This is about the stories you wear, the tales you carry, the ones that are lost and the new ones yet to be told. 

I work with recycled fabric. I collect up all manner of textiles and turn them into something new. I love everything about fabric; colours, patterns and the tactile nature. What I love most is the stories it harbours. 

I collect discarded coffee sacks, table cloths, flour bags, scarves, clothes, jeans, tent canvas, doilies, aprons, tea-towels, pillow slips, wool blankets, sarongs. I cut them up, mix up colours, prints and styles and re-stitch them together into something new. Decades of styles melded together, re-invented with a new purpose.  Every panel of fabric that I use, has a past life. From farm to factory and beyond. 

  

The journey of fabric is incredible.   

Seed - farm – bale -  mill – yarn – dying – spinning – weaving - garment factory - distributor warehouses – wholesalers - major retailer warehouse – store.  And that is just a short version. 

Most people wear clothes and use fabric (towels, bedding, kitchen linen, curtains) without a second thought for the past journey. We look at the “Made In” label  but that is only one of the places the item passed through at some point. The global textile industry is shrouded in secrecy and the lack of transparency, leaves consumers left to wonder.   The point of purchase is the start of the story for a consumer.  From there, the next part is up to them.  Once you have finished with it, depending on what you do with it, it can continue to travel yet again.   

By the time I find my fabrics (some of which have been in circulations for decades) the stories and journey is long lost. I can daydream but I will never really know.    

I love this mystery. The richness of life lived. 

Lining up fabrics on the cutting board in my studio, I think about all the countries it has seen. All the hands that have touched it at some point in their lives. Some without a second thought as it passed through the supply chain but other hands took it along with them.  Who knows, you may have been one of them. The T-shirt you bought on an over-seas holiday, your favourite denim jeans cherished till they fell apart, table clothes that shared family dinners, curtains hanging in your grandmothers house, the scarf you received for Christmas, the coffee sack that held the beans for your morning espresso. 

Textiles form an integral part of our daily lives. 

  

Stitched into the panels of my creations is a thousand untold stories.   

If a single bag of mine, with all the different recycled fabrics stitched together could share it's tales, it would be incredible. Parts would be gut wrenchingly sad and others full of love. 

But there it is, sitting in my studio, about to go out in the big wide world again. Humble, small, a survivor. You can add me to the list of hands that have touched it, loved it and appreciated it. I always hope that I am just another part of an even longer journey, that my creations will continue on, be cherished and even re-invented.

Until next time, 

xx Isabella