Check Your Thread: Sewing More Sustainably

I’m guessing that there are at least a few garments in your wardrobe that fit you ok, but you’ve kind of fallen out of love with. Or maybe you fancy injecting even more of your personality and style …

Over the last couple of weeks we’ve been looking at how to make quilts more sustainable, but what do you know about the quilt makers that came before us? What motivated their practices and influenced…

Do you dabble in quilt making? Or are you curious to give it a go someday? Well this episode is PACKED full of amazing tips submitted by CYT listeners on how to do so more sustainably. So you can get…

Hopefully, full-on burnout is not something you have, or will, experience yourself. However, we all encounter periods of pressure and stress. My guest, Radha Weaver, is a recovering overachiever who …

Get a sneak peek into the Virtual Sewing Room, a business set up by Jenny Babey that offers online connection with other makers around the globe. Jenny invited me to talk in the VSR last month about …

Do you love bringing new life into existing clothes? How do you decide when a vintage garment should be faithfully restored, or upcycled and transformed? And what is the environmental impact of savin…

Do you have a passion for vintage textiles but have yet to work them into your wardrobe? Are you unsure of how to deal with the limited yardage of thrifted textiles? Marcia Riddington and Lisa Hughes…

Do you find that sometimes you lack the necessary motivation to tackle your mending tasks? Like many Check Your Thread listeners, you might be taking part in the Winter of Care and Repair challenge a…

As I’m sure you’ve noticed, a whole industry has built up around home sewing with the primary goal of selling us lots of stuff. Most businesses rely on shifting a large volume of products, so much of…

Outdoor clothing and equipment often pose some very specific problems when they start to break. This is my second episode with Rosanna Watson from Snowdonia Gear Repair, and in this one she offers up…

The clothes and equipment you buy to spend time outdoors often requires a sizable investment. And when they break, the idea of fixing them yourself might seem pretty daunting. Over the next two episo…

If I asked you what you consider fun, my guess is that laundry and garment care do not immediately spring to mind. However, keeping our clothing in good, wearable condition for as long as possible, i…

Are you ready to wrap up 2024, to look back at a year’s worth of sewing wins and fails, and consider some hopes and plans for 2025? I got together with two of your favourite previous podcast guests, …

Did you participate in the Winter of Care and Repair challenge last year? Do you plan to do so this year? I’m welcoming Jeanna Wigger, the challenge’s creator and host, back onto the podcast. Jeanna …

Do you find yourself coming up against sewing related problems that leave you stumped and that subsequently sap your momentum? Today, regular CYT guest and our resident coach, Kim Witten, explains ho…

Are you a regular refashioner of existing textiles? Perhaps you’re into the idea of it, but aren’t sure where to start. Portia Lawrie is a committed refashioner who came on the podcast a year and a h…

The results of the recent US elections represent a massive blow to the future of our planet. The fight for equality and all forms of social justice have also suffered a huge setback. So, what do we d…

Many of us sew in a small space, or in an area of our home that’s also used for other activities and by other people. If that’s you, how’s the space working for you? Whatever the constraints of your …

Is the space you have for sewing pretty small? Or maybe you sew in a space that is shared with other people and also used for other activities? Or perhaps your sewing space is both small AND shared? …

How does a small business advertise the products it sells so it can stay afloat without encouraging over consumption? In the second part of my conversation with Bevan O’Daly,  owner of Bawn Textiles,…