When considering the future of sewing in the home, the question is often asked: does home sewing have a future in the first place? After all, sewing clothes at home was once considered a basic and practical skill but it started to lose favour as more mums went out to work and had less time for such tasks. At the same time, the price of clothing was falling fast. So, why sew when you could outfit your family cheaper and faster than ever before?

Thankfully, this lull in popularity was relatively short-lived. In the past 10 to 20 years, sewing clothes at home has become more popular than ever. There has been a particular surge among the younger generation, who see making their own clothing as an act of colourful rebellion against what is known as fast fashion.

As the name implies, fast fashion is a design, manufacturing, and marketing method with a focus on producing high volumes of clothing at great speed. Speed is of the essence as fast fashion depends on replicating current trends and bringing them to the marketplace as soon as possible to cash in on that popularity.

There is a downside to fast fashion, and this is where much of the criticism towards it is generated. These cheaply made garments have led to an industry-wide movement where levels of consumption are enormous, particularly of energy and resources. It is calculated that the fashion manufacturing industry is responsible for 10 % of the world’s carbon emissions, while toxic fabric dyes and other chemicals contaminate water bodies, namely rivers, streams and lakes. And when items are mass-produced, cheap labour working for next to nothing in squalid and unsafe conditions is inevitable. Such is the case with fast fashion.

As the ethical shopping movement grows, and the marketplace starts to question where their purchases are coming from, fast fashion is no longer as fashionable as it was. There will always be a market for garments produced this way, but the younger generation, in particular, wants a more sustainable way to dress up. Home sewing appeals as the obvious answer.

There is a genuine trend within home sewing circles towards producing garments as a way of saying a very firm “thanks but no thanks” to fast fashion. And many of those turning their backs on fast fashion and creating their own clothes are also sourcing ethically produced fabrics, now more readily available than ever before.

This New Zealand sewing machine retailer says many of their customers are purchasing home sewing machines for this very reason. The same company also concedes it sells industrial machines to commercial clothes manufacturers, but so stringent are New Zealand’s labour, health & safety and environmental laws, it is very hard to imagine the excesses of fast fashion in this country.

While the movement against fast fashion continues to grow, the trend towards home sewing will continue at the same speed. While one form of fashion goes out of style, it is safe to say that the slower home-based version will become increasingly trendy.