>A Soft Rebellion
Published 2025

For almost a year, my entire wardrobe has been handmade. It is an act of rebellion. In making my own clothes, I have been able to rebel against consumerism, fast fashion, microplastics, and popular culture in general.

It has required persistence, courage, and patience. Persistence in that it took hundreds of hours to get the 6 shirts, 3 pairs of pants, jacket, poncho, and various underclothes put together. Courage, in that I then needed to wear said clothes, of strange design and, at least to my eyes, obviously handmade, out in public. And patience, in that I made tons of mistakes along the way, and wanted to give up many times.

But it has been worth it, insomuch as now I know it is possible. This does not just need to remain the rebellion of a few, it is within the grasp of many.

Lets start with tools. Few are needed to begin: needles, scissors, thread, cloth. Patterns for the the type of clothing I made are free, and easy to conceptually grasp. Only three stitches need to be learned: running stitch (weakest stitch, but good enough for shirts), backstitch (strongest stitch), and felling stitch (for making sure the cut edges of the cloth doesn't unravel).

The only remaining ingredient is time. I sew in the evening, to get me quieted down and ready for bed. With 20-40 minutes each night, it adds up quick. I can make a shirt in a week. Pants in 3 weeks. That darn jacket took a lot longer, but that's because I made up the pattern as I went.

The shirt is a Roman style tunic: two rectangles of fabric sewn together leaving holes for the arms and head.

https://davidbaunach.com/images/roman-tunic.png

The pants are Japanese farmers pants. A little more complicated, but the pattern still starts out as a rectangle.

https://davidbaunach.com/images/farmer-pants.png

The jacket doesn't need to be as complicated as I made it, and following the theme, is made of rectangles.

https://davidbaunach.com/images/jacket.png

This soft rebellion is one I soon whish to intensify, by sewing for others. But this brings up the theory part of the rebellion.

Consumerism, fast fashion, and popular culture have made clothing something that should change often. Certain clothes for certain seasons, events, lifestyles. And that large wardrobe must be refreshed often. Shop, shop often, shop 'till you drop!

The rebellious theory, is that a minimal wardrobe is all that is needed, and clothing should be repaired and patched as needed. So you could end up wearing the same shirt for the rest of your life, though refreshed from time to time by patches and reinforcing stitches.

I'll conclude this essay here, with an even simpler challenge: learning how to mend and repair clothing. While the majority of clothing made today isn't even worth repairing (due to weak materials and methods of construction), it's a great place to start by gathering the materials, learning those three styles of stitches, and getting some time with thread and needle in hand. It is easy to begin, the soft rebellion.