Rags To Riches Textile Upcycling Podcast

Weaving an Upcycling Narrative with Shooting Star Boutique

In Episode 41 of the Rags to Riches Podcast, Crispina and Marci Lebowitz dig into the importance of preserving cultural heritage by passing on the life stories of the materials we handle in our chains and flows of textile upcycling business production.
And they discuss the value in giving new life...and adding new chapters...to gorgeous textiles that are languishing in cabinets the world over. By turning them into wearable art!!
Are you ready to feel inspired, energized, and supported? Dive right in! This is the Rags to Riches Textile Upcycling Podcast with Crispina ffrench! Show Notes for Episode 41 with info, pics, and links are available at ragstoriches.eco.
Don't forget to download, listen, rate, and review us on Apple Podcasts. It helps so much with spreading the word about the global upcycling revolution we are nurturing together!

Community Over Competition in Stitcherhood Member-Taught Classes

In Stitcherhood, we nurture a different kind of online social atmosphere – a wholesome vibe where like-minded people gather to lift each other up and help each other grow. It’s not about being the best, the first, or the most in this group. Stitcherhood members truly value community over competition – and that’s why we are so excited to talk about our recently launched member-taught classes with none other than community manager Sondra Primeaux!
If you have seen Sondra around Stitcherhood or have listened to Episode 02 – The Unruffled Creatrix, you know that she is a talented and accomplished maker who has been in business a long time. She has sewn and sold hundreds of the kimono design she’ll be teaching in her class – and she wants to share her knowledge so that other makers can do it too!
That desire to share knowledge and nurture mutual growth is what really sets Stitcherhood apart. YEAH, we want to share our ideas and skills and inspire each other to try new techniques. YEAH we want to see each other’s businesses grow and thrive! We are NOT in competition with one another, we are in community.
Are you ready to feel inspired, energized, and supported? Dive right in! This is the Rags to Riches Textile Upcycling Podcast with Crispina ffrench! Show Notes for Episode 40 with info, pics, and links are available at ragstoriches.eco.
Don't forget to download, listen, rate, and review us on Apple Podcasts. It helps so much with spreading the word about the global upcycling revolution we are nurturing together!

What’s New in Stitcherhood? Intentional Community for Textile Upcyclers

Welcome to Stitcherhood - Crispina ffrench's intentional community for textile upcycling entrepreneurs who share a passion for addressing global textile waste with creative reuse.
Stitcherhood is a social network where upcyclers can get together and talk shop. There is a Home feed where members can create and comment on posts, articles and polls, as well as dedicated niches for special interests and premium add-ons.  
Members share and get feedback on images and videos, links to shop drops, questions and creative process updates, and interesting textile upcycling related content they find in their cyberspace travels. 
And there are diverse opportunities to expand upon the basic membership by taking advantage of add-ons such as member-taught workshops, immersive long-term mastermind courses with Crispina, and guided accountability groups for motivated entrepreneurs.
In this episode of the Rags to Riches podcast, Crispina shares the juicy details about what is new in Stitcherhood...and why we want you to get in there with us ASAP!!
Are you ready to feel inspired, energized, and supported? Dive right in! This is the Rags to Riches Textile Upcycling Podcast with Crispina ffrench! As always, Show Notes with info, pics, and links are available at ragstoriches.eco.
Don't forget to download, listen, rate, and review us on Apple Podcasts. It helps so much with spreading the word about the global upcycling revolution we are nurturing together!

Eliu Hernandez Finds the Potential and Beauty in Used Materials

Eliu Hernandez is a master of upcycled denim creativity, as the Instagram account for his shop @madeorremade makes clear.
As you scroll down his image feed, you quickly notice that not only are the finished pieces true works of art, but the artist has an incredible flair for thinking outside the box of typical denim upcycling.
He even harvests thread from jeans to reuse in future projects! There's an instructional video on his YouTube if you'd like to try it at home). And he publicly brainstorms how to use every last bit of his raw materials, right down to his collection of belt loops. Made or Remade is definitely a shop to follow for inspiration, ideas, and tips on creative upcycling. 
Get comfy and curl up with Episode 38 of Rags to Riches, where Eliu and Crispina get right into the thick of texile alchemy as a business, and finding the unique beauty in the reclaimed raw materials that they both use in their craft.
Are you ready to feel inspired, energized, and supported? Dive right in! This is the Rags to Riches Textile Upcycling Podcast with Crispina ffrench! As always, Show Notes with info, pics, and links are available at ragstoriches.eco.
Don't forget to download, listen, rate, and review us on Apple Podcasts. It helps so much with spreading the word about the global upcycling revolution we are nurturing together!

Connecting Creatively with Bridget O’Flaherty - Canada’s Sustainable Quilter

Bridget O’Flaherty is a renowned Canadian free-motion embroiderer, quilter and textile artist, teacher, speaker and podcaster. Known as The Sustainable Quilter, she shares her passion for sustainability and invites the quilting and textile art community to bring sustainability into their practice.
Bridget loves the tactile nature of anything fibre and expressing a connection to the land. As a quilt artist focusing primarily on free-motion thread painting in her natural landscape designs, she "draws” with her sewing machine, building up layers of thread to create her art that blends quilting, felting and stitching.
She uses combinations of local, up-cycled, recycled and organic materials and includes botanical and natural dyes in her original works.
In Episode 37 of Rags to Riches, Bridget and Crispina connect about their shared passion for acheiving (and teaching) sustainability within the craft of textile upcycling.
Bridget explains her business model and workflow in the following way: "Every decision I make for my business is infused with the pillars of sustainability where I consider the people, benefits and material impacts of those decisions to guide me forward on the journey to have a low-impact business that serves in a meaningful way."
Are you ready to feel inspired, energized, and supported? Get comfy and dive right in! This is the Rags to Riches Textile Upcycling Podcast with Crispina ffrench! As always, Show Notes with info, pics, and links are available at ragstoriches.eco.
Please download, listen, rate, and review us on Apple Podcasts. It helps so much with spreading the word about the global upcycling revolution we are nurturing together!

Rentrayage’s Conscientious Approach to Sustainable Fashion

Designing into a concept creates waste in the name of creativity. Inherently unsustainable, it requires you to add and overdo.
In this awesome new episode of Rags to Riches, Erin Beatty of Rentrayage explains how the company is a rejection of this prodigal business model; their way of reimagining and reanimating what has already existed, creating beauty and value, new shape, new form, and new style from what has been discarded.
Down to Rentrayage’s foundation — theirs is a fresh and conscientious approach to sustainable fashion, home wares and beauty.
Are you ready to feel inspired, energized, and supported? Get comfy and dive right in! This is the Rags to Riches Textile Upcycling Podcast with Crispina ffrench! As always, Show Notes with info, pics, and links are available at ragstoriches.eco.
Please download, listen, rate, and review us on Apple Podcasts. It helps so much with spreading the word about the global upcycling revolution we are nurturing together!

Retold Recycling Plays Matchmaker Between Unwanted Household Textiles and Their New Purposes

Retold Recycling is a mail-based clothing and textile recycling service that you can use from the comfort of your home...to make your home more comfortable!
Customers order bags from retoldrecycling.com and they arrive with pre-paid mailing labels attached.  The next step is to fill them up with unwanted textiles from around the house, seal the bags, and drop them in the post.
CEO Amelia Trumble and her team are committed to doing the right thing by your old clothes and linens. Their vow, together with their partners, is to "sift and sort your goods, sending them to thrift stores, donation centers, recyclers, resellers and up-cyclers. We're proud to say nothing will go from your Retold bag to a landfill!" One of their standard hashtags, in fact, is #nolandfill. 
Are you ready to feel inspired, energized, and supported? Get comfy and dive right in! This is the Rags to Riches Textile Upcycling Podcast with Crispina ffrench! As always, Show Notes with info, pics, and links are available at ragstoriches.eco.
Please download, listen, rate, and review us on Apple Podcasts. It helps so much with spreading the word about the global upcycling revolution we are nurturing together!

The Synergy of Great Business Partners - Yvonne and Mitchel

Yvonne and Mitchel is an upcycled fashion brand that gives old clothes new life. ​ Caylin Yvonne Willis and Jared Mitchel Armstrong created the brand in 2017 after they met in college and bonded over their love for thrifting and personal style.
Jared was going to school to get a degree in health sciences but longed to pursue his lifelong dream of becoming a designer, while Caylin was studying journalism and looking to start her own clothing business. ​ Although the couple isn't professionally trained in fashion, they decided to merge their talents and launched an online vintage clothing store through Instagram in 2017.
After Jared taught himself how to sew three years later, they started transforming their thrift finds into one-of-a-kind, upcycled garments. Yvonne and Mitchel is owned and operated by Jared and Caylin out of Kansas City, Missouri, USA. The couple handles every aspect of the business themselves: sourcing, designing, sewing, modeling, photography, marketing, etc.
100% of the fabrics that are used to make Yvonne and Mitchel's upcycled garments — and 99% of the shipping materials they're packaged in — are sourced from local thrift shops and recycling centers.
Caylin and Jared share some awesome stories and ideas with Crispina in this rad new podcast interview - Episode 34 of Rags to Riches!
 
Are you ready to feel inspired, energized, and supported? Get comfy and dive right in! This is the Rags to Riches Textile Upcycling Podcast with Crispina ffrench! As always, Show Notes with info, pics, and links are available at ragstoriches.eco.
 
Please download, listen, rate, and review us on Apple Podcasts. It helps so much with spreading the word about the global upcycling revolution we are nurturing together!

Clare Bare’s Upcycled Lingerie Feels Good to Make and Makes People Feel Good!

 
Clare Bare is a sustainable lingerie brand based in New York and Los Angeles. Each piece is handmade using vintage and new sustainable materials by a small team, along with the help of local production houses and suppliers. Owner and designer Clare Herron carefully chooses unique vintage fabrics and upcycles them into limited edition runs and one of a kind creations. Her mission with each piece is to create beautiful, inclusive upcycled work that makes her customers feel good - because that kind of art feels good to make!
 
Are you ready to feel inspired, energized, and supported? Get comfy and dive right in! This is the Rags to Riches Textile Upcycling Podcast with Crispina ffrench! As always, Show Notes with info, pics, and links are available at ragstoriches.eco.
 
Please download, listen, rate, and review us on Apple Podcasts. It helps so much with spreading the word about the global upcycling revolution we are nurturing together!

RE.STATEMENT - Hannah Le’s Online Marketplace for Upcycled Clothing

Hannah M. Le is the founder of RE.STATEMENT, the online marketplace for upcycled clothing. She provides a space for upcycling designers to sell their products because she believes that the one-of-a-kind clothing that creates conversations, whether for the individual or for the planet, should be the first items sold. Earth favors the bold.
 
Are you ready to feel inspired, energized, and supported? Get comfy and dive right in! This is the Rags to Riches Textile Upcycling Podcast with Crispina ffrench! As always, Show Notes with info, pics, and links are available at ragstoriches.eco.
 
Please download, listen, rate, and review us on Apple Podcasts. It helps so much with spreading the word about the global upcycling revolution we are nurturing together!