Those super comfortable jeans, with the hole in that awkward spot?

I had a large bag in my closet of perfectly fine jeans with a hole in the inner thigh.  My mother-in-law said there was no salvaging them and to me that seemed so wrong – as they were mostly still in really good shape.  This inspired me to buy a sewing machine and see what I could do.  

Learning to sew taught me how much work and skill sewing takes – and it shocked me to learn how under-valued our clothing actually is.  I started to do research and learned about labour conditions in garment factories and the environmental cost of our clothing addiction.  If you are interested in reading more about what I found visit ethicalclothes.ca – spoiler alert – most clothing companies don’t want to tell you how or under what conditions your clothing is made. 

With UpcycleTexStyle I want to extend the life of the garments and textiles we own right now and keep them out of our landfills. Before garment factories and fast fashion we mended and repaired and we need to get back to the idea that worn clothing is not garbage but something that can be mended or remade.  Today the fashion industry itself is the second largest polluter in the world and the labour conditions for garment factory workers are shocking.  I hope that with UpcycleTexStyle we can start thinking differently about clothing and textiles, while at the same time giving new life to the items stuffed in the backs of our closets.