Saving the world one pair of underpants, socks, trousers, shirt, vest, jumper…

Part 2

Homemade Underwear

Being born a child of romantic and ideological tendencies, I have learned as an adult, to develop a great distrust for romance and ideology, educating myself away from this into a corner of developed cynicism.

So despite my previous hyperbolic statement: “saving the world one pair of underpants at a time”.  I am deeply suspicious of such a preposterous claim. 

I don’t really believe one can change the world by making pants?

Well…

There was a man called Mohandas Karamchand.

He made a lasting change in the world, and central to this change was a spinning wheel and DIY underwear.  He used to go to political meetings with his spinning wheel and sit there spinning his own cotton.  He was laughed at to begin with, and then people thought he might be onto something, and then it turned out he was.

This man is more commonly known as Mahatma Gandhi.

He realized if Indians were to spin their own cotton, there would be no need to export it back to England, the British cotton industry (which exploited Indians) would wither and the reason for Britain being in India would cease to exist, so by lots of Indians spinning there own cotton this would result in the end of oppressive British empirical rule in India (peacefully).

[Thanks to J P Flintoff for some enlightening information on this subject]

Extending this (previously proven) logic, if all of Scotland were to begin making their own underwear, there would no longer be any need for the environmentally damaging, child labor pants drugged up on air miles.

So while I am not quite naive enough to think that I can change the world simply by making my own underwear, I think if Scotland joined me, we might be onto something, at the very least this action would foster an element of intentional positive change, and how else can we change the world other than; mass meta collective attempts at intentional positive change.

And if I’m drastically off peak (which is a distinct possibility), it’s really fun.  Making your own clothes is useful, purposeful creative fun.  

This is one of the reasons at Rag Tag n Textile; we use creative textile skills as a pivotal part of our attempt to foster an environment of recovery for people with mental health problems.  It just so happens that the produce of these skills (subsequently what we sell) has an embedded poetic orbit, including environmental responsibility and homage to the heritage of the area.  Somehow things are often connected like that.

Making your own clothes is fun.  It just so happens it might also change the world, save your soul and the polar bears.  Somehow things are often connected like that.

If you are interested in making your own clothes we run various sewing and craft classes regularly at Rag Tag n Textile workshops.  Have a look here on our website for more information.