Conscious business and living consciously – doing my bit some of the time…

Everyone is going plastic free, Primark free* and vegan like it's the end of the bloody world. 

I've sporadically made changes in my life to ‘make a difference' but mainly sucked at it. Loads of other people seem to be able to do it. I'd just get to that point where it was too much effort and I couldn't be arsed. I was basically lazy.

I've given up Primark about 5 times. I've thought A LOT about going plastic free. I've pretended to stay in the UK in order to avoid using a plane (but really just been skint). A lot of time and energy (mainly in the form of thought) have gone into achieving very little. 

I gave up caffeine for a year. I'm not entirely sure who that helped.

It's taken me till now to remember I did make a sustainable final collection of womenswear at uni. Go me!

Anyway, I've realised that I want to do good things but I also want to really enjoy life. The great thing is the world and what it has to offer is responding to the inherently selfish nature of people and making it easier and easier to make positive choices at little personal sacrifice.

I just went vegan thanks to all the supermarkets jumping on the bandwagon and introducing loads of yummy vegan alternatives. Other people’s hard work has made it a fun and easy transition for me. My obsession with Instagram helps makes it an exciting adventure.

It has always been important to me that my business would be ethical and sustainable, high quality and customer focused. So I’ve launched Sew Darn Good, a high quality, affordable service, which offers fun and mindful opportunities to learn and create with a sustainable and ethical ethos at its heart.
 
I am not going to sit here and claim that my business is ethical and sustainable in every way, but I can promise that where possible I will incorporate conscious practises.
 
I've been thinking about writing this blog a lot (thank you my old friend, procrastination). I have read a lot of very polished blog's over the years, and I have delayed writing my own while I think up the ‘perfect’ material and do lots of research. But I’ve realised that all I want to do is share thoughts and ideas that are important to me, in a way which is genuine and reflects my reality. 
 
Today I am going to tell you a bit about what I am doing and why, and in subsequent blogs talk about myself even more, what I’m doing to live more consciously and how my business reflects this. I’m going to talk about sewing, crafts, fashion and creativity and their relationship with ethics, sustainability, politics, feminism, mental health, culture, politics and anything else which is piquing my interest at the time. I’ll probably find a way to talk about gardening too (sustainable living, local and seasonal produce, it’ll be seamless) and other activities that I take an interest in. Fancy people might describe it as a lifestyle blog?
 
Me: I am a fashion design graduate, turned teacher, turned hopeful business owner. I spent my childhood and teenage years dreaming of designing and making clothes and becoming supremely successful. I also dreamed of teaching young people and sharing my love of learning.
 
I loved school, I loved doing, I loved having something to show for my time, and I still do.
 
I’ve also always loved doing what I want, when I want, how I want, and of course working for someone else in any context places restrictions on working how you want.
 
Fashion is a very competitive, pretty unkind industry. In order to get anywhere you have to work for free. Ironically one of my internships was for a small ‘ethical’ designer where all of her products were made by unpaid interns. That was the last straw for me.
 
Teaching has become a terribly over worked under valued profession, and due to pressures focused on progress and data most of the fun has been sucked out of it.
 
So here I am, launching Sew Darn Good, an environmentally and socially conscious creative business where I can indulge in my love of being creative and making things, and I can share these passions with others. I can also be my own boss, write my own rules and work the way I know works for me. BOOM. 

*having just watched Stacey Dooley Investigates Fashion's Dirty Secrets maybe people aren't giving up Primark, and aren't as aware of the negative impact of fashion as I thought...