John-Paul Flintoff - Sew Your Own: Man finds happiness and meaning of life--making clothes

SEW YOUR OWN

BEING ONE MANS ATTEMPT TO SURVIVE
ECONOMIC MELTDOWN, TACKLE CLIMATE
CHANGE, AND FIND THE MEANING OF LIFE BY
MAKING HIS OWN CLOTHES

BY JOHN-PAUL FLINTOFF

INCLUDING: why his wife wont always allow him to wear
his home-made clothes in PUBLIC

AND: his journey, as a lifelong unbeliever, through various
Christian churches, in a search for the right fit for his soul,
and encounters with Buddhists

PLUS: a similar journey across the political spectrum, leading him to disillusionment, and finally to a determination to do whatever needs doing himself, of which CLOTHES-MAKING is only one example, the others including tackling terrorism, economic revivalthrough barter, restorative justice, and managing pest control

FEATURING: film stars RICHARD GERE and Daryl Hannah, politicians and campaigners, criminals and priests, the Victorian essayist John Ruskin, injured New York-based sweatshop operatives, British TVs celebrated petrol-head JEREMY CLARKSON and the anti-road protestor who stuck a pie in his face, members of the ancient guild of spinners, dyers and weavers, the Quaker philanthropist Elizabeth Fry, call-centre workers in Bangalore, the authors wifes 99-year-old Great-Aunt Peggy, a naked yoga teacher, Prince Charless own Savile Row tailor, a personal shopper, the German army of the First World War, MAHATMA GANDHI, the Buddha,

Jesus Christ and Vivienne Westwood.

Makes The Lord of The Flies look like a soft-soap cover-up.
THE GUARDIAN

A light-footed comic autobiography.
THE BIG ISSUE

Often hilarious the timing of a natural.
THE SUNDAY TIMES

I hope John-Paul Flintoff is a fast runner. Hell need to be if his
old classmates at Holland Park Comprehensive ever find him.
Flintoff has written an hilariously merciless memoir.
METRO

It has faint echoes of the tender bravado of Salingers Catcher
in the Rye and gives a nod to the wicked young Amis of
The Rachel Papers. But mostly Flintoff writes as his own
likeable, transparent self.
NEW STATESMAN

Hilarious, hair-raising narrative manages to be both
supremely entertaining and an invaluable social document.
The closing register of what happened to Flintoffs old
school friends is priceless.
DAILY TELEGRAPH

Very readable, in an Adrian Mole-possessed-by-Satan
kind of way.
THE SPECTATOR

John-Paul Flintoff

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I couldnt have written this book without many, many people giving me their time a good number of them mentioned in this book, and others whose books gave me ideas (see Further Reading). Then there are the many editors who commissioned me (and in one case, Harriet) to write about some of the subjects in this book, and the other editors and photographers and illustrators and designers and publicists who helped to present my (and her) words to good effect. Maddy Harland, Tony Rollinson and the wonderful team at Permaculture magazine encouraged me to write the book in the first place, and worked like stink on its behalf; while Mark Ellingham, Ruth Killick and Kate Griffin at Profile have been consistently professional, enthusiastic and fun to work with. Im truly, deeply grateful to them all, and owe a particular debt to Anna Guyer and Joe McAllister for quite extraordinarily generous help. My family and friends have been utterly supportive too, but most especially Nancy and Harriet. Thank you everybody.

PUBLISHING DETAILS

SEW YOUR OWN 2010 by John-Paul Flintoff. An earlier version of this book,
Through The Eye of a Needle, was published in 2009 by Permanent Publications.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without
permission from the publisher except for the quotation of brief passages in
reviews.

Typeset in lowan Old Style BT to a design by Henry Iles.

First published in this new edition in 2010 by

Profile Books, 3A Exmouth House

Pine Street, Exmouth Market

London, EC1R OJH

Printed in the UK by CPI Bookmarque, Croydon, CR0 4TD,
on Forest Stewardship Council (mixed sources) certified paper.

256pp

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978-1846688928

In which the author jets across the Atlantic to be fitted for a
suit by a robot, and road-tests a washable suit

Meeting sweatshop workers in New York, the author fails
even for a second to consider that his own clothes might be
made by people in similar conditions

To avoid the boring side of shopping, the author hires a
personal shopper

In which the author tries shopping for religion and starts
with the Mormons

Inspired by the example of big business, the author
outsources the trying parts of his everyday life to India

The spiritual pilgrimage continues

In which the author is troubled by rats invading his home,
and gets in experts

After working as a dustman, the author visits a landfill site

Upon visiting a local seamstress, the author considers whether
he might be able to do some of his wifes clothes adjustments
himself, saving considerable sums

In which we ponder the difference between a corpse and a
human being

How a man named Danny Wallace started something beautiful
on a whim, making the authors similarly whimsical religious
pilgrimage seem rather hollow

On the streets with the Book of Mormon

In which the author gets worried about peak oil, mass starvation
and suchlike

Hoping to save the world, the author throws himself into
mainstream politics

Clothes shopping with the Green Goddess who put the tickets
on 44s

In which a well-known petrolhead has a custard pie shoved in
his face

A Hollywood actor observes that we are all in the same boat
and inspires the author to look into Buddhism

The author submits himself as pupil to a Vietnamese Zen monk

Or part of the solution?

The author uploads his first video, about shirt-making, to
Threadbangers

Why home-made is usually best and we should pay more
attention to Ruskin

In which we meet designers and second-hand merchants

Does it really make sense to make British clothes in India and
China?

A lament on their declining quality

The author buys a treadle-powered sewing machine,
guaranteed to work even when the lights go out

And whisper it quietly sewing is a lot of fun, especially for
blokes

In which the author discovers there is a philosophy to digging
and growing

A refreshingly manly chapter

Swap-O-Rama-Rama and that woman on the five pound note

A homage to Mr Cutler, my old teacher

Why is religion so embarrassing?