1) Research and find your inspirations
Before starting any design work or purchasing materials, conducting thorough research on your target market, trends, demand, and competition is essential. Google Trends is a valuable tool that provides rich data based on Google keyword searches, showing popularity over time and across different regions.
Once your analysis is complete, gathering inspiration can help shape your minimal, funky, or traditional design. Organizing your inspirational images into a cohesive layout, a moodboard, can be very helpful. While Adobe Spark and other tools are useful, my preferred app is Pinterest. It is free, which makes it easy to discover and organize your inspirations efficiently. Additionally, you can use Pinterest as a marketing tool to promote your product!
2) Define and Design
Understanding your requirements and target customers is key to creating effective outcomes. Gem City Apron aims to sell to local coffee shops, offering brand customization options. These aprons will feature larger pockets for storing devices, menus, and personal items.
Refer to your moodboard to ensure consistency for a minimalist design. The design will have fewer seams to reduce production costs and accommodate embroidered logos. Upcycled products may require patchwork due to limited fabric yardage.
The final design includes three horizontal panels with exposed seams that add pops of color. The odd number of panels enhances visual interest, while the centered pocket provides balance. Variations can be achieved with contrasting serging threads or different denim washes.
Technical Drawing
Creating a detailed sketch or technical drawing is helpful when finalizing your design. The illustration shows all the seams, stitching, finishings, and trimmings used to make the product, which will help you determine your manufacturing cost structure.
(see below)
3) Finding the Right Denim Material.
Denim has always been a cotton warp-faced textile, but the 1980s brought in spandex, elastane, and polyester, leading to form-fitting silhouettes. It's best to use fabrics with the same tensile strength within a garment, as mixing stretch and non-stretch materials can lead to poor results.
For this apron, stretch materials weren't necessary, and women’s jeans were excluded due to their mixed fibers, which are harder to source.
Thrifting is an effective way to find what you need. I've noticed some stores have a good selection of men’s cotton jeans in size 40 and above, while men's skinny jeans in those sizes are rare. Thus, our team chose those jeans for the prototype, assuming there wasn't much demand for larger men's styles.
Upcycling presents challenges due to the limited usable area within a garment (as shown in the diagram above). Your design will affect the space available for your project. With creativity and planning, you can use an entire pair of jeans without any waste. Always prepare a detailed sketch with measurements before starting.
4) Prototyping
The goal of this prototype is to use one pair of jeans per apron, ensuring the apron panels fit within 10-inch leg panels for adequate material for facings and details.
Start by washing the jeans and cutting as close to the serged side seams as possible to separate the usable fabric. You can apply different methods for disassembly based on your design. For a fresh look, consider using the reverse side of the denim as the front, which typically appears cleaner and has a more polished appearance.
Denim leg seams are often bulky and difficult to sew with standard home machines, so I decided to use them as ties for the aprons. This choice not only draws from a bag of saved seams from previous upcycling projects but also complements the reverse seams of the apron body for a deconstructed look. As a result, nearly 90% of the apron is made from upcycled materials.
5) Sourcing + Production: A collaborative effort
Sourcing preloved garments in bulk can be time-consuming, but many startups now focus on rescuing textiles. Gem City Apron recently contacted Helpsy about large men's jeans, and we were excited to learn that Helpsy was eager to find buyers for them and start our partnership.
The aprons were made at Sew Valley in Cincinnati, which did an excellent job. When choosing manufacturers, it's essential to ask the right questions and ensure their sustainable practices align with your mission.
6) What to do with textile scraps?
Upcycling has its challenges, as it can still generate some waste. Fortunately, many startups accept fabric scraps for use in things like home insulation. All scraps from this prototype have been donated to Goodwill's textile recycling program.
The ladies at Gem City Apron donated their production scraps to Cotton Inc.’s Blue Jean Go Green program, which recycles denim. I was lucky to receive all the back pockets for my next project!
To dispose of textile waste, check with local businesses that offer recycling programs or search online for “textile recycling programs near me.”
Here are some additional places to check out for recycling unwanted textiles.
SMART Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles - This is the leading industry voice promoting high standards and best practices for reusing and recycling textiles and related secondary materials. Their members reduce solid waste by collecting, reclaiming, and “closing the loop” by processing, reusing, converting, and distributing these recyclables.
RecycledNOW UK - Recycle Now is the national recycling campaign for England, supported and funded by the Government, managed by WRAP, and used locally by over 90% of English authorities. This service helped make recycling easier. More than 60% of the people now describe themselves as committed recyclers, compared to less than half when the campaign began in 2004
Wearables Collections NYC—Since 2004, they have created accessible hubs for clothing collection in NYC. Over 95% of what's collected stays out of landfills, giving millions of clothing items a second life.
TerraCycle Fabrics and Clothing Zero Waste Box™ —You must order boxes from them, Small $104—Large $313; it's worth it as you'll be 100% sure they are not going to landfills. The collected fabrics are segregated into their respective categories (such as nylons, cotton, etc.) and reused, upcycled, or recycled as appropriate. Check to see if they will accept fabrics from your country.
