Sewing and Activism

It has taken me a long time to sit down and begin to write this blog. Partially because, I did not know if I should, if I did would anyone be interested in my thoughts, would I unintentionally offend or hurt anyone, etc, etc these thoughts have reverberated in my thoughts for many weeks. Should I ignore the world on fire, should I ignore the debates, the cancellations, the formation of new communities where politics and sewing have formed an active collective, and carry on in my little bit of the internet doing my thing, making jokes and being unoffensive to anyone. It felt wrong to me not to at least address BLM, social, gender, world politics and the craft community as a voice in those conversations. However, just because you have thinking about something, that doesnt mean that you should splurge your brain onto the internet and add to the wall of noise, hence my hesitation. Eventually I thought "Fuck It", this is my space, my voice, its not much, but its mine and this important to me. I am not going to focus, specifically, BLM as the main subject as I would not class myself as an appropriate authority to add anything of significant value when many others are far more qualified and it could have become a gratuitous outpouring of privilege and guilt, which serves no purpose. BLM was the catalyst for me to write this blog, but it is not going to be the sole subject. We are going to pause here for a quick out pouring and then I'll crack on with the analysis in a more objective manner.

A few weeks ago, I was reading some of the comments on Closet Case Patterns announcement on their plan to be more inclusive and one of the cockwombles commenters on there said that this was a trend, that this hobby was separate to world politics and we should all "drink our chardonnay and go back to our house full of dogs". This comment, well, pissed me off. I don't drink and I would love a dog, Karen, but, alas, my boyfriend says no. Does that mean I get to have an opinion now and chose where I spend my sewing dollar? It was about 5-6 weeks ago and it still fills me with a rage so white-hot I fear I'm getting an ulcer. Although, not overtly racist it has air of "fuck all of you snowflakes" about it. That post's comments was so filled with toxicity and It did not feel right for me to add to that at the time, to feed what she, and others, were clearly spoiling for. It goes without saying that, for me, we should all support the various civil rights movements (racial, social and LGBTQIA movements) because its right. That is not a complex idea. Such movements should not have to exist at all. Its mind blowing to me that we can understand the intricacies of the atom, but, as a race, we commit physical and societal violence because of money, melatonin, love and attraction, or concepts of identity. That sends us all back to flossing our teeth with our own arse hair. OK, rant over.

I do want to address something very specific today: why crafting and activism is linked and why the existence of protest is good for the community as a whole. I believe that the very act of sewing, in the western world, at least, is an expression of self, of beliefs and, yes, politics too.

Why is this <less of a piece of art than the below?

Our resident "Karen" claims that sewing is just a hobby and has nothing to do with politics. She may even well argue that embroidery is art form and, therefore, different and garment sewing protest is silly.

"Its a hobby"

Yes. For you, "Karen". My yearly spend on my hobby is a significant part of my disposable income and I know its part of many people's too. That means, that beyond it being a hobby for us, it is an industry. A pretty significant industry with many facets to it. That money doesn't drop off a cliff where, it lands in one giant monopoly; it goes somewhere, trickling down like grains of sand. Millions and millions, drip, drip. As an aside, I found it interesting that every time I googled one of the brands of the 'big four' companies a male executive popped up....

We have spend power. We can hold these companies accountable and so we should. If it was anything else in our consumer chain such as food, petrol, etc, etc the media, occasionally, spotlights these issues and asks the big boys for accountability. I did google each of the sewing pattern companies by the way to try and find employee disputes and I didn't find any. As sewing is classed as frivolous and fun it would be easy for bad practices to continue and fly under our collective radar as there is no to little sexiness in a sewing expose. As a aside, the deconstructed nature of home sewing also contributes to this. As such it is difficult for the community to hold these companies accountable for business practices and its shrouded in a cosy mist. By, extension, this critique should apply at every part of the supply chain. For instance, the paper the patterns are printed on, are materials sourced in a responsible and sustainable way way, were indigenous peoples harmed in pursuit of the paper, what is the carbon footprint, the models on the front of the cover do they represent a certain story or bias towards certain body shapes or cultural appropriation. So when they marginalise members our community, such as plus sized members (remember that CCS protest which so many of us have benefited from, that came from protest) and their customers, and their employees, it hurts them and it hurts us. Nor, just because we do not hear of biases or mistreatment, that does not mean that it does not exist. This is why Mimi G's statement on Simplicities silence on BLM was so significant and their silence so deafening. Were they afraid of bad publicity, did they have things in the closet to hide? Probably not, but its an interesting thought. I have mused about the silence of the sewing machine companies too and I can only assume that they chose silence in preference to asking uncomfortable questions about their role in supplying machines that are used in clothing sweatshops.

Out of shear nosiness, I was curious about the value of the pattern industry and its pretty interesting.

"CSS Industries, the company that owns the Big 4 sewing pattern brands (Simplicity, McCall’s, Vogue, and Butterick) has announced that it is being acquired by Design Group, a UK-based company specializing in gift wrap, greeting cards, bags, and creative play products. Design Group paid $9.40 per share in an all cash transaction valued at approximately $88 million."

McCalls - Annual Revenue is $10.4M and employees 105 people (Source: Owler)

Simplicity - Annual Revenue is $75 Million (Source: and employees 186 (Source: Zoom Info)

Vogue - Annual Revenue

On the indie side, the massive name of such of the indie company Tilly and the Buttons, in comparison, that revenue is estimated as £1.2M (Source: Owler) and 40 employees

It is worth noting that Tilly and the Buttons has seemed to always focus on diverisity as an marketable image. She picks members of the community of different shapes, religion and community is at the heart of the marketing strategy. Its such a shame that the size range is so limited because she is doing everything else to show the big boys how it is done in today's market. I would be remise if I left our Ellie and Mac too. That brag page is amazing and super diverse!

Materials

https://www.theworldcounts.com/challenges/consumption/clothing/world-cotton-production-statistics

"27 million tons of cotton are produced a year. The same as 27 t-shirts for everyone on Earth. But the consumption of cotton varies a lot. Some Western countries use an amount of cotton that would correspond to more than 100 t-shirts per person per year.

Most of our clothes are made from conventionally produced cotton that use massive amounts of pesticides and freshwater. On top of that, the use of child labor and slaveryis widespread in the industry."

I'll just leave that statement there. It stands on its own really. That is just cotton, often grown in the most improvised regions on earth. Just envision the environmental impact on the local community or the fact this does not touch the micro plastics that flood the market and environment in the fast fashion craze. When you sew, you get to chose. You get to chose to remove exploitation from your garment, you get to chose the price and quality of the material and you get to chose your supplier and their ethical and environmental stance. Personally, this is something I am super bad at and I really need to source better sourced materials. I have always been afraid to use these more expensive materials personally but maybe I shouldn't be. Maybe that will be my stance going forward.

Frankly, this blog could go on and on and on. I could talk about the historical cultural significance of oppression of lack of pockets for women, the myth of the bra burning feminist, the history of drag/costumes and or a hundred other avenues of discussion. Clothes and the production of clothes is actually a huge societal issue filled with avenues of discussion. The fact is that sewing puts power in our hands to chose and that comes with as much politics or as little politics as you chose to have or engage yourself in. But make no mistake, by removing the production of a garment out of modern slavery or choosing your identity through your clothes to either subvert or conform you are making a deliberate choice. Do not slam those who chose to question, to hold companies that take our money for accountability and if you don't like that stance, Karen, then you can kiss my arse.