About

Hi! I’m Vic, I was also known as Sewstainability for five years before pivoting and changing the blog to Making & Books. Why the change? Partly because I didn’t feel like my increase in knitting worked well under the title of ‘Sewstainability’ and partly to celebrate my return to enthusing about books!

Making

I sew to create clothes that actually fit and I try to factor in environmental issues while I do. I try to be mindful of keeping my sewing sustainable but I have also found that the clothes that get most wear are the ones I’m head over heels in love with! My brand of sustainable sewing focuses on longevity – making special garments that will last many many wears and making sure I use up every scrap in the process. Sometimes that means using new fabrics sometimes that means refashioning or shopping secondhand, I hope to find a good balance that I am comfortable with. I try to sew with scraps and natural materials and inspire others to do the same but I am in no way perfect! I hope we can all inspire each other, even small changes to the way we sew can make a difference! I also learned to knit about three years ago and document all of my knitted makes here too

& Books

As a child I always had my nose in a book, I was happiest whilst reading and read everything I could. At the age of 10 I had read everything on the school bookshelves and my Year 6 English Teacher brought me his personal copy of The Hobbit to read. I devoured it and began a lifelong obsession with Fantasy books and Tolkein in general. After finishing school I chose to study English Literature at University and spent three glorious years learning so much more about books. Three years wasn’t enough and I chose to stay for one more year studying for a Masters in Medieval to Early Modern Literature. After I left uni I got a very sensible corporate job, the days were long and taxing and I had left uni with this intense guilt that there are still so many ‘classics’ that I have not yet read. This meant that I felt like if I was reading, I should be working my way through more classic literature, it was hard going and after a long day at work I didn’t want to read Thomas Hardy or George Eliot so I basically stopped reading for almost a decade. Fast forward to 2018 when I joined my local library and started reading YA fantasy as a little bit of light relief, that year I managed to read 17 books as I was overjoyed that my enthusiasm for reading had returned. That enthusiasm has only grown more each year and I am so excited to finally make books a part of my blog!

I use my blog to raise awareness for issues that I am passionate about, such as garment workers’ rights, sustainability, and climate justice. The reason I started Sewstainability was to normalise crafting with used/secondhand or repurposed materials in order to make crafting more accessible for those on a low income, and also raising awareness of the climate emergency.

Please give my blog a follow either on here or on Bloglovin’. I would love for you to join me on this journey towards being a little bit more sustainable in my crafting!