Gorgeous Upcycled Queen Anne Style table from our very talented Ali Dakin - Click here to shop now! I imagine you have heard of recycling, but what is upcycling? It's a trendy word for what people have been doing for centuries - making use of what they have rather than throwing something away and buying a new one. The fashion for buying new things rather than repairing or reusing old ones is a new trend and only really took off in the last 20 years or so. It's part of the reason for the environmental crisis - the burden that constantly producing new stuff places on the earth is extremely high. That's why I started making bags from secondhand fabric...
You may have noticed I have a slight obsession with vintage sewing machines. The old metal ones. You know, the one your nan/mum/great auntie used to have. Funnily enough, although I hear that from pretty much everyone I talk to about my machines I never hear “my grandfather used to have one of those.” That's because sewing machines have traditionally been seen as a woman’s thing and therefore they aren't valued in society as much as a classic car is, for example. I firmly believe that sewing machines are a part of the story of women in recent history and are therefore important. Sewing machines changed the world. The invention of domestic sewing machines meant women, who were expected to...
