It was time to go green with my existing clothes. I had already covered some advice regarding eco-friendly wardrobe and sustainable clothing ideas outlined by Stef McDonald in the Earth Day blog. This was during the week when I focused on greener laundry. Yet there was definitely room for further improvement.
Part of my going green policy is regularly to pat myself on the back for the actions I do already. As to being environmentally friendly with my existing wardrobe, lately I have been practicing what Big Green Purse blog calls: “making every day casual day.” I have never been much into wearing dressy suits and business attire that needs dry-cleaning. Yet recently I have worn items that are difficult to clean even less than before. I have to admit, though, that working mostly from home makes it easier 
Take care of your footwear
Maria Denardo lists taking care of your footwear as one of her 11 tips for eco-friendly wardrobe. I have always tried to fix my shoes as much as I can before ditching them. I visit professional cobblers regularly for repairing heels or their protective covers. Even now, these beautiful shoes that I bought about 10 years ago and that are presented on one of the featured photos, are being repaired at a cobbler nearby. The protective covers needed some help:
I also like that cobblers can extend your shoes. It has happened that I buy a pair and they are a bit tight, so I ask cobblers to extend them under pressure.
Moreover, I have to admit that I have also been creative with my kids’ shoes –my older one, especially, gets the tips of his shoes scratched often, and I use waterproof markers to cover the spots
Eco-friendly wardrobe: mend clothes
This is what I grew up with, seeing my mom and grannies repairing everything they could. They even went a step further – they sewed or knitted many clothes for us and themselves as well. Certainly, this was at least partially shaped by the extremely limited choice of items we had to choose from in the Soviet Union.
Yet I have not been so good at mending clothes. I often put the items with holes aside to repair later, but this “later” never came. And I was feeling eco-guilt because of ditching many clothes that could have been saved. My three musketeers are very talented at tearing their jeans at the knees. Lately I patched about 10 pairs of jeans instead of sending them to clothes recycling container. I discuss more about what to do with torn fabrics in France in my blog post on better recycling.
I learned the hard way that iron-on patches need to be rather large, as otherwise they do not really stick very well. Yet when I use larger patches, with help from the iron to re-attach some corners, it does prolong the life of jeans quite a bit. I also needed to face some shame, as when I was a teenager, I thought patched knees were “not cool,” and I realized that some of this left-over thinking needed to be weeded out. The patches are cool, as they help our beautiful Earth!
My middle son was also creative with his jacket and drew quite a bit on it, thinking (I guess) that it would go away in the laundry. It did not, so we agreed to decorate his jacket as well as some trousers with many superheroes:
Unfortunately, again, some of these iron-on patches did not really stick well. So I learned to stitch them in some places as well to keep them well attached. Starting to mend clothes was one of the most important steps towards creating my eco-friendly wardrobe.
Plan a clothes-swapping get-together
The moment I read about this idea, I loved it and wanted to try out. Stef McDonald suggests this as one of her eco-friendly wardrobe and sustainable clothing idea and emphasises that it is fun. I have to totally agree with her. I did it with some friends last Sunday in a central cafe in Geneva, and it was a lot of fun! We each went one by one presenting our clothes and telling a little story about how we got them, etc. For instance, among other things, I got this beautiful red jacket that I wear on one of the featured photos.
I am already looking forward to participating in a swap like this again!
Sell your unwanted clothes online
This is another great way to turn around used clothes and create a eco-friendly wardrobe: Perrie Samotin has written a practical short guide to reselling clothes online. For those in Switzerland, a good friend suggested www.videdressing.com and www.myprivateboutique.ch.
I had never tried selling my clothes online, but decided to do so with some baby clothes that I have. Living in France, I decided to use www.leboincoin.fr where you can sell various things, not only clothes. I decided to start with selling these baby snow shoes (that my son Rick only wore twice) for 3 euros. Let’s see if somebody is interested.
Use old worn sheets or T-shirts for cleaning rags
This is also on Stef McDonald’s list of eco-friendly wardrobe suggestions, as well as a habit I picked up while I was growing up. I kept doing it until I had a family and needed help with cleaning. The professional cleaning ladies asked for microfibre specific tissues, so my recycled cleaning rags were abandoned. Now I decided to make one for me and to talk with my cleaning lady next time to see what she thinks of the idea of using recycled rags.
Remodel the clothes
Green Prophet recommends making new things out of our existing clothes. For instance, one can replace the buttons of a jacket to create a new look. I had not yet tried this out, but I was recently faced with my son’s worn-out trousers, which I considered too damaged to even put knee patches on!
While I was talking with my mom, she asked: why not make these trousers into shorts?! The moment she suggested it, I knew this is what I would do, and the end result is here:
Some other ideas that I read about were turning T-shirts into sleeveless shirts or even into bags. To be tested out!
Ex-boyfriend test
Emma Spedding suggests asking yourself each time you want to buy a new clothing item: “Would you want to run into an ex in the garment? Would you feel confident and assured and good about yourself? If not, don’t buy it.” I think this test could also be used when you go through your existing wardrobe in order to look for things to swap, donate, or sell. I think if you cannot respond yes to the “ex-boyfriend question,” maybe it is time to let this item go. I went through just a part of my now more eco-friendly wardrobe asking myself this question and got a bag of things to pass to others Try it out!
Wash clothes less frequently and re-wear them again
Washing clothing less frequently is on the Big Green Purse list of earth-friendly actions, as less cleaning prolongs the clothing’s lifespan in addition to saving water and energy. Elizabeth Segran dedicates a full article to emerging wash-less trends. Now, I only wash clothes when they are really dirty and smelly.
Somebody once told me that as a woman, one should not wear the same clothes two days in row, particularly in a workplace. Somebody else told me that if you wear the same clothes again the next day, people think you never made it home last night and spent it with somebody that you had not planned
The sustainable style and mindful living blog Uncomplicated Spaces provides photos illustrating how one can wear the same clothes for a week and have a different look each day. I also love that this blog post provides tips for caring for your clothes. For instance, quoting the article:
– hang your clothing after each wear so that they can air out. Don’t throw them into a pile on your closet floor. You also get the added bonus of having a cleaner closet!
– steam any clothing that needs a refresh. This will make your clothes feel fresh and has the added bonus of killing any germs.
– protect clothing when doing activities where they can easily get dirty, such as cooking.
– change out of your day clothes when you get home at the end of each day. This will give them more time to air out and reduce the chance of getting something on them as you putter around the house.
These are pretty simple and common-sense, but I have to confess that I have not been rigorous enough about preventing my clothes from getting dirty.
I love it. Thanks to you, I realize, that my clothing habits are quite eco friendly since we have about all the habits you’re talking about. I haven’t done the clothes-swapping but are looking forward to experience it soon. When my daughters were little, they used my husbands old shirts when painting and doing crafts (bricolage). I use old socks, to stuff our dried lavender. It goes straight into our wardrobe to prevent from moths and for good odor. Basically no peace of clothing is ever thrown away. Old bath towels, the ones we put our hand inside, I use to put color on our shoes and to make them shine. When the girls were little, I used one of their old jeans to cut pieces which I would sew on the trousers that could still be worn. That way I didn’t have to bey patches.
Thank you for your comment Maya and your great tips! I will try out using the old socks to stuff lavender – love this idea! And I think I will also in the future use old jeans to patch my kids trousers as I see more and more that the iron-on patches seem very easily to detach.