Pants on Fire
Textiles are all around us. We live in them, sleep on them, sit on them, walk on them, live in houses filled with them. It’s one of the biggest industries in the world. But it’s also one with a big problem and, at least for consumers in the United States, a largely invisible one - textile waste. Today, we’re tearing the very shirt off your back to explore the old is new approach to textiles that could eliminate millions of tons of garbage a year.
And hey, while you’re here… maybe you want to donate to the show and get some amazing Outside/In gear? Yeah? Yeah. All the deets are here.
When you’re a home sewer, you have the time to be economical about how you place and cut pattern pieces. But even so, you still end up with a lot of scraps. Zero waste design aims to make clothes that produce little to no waste. There’s no one way to do it. Some people like Timo Risannen try to design clothing that use a whole piece of fabric. If you’re used to making clothes from standard sewing patterns, these zero waste patterns can be a challenge to decipher.
a look inside just one of the bins of scraps
Timo Risannen’s endurance shirt and leggings patterns.
Outside/In was produced this week by:
Outside/In was produced this week by Erika Janik and Sam Evans-Brown with help from Taylor Quimby, Justine Paradis, and Jimmy Gutierrez.
Special thanks to Elizabeth Cline, Rachel Faller, and Timo Risannen.
Music from this week’s episode came from Blue Dot Sessions.
Our theme music is by Breakmaster Cylinder.
If you’ve got a question for our Ask Sam hotline, give us a call! We’re always looking for rabbit holes to dive down into. Leave us a voicemail at: 1-844-GO-OTTER (844-466-8837). Don’t forget to leave a number so we can call you back.
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