Helen Hats
1. How did you get started with recycled fashion?I have been creating things from recycled found objects and fabrics since I was a child, and after leaving university with my art degree and possessing a strong green ethos I decided to try and make a living from my creations and produced my first batch of hats from recycled fabrics in 1995, which were taken to a festival by a friend of mine and were sold almost immediately! :) I have since developed various styles of hats, sweaters & tops, each one different from the last, and have officially been making my living from selling at festivals, gatherings & biker rallys ever since.
2. Where do you find your materials?
I find my materials at rummage sales, charity shops, from friends & relations, & sometimes buy in bulk from the charity Oxfam.
3. Have you come across any obstacles in finding or using materials to recycle?
Through the years it seems you can never have enough materials! :) However, I have quite an array of collected fabrics ( though never what I need when I want it! :), and a good network of people & places to find more. The only obstacle to using recycled materials is that some are not always compatible with others, but this is a learning curve that becomes second nature through experience and really does'nt present a problem with practice. There should be no obstacles to recycling, its the key to a sustainable future! :)
4. How long have you been selling on Etsy, how do you find it?
I have been selling on Etsy since April 07, and think it is a really great site with good ethics and a vibrant friendly community. I have made some sales, which I am obviously pleased about, and hope to make many more in the future through Etsy. It provides me with a channel to sell my stuff worldwide at a reasonable cost, and I hope the site continues to grow and flourish.
5. Do you have anything you'd like to tell our readers about your creations?
Each of my creations is an individually designed and handmade one-off (I never make two exactly the same!), giving its wearer a unique item of clothing that is personal & special to them, and cannot be imitated by anyone else. Please feel free to become part of the Helen Hats phenomenon at any time, you can be assured of fast friendly service at all times, but beware it can become addictive! :):)
Dismantled
1. How did you get started with recycled fashion?I first started sewing during high school. I did a lot of community theatre and me and my mom would make my costumes for the plays I was in. I started experimenting with sewing, piecing together old jeans with the bottom of a vintage dress, trying to create something new out of clothes I didn't wear anymore. I also did a lot of thifting, which gave me plenty of materials to work with.
2. Where do you find your materials?
Old clothes come from thrift stores or friends. I haven't done too much thrifting since Hurricane Katrina though, since a lot of the thrift stores here in New Orleans are still closed and there's just not as much selection since so much stuff was destroyed.
I also scour the remnants section every time I have to stop by the fabric store for supplies. I hardly ever buy new fabric by the yard, but I'll often grab the remnant bits that are left over. These small bits of material are perfect for what I do.
3. Have you come across any obstacles in finding or using materials to recycle? Other than the current lack of thrifting in my area? The main problem I find is that my stockpile of fabric scraps and old clothes continues to grow and grow and I just can't find the time to get through it all. Plus, the more I get into recycling, the more I want to make, and the more I want to try to salvage. So lately I've moved past simply hoarding fabric for future recycling... I've also been collecting cereal boxes, bottlecaps and all sorts of stuff for different projects I have in mind. I'm afraid I'm going to end up smothered by all these materials before I ever have a chance to use them all!
4. How long have you been selling on Etsy, how do you find it?
I first found Etsy and registered only a few weeks after they launched two years ago. I think I saw it mentioned on a crafty message board I frequented. I'm very proud to be such an early adopter...my user id number is 541! I didn't start selling right away though, and then only a couple of months after Etsy launched, Hurricane Katrina hit, so then crafting wasn't on the top of my priority list for awhile. I actually didn't start listing items for sale until September 2006.
Mi Scusi
1. How did you get started with recycled fashion?I've been altering and refashioning my own clothes ever since my grandmother taught me how to sew. I'm a cheapskate by nature and I also hate being wasteful, so buying new materials simply doesn't make sense to me. When I recycle materials, not only am I able to create something new and wonderful from something that has been discarded, I get to use awesome, totally unique vintage fabrics!
2. Where do you find your materials?
Thrift and surplus stores, mostly. Sometimes I put ads on free advertising forums like Craigslist asking for unwanted fabric and yarn, and people are more than happy to empty out their attics for me! My friends know about what I do, so they sometimes give me their old clothes to work with.
3. Have you come across any obstacles in finding or using materials to recycle?
No way! I've realized just how much clothing is out there already, waiting to be found! It's sad to think about how much gets taken to landfills because it's been deemed too old or too weird to sell at thrift stores. Old things are the best!
4. How long have you been selling on Etsy, how do you find it?
I've been selling since October 2006. I kept seeing the name while perusing craft blogs (a dangerous time vacuum that can consume entire evenings!) and finally got curious. I'm in love with Etsy; it's really a perfect forum for creativity and diy ethics, and the creators are awesome in that they don't charge an arm and a leg to use it. I get so inspired browsing things made by people all over the world, thinking about them awake late at night in their little rooms making things!
5. Do you have anything you'd like to tell our readers about your creations?
Hey, I wanna meet you, I wanna be friends or at least penpals, let's trade some things we made out of things someone else threw away. Keep your eyez peeled for my collaboration with my partner, Stefano, entitled MAGA NERA. Un bacio e buona giornata!
ruffeoheartslisnoty
1. How did you get started with recycled fashion?Olympia Washington and Houston Texas. "Nameless", aka "Ruffeo" aka Mackswell Sherman was in Olympia stenciling and altering freebox t shirts to sell at Experimental rap shows while at the same time Lil' Snotty aka Sarah Jones was in Houston playing with spraypaint and needles and thread and doing pretty much the same thing. Later they were to meet and sprout genius from their brains and love// combining into one gigantic robot.
2. Where do you find your materials?
I aint tellin. Naw, we find shit. mostly we hit dollar day at goodwill and value village and ROB THEM of all the hoodies marked a buck for the day. Plus we find bolts of fabric at the thrifstores in the industrial district of Seattle where we have our shop. We dig like little gophers. We went out to Burien or some crazy ass shit of an accident town to meet Ed the other day. He had mountains of computer monitors, refrigerators, TVs, but mostly stinking piles of garbage. Fortunatly he had his fabric stash protected from his post apocalyptic trash hole. Nice stuff, had to bargain. See we're raw as meat, we don't give a fuck, we're all about countering the excessive fabric manufacturing of this here industry.
3. Have you come across any obstacles in finding or using materials to recycle?
Nope. You just gots to have a mind that melds. Learn from what the materials or garments are telling you. Be the fannypack. you are the sport coat.
4. How long have you been selling on Etsy, how do you find it?
Been representing hard for etsy one year and a half. The community was really supportive from the start, got an awesome reaction from other sellers and buyers, next thing we knew we were featured for a week, hotdiggydamn.
5. Do you have anything you'd like to tell our readers about your creations?
Who the fuck is Ruffeo Hearts Lil Snotty? Sweet and toothey, knawed down to the bone for ultimate magestica. Blood free, Hatin' Free. All made right hur in the northwest from strait up nothing but salvaged and used goods. Do you appreciate designer tender care? One of a kind beautiful innovative hoodies untouched by the world round? We invent shit when we throw down on a design. Okay we make a couple standard dresses but pretty much everything else features never before seen innovations to the idea of clothing. We are crumping and clowning in the face of generic shitty 'streetwear' that is manufactured in China and makes people look saggy socks. 206! NAMELESS NAMELESS, ignostic, mixin dixon, sitty bird, empire empire, take off your clothes, cubist literature, you are aware of what time it is.
