Canadian upcyclers: Brynn from B-Bot Clothing, Emily from Woodbrick and Meagan from Salt Legacy. We hear how they each started their businesses and their different approaches to the same problem: trying to divert textile waste from landfill. They all share tips and advice, including sourcing secrets for others wanting to get into upcycling, either for themselves or to start a business. 

Support the podcast over on Patreon!

Want to learn more about the Me-Made-May challenge? Check out:

You can also find the very-optional-but-very-helpful Me-Made-May Workbook. 

Kat Camfield is a sewing teacher and sewing retreat organiser living in Victoria, Canada. You can follow Kat on Instagram @cooperativekatsews. 

Hear Kat on previous episodes of CYT:

Meagan’s business is Salt Legacy. You can follow them on Instagram @saltlegacy: 

Brynn’s business is B-Bot Clothing. You can follow them on Instagram @bbotclothing: 

Emily’s business is Woodbrick. You can follow them on Instagram @woodbrick:

Brynn creates incredible upcycled sweaters (for example) with their ‘schtick’ being adding denim sleeves. Brynn also makes pouffe shells that can be stuffed with textile waste, and also sells the sewing pattern so you can make one yourself:

Woodbrick’s core products are crescent bags and fanny packs (for example) for kids and adults. Jackets made from upcycled textiles, including quilts, have also become very popular with their clients:

Meagan’s business, Salt Legacy, creates a range of durable bags and accessories from unwanted boat sails. Popular items include their signature tote bag design:

Listen to the previous episode about sizing adaptive and inclusive sewing patterns:

No one should feel obligated to use their sewing skills and free time for anything they don’t want to use them for. However, if funds are tight, you might decide to look into how sewing can save, or even make, some money. In this episode you’ll hear from some members of the CYT Patreon community and subscribers to the CYT newsletter, about how they save money, and also make money, with sewing. If it’s something you’ve been thinking about, this episode is bound to provide inspiration. 

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Image source: Pierre Bamin via Unsplash

Also listen to the following related episodes:

Sandra recommended the @sparklesewing YouTube channel on YT for advice on wedding dress alterations.

Learn to draft sewing patterns to sell via:

It is inevitable that our body’s shape and size will fluctuate over time, be that over the course of a day, a week, a month or a number of years. As more-sustainable sewists who want to get a lot of use from the items we make, we should be factoring in these body changes when planning our projects. So does that mean that everything we make should look like a potato sack? Pattern designer, Sasha Starlight, explains why the answer is NO! In this episode, Sasha describes some of the different attributes a sewing project can have to be flux friendly, and talks us through some unexpected benefits of using adjustable, adaptable, flexibly sized sewing patterns. By the end of this episode I’m sure you’re going to be super inspired to get making with your future comfort in mind. 

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Full descriptions of Sasha’s patterns can be found on her website and bought through her Etsy shop. 

Follow Sasha on Instagram (@sasha__starlight) and enjoy her video content on YouTube channel (@sashastarlight).

I made the Palazzo Pants pattern:

Listen to the previous episodes discussing sewing with shape and size fluctuation in mind:

The Rhapsody Dress pattern is Sasha’s most recent release:

The Burnside Bibs pattern by Sew House Seven offers adaptability for both size and style. 

Sasha and I were discussing pants waist tightener pins. 

Do you fancy a fun catch up with repeat guest Lise Bauer? Of course you do! In this episode we find out what has changed with Lise’s relationship with her fabric stash, and we both make confessions regarding recent fabric purchases. Lise also makes a strong case for attending a Frocktails event, and suggests a different way to engage with social media. 

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The costumes made by my big kid:

Find Lise and the Last Sewist Standing challenge updates at @the.craft.camp on Instagram. 

You can sign up to this year’s round of Last Sewist Standing via the sign-up post on Instagram. 

Check out Lise’s personal account @miss.taeschli on Instagram.

Listen to Lise discuss the challenge in the previous episode:

Other episodes of CYT mentioned in this episode:

The dress I made with the sleeves from the synthetic fabric from Walthamstow:

Find out about The Swiss Frocktails event via Instagram @swiss.frocktails and get tickets via Eventbrite.

Lise is organising Swiss Frocktails with Rebekka @gemeine_wildrebe and Benja @onweekends. 

Maker Alexandria Arnold @alexandria_arnold hosts a regular knit night in London.  

All of us are aware of and enjoy many of the mental health benefits of crafting, making and mending. Rebecca Jackson understands this better than most, having experienced one of the worst things someone can go through. It led her to set up The Big Fandango five years ago in Bury, just outside Manchester in the UK. The Big Fandango is a social enterprise with workshop space that creates and nurtures community and positive mental health through learning sewing and textiles craft skills, whilst also delivering suicide prevention training to businesses and organisations. 

You will also hear from Jeanna Wigger and Mary Morton, authors of the awesome mending book, ‘Stitch It, Don’t Ditch It’, who were delivering a mending workshop as part of their North of England book tour a couple of weeks ago. 

Support the podcast over on Patreon!

Rebecca Jackson founded The Big Fandango, a social enterprise based in Bury, Manchester, UK. 

Listen to my episode with Jeanna and Mary about their amazing book:

Jeanna Wigger can be found @thepeoplesmending on Instagram. Jeanna also has an excellent Substack. 

Mary Morton can be found @edinburghstreetstitchers and @mvm13 on Instagram

Listen to my other previous conversations with Jeanna:

Mary volunteers at the Shrub Coop, a ZW charity based in Edinburgh, Scotland (@shrubcoop on Instagram). 

Find their book, ‘Stitch it, Don't Ditch it’. 

Mary and Jeanna regularly recommend the ‘Repair What You Wear’ website to would-be menders. Also @RepairWhatYouWear on YouTube, and in this episode mentioned their videos on how to thread a needle easily for right handed people and for left handed people. 

It seems like every day, another small craft business announces that it’s closing down. In this solo episode I’m looking at the causes. What can we do to both support small businesses AND buy less new stuff for the sake of our planet?

Support the podcast over on Patreon!

Image source: Tim Mossholder via Unsplash

Find out more about the Last Sewist Standing challenge:

This Forbes article, ‘The Benefits Of Shopping Small All Year Long’ by Jim Granat, was really interesting. 

The shoplocaluk.org website has some more useful information. 

I used the definition of the cost of living crisis from this fuelgenie.co.uk article. 

Enjoy Gina Ferrari’s Substack. 

You’ll have heard me say it a ton of times before: sewing clothes yourself isn’t necessarily the most sustainable way to clothe yourself or your family. But obviously, you’ll be prizing my sewing machine out of my cold, dead hands. However, with literal mountains of existing garments already in the world, there are plenty of other ways to source clothing with a reduced environmental and social impact. In this episode, I speak with Izzie Eriksen, founding director of a Glasgow-based social enterprise called ApparelXchange, about the various ways we can clothe our young people more sustainably. We also hear what ApparelXchange is doing to tackle child poverty AND nurture their local community. 

Support the podcast over on Patreon!

Izzie Eriksen is the founding director of Glasgow-based social enterprise ApparelXchange. Follow them on Instagram @apparelxchange. 

This episode is the sister to:

Photos from the ApparelXchange shop and warehouse:

Many of us experience the sewing and crafting communities as a welcoming haven in which we find self expression, safety and belonging. But just how inclusive are sewing spaces, both virtual and IRL? And how can we build them better? Guest host Kat Camfield is back with an incredible conversation with Frances Andonopoulos, the visionary behind a different kind of sewing school, Sincere Studio in Portland, Oregon. They discuss how Sincere Studio was built from the ground up with everybody and every body in mind, and why only the social enterprise model can work when creating a space that truly serves all members of a community. 

Support the podcast over on Patreon!

Kat Camfield is a sewing teacher and sewing retreat organiser living in Victoria, Canada. You can follow Kat on Instagram @cooperativekatsews. 

Hear Kat on previous episodes of CYT:

Frances Andonopoulos is the founder of Sincere Studio in Portland, Oregon. 

You can follow them on Instagram @sincerestudiopdx. 

What does it take to be a self-sufficient maker? How do we acquire our knowledge? And to what extent are we subject to crafting influencers and advertising? This is the second part of my most recent conversation with return guest Shams el-Din Rogers, in which we explore this idea. We also share what’s giving us hope as we push into 2026. 

Support the podcast over on Patreon!

Find Shams el-Din Rogers @sepia_textiles on Instagram.

Listen to her on previous episodes of CYT:

Shams is on the board at the Textile Museum of Canada, Toronto.

Shams regularly recommended the seminal book ‘Affluenza’ by Oliver James to her students.  

Watch the trailer for the Japanese film Rashomon, directed by Akira Kurosawa.

Follow Works In Progress Toronto, the collective Shams is a member of, on Instagram (@works.in.progress.to)

During our conversation we references the following previous CYT episodes: