In the lead up to the upcoming #stitchitdontditchit mending action outside H & M on 14 September from 12-2 pm (see previous post), Extinction Rebellion SA are running a virtual mending circle online: Friday 3 September 7-8.30 ACST; 7.30-9.00 AEST.
Folks who planned to join this action in Melbourne, are in lockdown right now. So this event is part regenerative mending and socialising opportunity, part lockdown love and solidarity. Bring your mending/craft, bring your beverage of choice and find out about #stitchitdontditchit. Mending help will also be available! All ages, all genders, all levels of mending skill welcome.
If that sounds like fun, send me a message and I’ll send you the login details for the Zoom call. It will be fun!
Greetings, dear friends. I hope that you are able to keep sight of all that is good in your life and in the world, at this time of suffering for so many.
This is a little date claimer for folks who are local to me. Covid restrictions permitting, we will be gathering in Rundle Mall outside H & M (the second biggest producer of clothing in the world), for some socially distanced public mending on 14 September.
Image: The leg of a mended pair of jeans, on a beautiful coloured rug.
In 2018, the average person in the USA bought 68 items of clothing every year. As long ago as 2015, a British study found that the average garment in that country would be worn 7 times before being thrown away. The sheer volume of textile waste is overwhelming: “Australians discard an average of 31 kilos of textiles per person annually, at a national rate of 15 tonnes of textile waste every ten minutes” according to the Federal government.
There is so much to be concerned about in the story of fast fashion: the conditions and pay of garment workers range from exploitative to lethal. The environmental impact of textile waste (without even discussing manufacture) are offloaded from countries like Australia onto countries with much less wealth. For example: there was a recent Foreign Correspondent episode about the toxic outcomes of Australian textile waste in Ghana.
The extremely awesome Sweet Honey in the Rock were raising the consciousness of folks such as myself on these issues, back in the 1980s, in song. Check it out!
Image: A gardening glove in need of a mend, photographed on the blue lid of a rubbish bin.
And of course, every kind of waste impacts on the climate crisis. Fossil fuels are embodied in many synthetic fibres–which one of my friends has long called “petrochemical by-product” and which I now refer to in my own rude way as “plastic s***”. Energy is required to grow and process or manufacture the fibres from which clothing is made. Energy is required to turn the fibres into cloth and to make buttons, zippers and such. More is required to turn them into clothing. The energy involved in the transportation of raw fibres, and then cloth, and then clothing, and then textile waste–it all adds up, and especially when each step is done in a different part of the world. And of course, this is only a partial accounting of the costs of our clothing. If you want to know more about the climate cost of fast fashion, I recommend the Climate Council’s explainer.
Image: Well worn, stained old jeans being mended yet again.
And so, to mending! And mending in public. I doubt you need an explanation of the connection, if you are reading this blog. If you are able to join us, please do come along to #stitchitdontditchit in Rundle Mall on 14 September. We will be there from 12-2. Come along, bring a folding chair if you can (and a spare one if you can). This event will be Covid compliant, so bring your mask and wear it, check in when you arrive and we warmly welcome you. Bring your mending. Someone will help you, if you are a beginner. All ages, genders, and skill levels are welcome. We will be participating in a global event. If you are on Instagram, you can follow @streetstitching and/or #stitchitdontditchit. You can follow me as well if you like! @localandbespoke.
Image: A person mending in Rundle Mall, seated on a folding chair with a #stitchitdontditchit banner hanging from the back of the chair.
Dear and patient readers, this is a message for those of you who live locally.
Next week I will be running a Mending Circle at Fabrik, on August 19, from 1-4. Fabrik is a glorious arts space in the heritage buildings where the famous Onkaparinga wool blankets were once made. This event will be a chance to hang out and hand mend in fine company. You can learn new skills, share your existing skills, and revel in the joy of extending the life of your favourite items. I’d love to see you there if you are able to come. You can book a ticket here.
It doesn’t matter whether you want to learn to darn a sock (or the elbow of your jumper); or how to extend the life of a collar that has work through on your shirt that has worn into holes (as above)… we can work through a variety of techniques. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a skilled mender who has a big pile and would really like company; or a beginner who really wants some assistance. Both will be on offer. Everyone can go at their own pace. The fine folks at Fabrik are creating a lovely environment for us and I’ll be bringing mending kits for you to take home, each in its own little tin or box, and each containing upcycled treasures from those who have gone before us (and left their button collections and excess embroidery floss as evidence)!You can try visible or not-so-visible methods (and enjoy seeing other folks choose the other path).
By all means bring your fine merino knits. Or your jeans. A singlet. Or a slipper. Even your gardening gloves. Do bring anything you think might help your treasures come back into use (patching, leftover wool, needles, thread or a button that matches). Now more than ever is a good time to extend the life of the things you own and use, and prevent them going to waste. And besides, it will be a joy. I’ll bring examples of my mending, good and bad, simple + functional or whimsical + time consuming. All mending is good mending in my book. I’d love to see you there.
There has been quite a bit of sedge planting. These are going into the banks of the local creek, Willa Willa. Here, the day myself and a friend planted what you can see in my bike trailer, as well as the sedges my friend had propagated. We were joined by a local person who came across us guerilla gardening on his bike route, and stopped for a chat. He was keen to join us, so we got in touch and he came over to plant and weed.
On another day, I went to the same spot with my daughter and granddaughter. They brought a picnic and I brought along a bee motel in process and some more sedges to plant.
Here is my load heading out. I also had parcels for the grandbub to open! The hat, and a jumper that’s about to pop out of that package… This was a moment when I realised that I was wearing #memendedMay but she was wearing #memadeMay (pants, jumper and hat all made by yours truly).
Anyway… we found bamboo and other plants suitable for the bee motel. My daughter and I pulled rubbish from the creek. And the grandbub and I planted the sedges with glee.
Eventually the fun was over and I headed home again.
Here are my before and after pictures of another trip over to plant… and litter pick.
I’m happy to say that a lot of the sedges we planted last year are still there. Some are now a decent size, and others are established enough not to be washed away should winter bring us more rain. It’s promising.
This year has been a lifetime peak in terms of preserving, fermenting and such. I’ve been brewing ginger beer all through spring and summer, and it is still going now, at the start of our winter. That’s my second starter, since given away on the Buy Nothing group.
I made mint jelly. I didn’t know it was really apple jelly + mint (nor did my mother, who used to make her own mint sauce)! Here it is before the mint was added.
Bread and butter pickles (pickled cucumbers and onion with dill and mustard seeds). This is a new one on me but I must say I like it! I’ve made sauerkraut and something that gestures toward Kim chi as well.
I dried my own prunes! (some of them were crunchy due to inexperience). I also dried sliced red plums, which I’ve been adding to porridge.
I had a gift of local big, fat olives. I’ve never preserved these before, but now that I make olive and rosemary bread above all others, we use a lot of olives, so why not? I have kilograms in brine at this stage…
While we were collecting leaves in the street (for mulch and compost, both of which required explanation to disbelieving neighbours) I asked the crabapple tree owner if he wanted the fruit from his tree. There were not enough for a lot of crabapple jelly, but certainly enough for me to want to make it again! And all this, after the passata making, the apple and pear preserving, and the jam and marmalade making. Too good. It is amazing to have so much delicious food coming our way.
My beloved ran in the Mothers’ Day Classic fun run this year. It’s a fundraising run for breast cancer research, which is great. However, as with many such events we have participated in, it comes with a lot of marketing merchandise. We are not fans of acquiring stuff we don’t want or need. So at an in person event, we have become quite good at bringing anything we need with us, so that if it’s on offer in a wasteful way (like water that comes in zillions of plastic cups) we bring our own. And we are better and better at saying “No Thanks!” to offers of merch. Under pandemic conditions though, all this came in the mail with no way to turn it down! What to do? I first trued offering it on our local Buy Nothing group. No interest at all. Then, I gave the backpack to a friend who swims a lot. Perfect for the pool. The ribbon/sash went to a kindergarten teacher. Anything capable of being recycled, to the right bin. Then I turned the scarf into four hankies. The best I could do. At least it’s cotton!
Three cheers for the roll hemming foot, and the return of the humble hanky.
It has come to my attention that I have a lot of readers in my home town. Darlings, this is a special message for all of you. Some fine folks in England have begun having street mending actions under the hashtag #stitchitdontditchit. Not to be confused with the punk mending phenomenon known as @dontditchitstitchit (still mending, quite different, also awesome, and perhaps the originator of both hashtags? Hard to know on the internets).
#stitchitdontditchit folks are holding socially distanced street mending events across England and beyond on 15 June. Let’s join in! I’ll be outside H & M in Rundle Mall at 1 pm on 15 June with my folding chair, a sign that says #stitchitdontditchit and a friend or two or three, and my mending. Maybe you will make it four! Come and mend, come and hang out, learn how to sew on a button–please yourself!
I suspect the folks who read this blog don’t need to have the connections between fast fashion and the climate crisis explained to them. But in case you know anyone who does, the Climate Council has written a great Explainer. And even Wikipedia says that H & M is the second biggest clothing manufacturer in the universe (behind one that does not yet have an outlet in our town, that I know of). So, see you there if you can and want to. It will be fun!
The grandbub is not a bub anymore. Her outdoor lifestyle and high level of energy continue, and mix and clash styling is in the genes!! The very fine and extremely generous Marion from Beautiful Silks sent another Moko Trews for me to assemble, so these have been added to the wardrobe!
Then there was the matter of the hat. I could not resist these zebra finches and a very nicely matching wattle print when I was accompanying a friend to the fabric shop (ahem).
There is no doubt that there is a lot of faffing in making a hat! This one has a heavy duty drill layer of leftovers from overall construction inside. The pattern is from Justine Online.
I may even have done a better job of following the instructions this time! It never fails to amaze me, to attempt a pattern and come across an entire section of the pattern I skipped over or missed completely…
I am just so happy with the outcome!
The “koala hat” in the first picture has gone out into the universe seeking independent adventures (AKA “lost”), so just as well I made a new one!
The last month or so has been peak seed collection time for me. I’ve been wandering the neighbourhood saving seeds from council plantings and from previous generations of my own guerilla gardening. There are a lot of different salt bushes–this one I still have not been able to identify, but it is certainly thriving in our suburb.
Here are three successive years of planting in the same patch, the most recent one planted in the last few months. Just in case you wonder whether anything lives–it sure does! The second year plants are fruiting (see below left), but the much bigger third year bushes are not. Intriguing! I am not sure what specific saltbush this one is. Below, from top left, unidentified saltbush (feel free to help me out if you can), two images of bulbine lily (bulbine bulbosa), which has begun to self sow! Ruby saltbush (enchylaena tomentosa), ruby saltbush again (but with orange berries), blue bush (maireana brevifolia, I think), and bladder saltbush (atriplex vesicaria)
These seeds will mostly be dried and saved for propagation and guerilla planting in Spring. But I have also been direct sowing some, and have planted others that might sprout now. Seeds are the best form of magic ever.
So, I invested in some sock yarn a while back. It’s Onion nettle sock yarn, a blend of wool and nettle fibre, available in Australia through Say! Little Hen. It’s a totally plausible #tuffsock blend, though it is imported from Europe, so the fibre miles on this yarn, where I live, in Australia–are considerable. The colours are lovely and the yarn is soft and lovely to knit. These socks are my customary “whimsical cable”, knit to the length of the recipient’s foot. Here I am, knitting on them outside the watch house after some of my friends had been arrested doing civil disobedience at the head office of SANTOS. If you’d like to know, in brief, why we do this: this article summarises some of the reasons for people’s current opposition to SANTOS. As climate activists, we understand burning fossil fuels as a key driver of the climate crisis. I was waiting for the police to release my friends for many hours, so it was good to have a sock as one of my companions!
This pair eventually went to a fellow rebel and friend, who sent me a lovely photo of her feet snugly clad in wool and nettle fibre, in a skirt she’d made!
Sad to report, the nettles I harvested at another friend’s house a while back, I have finally abandoned. I failed to ret them successfully, and I have also read a dependable source (from Europe) whose assessment of the minimum size of nettles that it is worth processing is, well, more than twice the size of those I can usually find. When I was in Europe a couple of years ago and did a lot of walking, I could not help but notice that nettles were often growing by rivers and creeks. By this, I mean to imply that even by European standards, in parts of Europe with rivers and creeks that run all year round… they were well watered. I live in a very dry place and nettles are not growing wild by creeks where I live. Nor are soils here rich. So it may be I won’t be creating nettle blends from local blends, ever!
Local & Bespoke 