Zero Waste Patterns: 20 Projects to Sew Your Own Wardrobe

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For a customizable sewing project, try this cropped t-shirt. The cloth should measure the circumference of your body for a fit as shown above. To personalize the look, you can create a more voluminous form with a wider piece of cloth, or a closer fit with a narrower piece. Use chiffon or another soft fabric for a more fluid look, or try a stiffer fabric for something more structured. The pattern is free, but the sewing experience is different from working with a conventional pattern. Read the instructions through before starting.

Choosing a zero waste sewing pattern is a great way to reduce waste, save money, and contribute to a more sustainable future. I hope this has inspired you, and next time you're planning a sewing project, consider giving a zero waste pattern a try. You might be surprised at how much you enjoy the challenge and the results! I’m not decrying ‘zero waste’ as a promotional tool for wiser fabric choices, better pattern design and more awareness of the issue of fast fashion and landfill. I think as Sewers we should be aware of all of this and more. We should be reusing our failed attempts, repurposing our older clothes and generally not buying so much. Fabric, just as much as fast fashion, is a terrible lure….I know it’s effects. Now, you might ask, why should we be interested in zero-waste design or care about zero-waste sewing patterns? Well, for one, waste is a massive issue in the overall fashion industry, with approximatively 15% of the fabric used for any garment ending up as waste. That most often means straight to landfill. For home sewing, we also end up with little pieces that we have no use (thought I know that many in the community are working really hard to use as much of them as possible). These measurement are based on using a fabric that is 145cm / 57 inches wide. You can make this top larger or smaller by choosing a fabric with a wider or narrower width.So – where are the best places to find zero waste patterns? Zero Waste Pattern Books Birgitta Helmersson – Zero Waste Patterns In the fourth episode of The Great British Sewing Bee series 9, nine contestants are challenged with making a zero waste pair of trousers, transform tote bags into a garment and sew a made-to-measure out for a model sing second-hand crochet blankets. For episode four we have put our detective hats on to discover the sewing patterns from independent designers and commercial pattern houses used in Sewing Bee TV show. The patterns below are all matches or inspired by the designs used in the fourth episode of the Great British Sewing bee series 9. If you haven’t already seen our ultimate guide to the Sewing Bee do take a look. Sizing: 0 – 34 (approx. UK 6 – 34, based on our standardised size chart). Available in the shop: PDF or PDF + printed copy shop. Zero waste, as the name implies, is the process of making a garment or item without waste. As home sewists we know how much fabric is wasted in the construction of a garment and the aim is to eliminate this, thereby reducing the amount of fabric sent to landfill (or left languishing in bins in our sewing spaces!). There are two ways of eliminating waste: by utilising an entire piece of fabric in the making of a garment; or using the leftover pieces of fabric to create another, separate, item. This latter concept is not always as easy as it sounds and it will be the subject of a further blog post with exemplars.

I blush when I think about how much waste I’ve created in my career. Typically, there’s 15 percent fabric waste in clothing manufacturing, but sometimes there’s more. Designs with fewer large pattern pieces tend to create more waste because there are fewer little pieces to fill in the gaps. Larger sizes also create more waste for the same reason. The responsibility to dispose of the fabric scraps belongs to the factory, not the brand they’re making for. Most fabric waste ends up in landfills, some are burned, and a little is recycled. Worldwide, there are millions of square meters of fabric being wasted daily. Additionally, it’s estimated that 60 percent of the waste is synthetic (that is, forms of plastic). Patternmaking Considerations Sizing: XS – 6XL (approx. UK 6 – 30/32, based on our standardised size chart). Available in the shop: Yes, PDF. As mentioned before, it’s very different to think about zero and minimal waste design when creating large amounts of the same pattern at any one time. The reason being you have much more flexibility on how to use up the available fabric; large pattern pieces can be nestled against smaller pattern pieces from a different size of the garment. It’s therefore entirely possible to use a very high percentage of your available fabric (think 90%+) without changing the pattern a great deal. It’s also worth remembering that clothing factories are often using wider fabric sizes than are typically available to the domestic sewing community and so they can fit more along the same length. Working this way will help you to start building a toolbox of skills, and you will learn an alternative method of self drafting your own sewing patterns, which are super easy for beginners to understand. There are relatively few modern zero-waste sewing patterns available; I estimate there are somewhere between 100 and 200, but likely closer to 100. As patternmakers get used to this way of making patterns and get better and better at it, we will see more patterns and interesting garments.As mentioned earlier, my next post will look at just a few of my makes, and the patterns I have tried in the hope that I can inspire some Sewcialist readers/followers to give it a go themselves.

Images with automobile license plates that are prominent and easily read (pictures with license plates that have been fuzzed out or that otherwise cannot be read are acceptable).Sizing: A (10-12-14-16-18-20-22-24), which is approx. UK sizes A (8 – 20/22) based on our standardised size chart. Available in the shop: Yes, paper pattern. But remember - zero waste is never zero - so any "zero waste fashion" option is creating some sort of waste or environmental impact. Imperfect system, imperfect answers. Still, there are definitely ways to drastically reduce the impact fast fashion and excessive consumption has on the planet. I think that really zero-waste is a bit of a red herring. As several people have said, clever pattern placement can result in a better item more likely to be used because of the fit. I see that many of the zero waste patterns look best on the tall and slim, often with a smaller bust. These would be unsuitable for a lot of body types. As well as her book of patterns, you can also find several Birgitta Helmersson zero waste sewing patterns online for sale. TheBirgitta Helmersson patterns include