Birgitta Helmersson: Designing Without Waste
This year, the Great British Sewing Bee’s Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Week came with a challenge that got everyone talking: make a whole workwear jacket from just one piece of fabric, without leaving a single scrap behind. For some viewers, this felt like a brand new and exciting concept.
But for Swedish-Australian designer Birgitta Helmersson, author of Zero Waste Patterns: 20 Projects to Sew Your Own Wardrobe, and co-author of the brand new book Sewing with Scraps: 15 Projects to Sew a Sustainable Wardrobe Using Leftover Fabric, zero waste has been at the heart of her work for years.
Above: With partner and co-author of Sewing with Scraps, Sam Grose. Photo: Jessica Sidenros, Sewing with Scraps, Quadrille 2025.
Birgitta’s love of making started early. At age twelve, she decided to teach herself how to use a sewing machine and make her own clothes. Fast forward a few years, and instead of following the path of a formal qualification, she learned by doing. She took apart and reassembled garments through alteration work, picked up tricks from tailors and seamstresses, dabbled in costume creation, and later drafted patterns for a brand designer.
That’s when the dilemma of fabric waste really took hold.
We were lucky to chat with Birgitta from her studio The Cloth Lab in Malmo, Sweden.
Here is the story of her journey, in her own words.
Drafting Patterns and Growing Concern for Fabric Waste
We did all of the patterns in-house, we also did the sampling in-house and everything. It was a really good experience to take part in the whole process. And that's when I started thinking a lot about the waste. There would be a lot of offcuts.
I mean, if you're sewing one garment for yourself, you have some scraps. But when it's fifty or a hundred, or thousands of garments, it's a lot.
I found a book called Zero Waste Fashion by Timo Rissanen and Holly McQuillan. And I just started doing my own exploration of how I could work with zero waste patterns.
When I started my brand in around 2013, I wasn't selling patterns, I was wholesaling my collections. And then I ended up having a small shop and studio, and I produced everything there. Not all of my designs were zero waste but I was trying to bring in more each season.
How the Pandemic Sparked a Zero Waste Pattern Movement
COVID happened right at that moment when I was about to launch a full zero waste collection. I also had a newborn baby. And no one was coming into the shop, no one was buying anything.
But then a couple of followers reached out and asked: could you do a pattern for one of your zero waste designs? So, I put out the first pattern — it was a kit with a booklet and some fabric. But no one would buy that either because everyone was worried that packages wouldn't arrive.
So then, they were like: can you just do a PDF? And that was the zero waste crop shirt, the very first one. And it just took off.
I think that was this click moment for me — people being able to actually get the pattern and make it themselves. That was really, really cool.
Zero Waste Sewing: Balancing Creativity and Practical Challenges
I think zero waste is a very satisfying way to work, and it opens up creativity because everything you do affects another piece. It’s fun.
I think the biggest thing that people often struggle with is the fact that the patterns aren’t paper. You have to draw directly on the fabric and follow instructions using a ruler and taking measurements. People sometimes have to do a bit of their own maths.
We get a lot of feedback from complete beginners who have never sewn before, who think it’s so easy! But then, for people that have sewing experience, they already have a set idea in their mind of how they're supposed to do it. It's hard to overcome that shift of drawing and cutting directly on the fabric — that’s always the biggest thing.
Favourite Zero Waste Patterns: the Crop Shirt and Block Pant
The block that sparks the most creativity for me is probably still the crop shirt because it's a really flattering shape. It's really easy to modify, add things, and lengthen the sleeves. The gather dress, which came after that, is essentially a version of the crop shirt.
Another favourite is the block pant. What I love about that pattern is that it works for ten different sizes and it's the exact same layout and it's a pant, which is really hard to do. It was very satisfying to finally figure out how to draft that.
A New Book – Sewing with Scraps – about Transforming Leftovers into Rich Wardrobe Pieces
I have been working with scraps and remnants for my whole career. When we moved to Malmo, my partner Sam and I were making a lot of things from secondhand fabrics and garments. We were also using new materials, but we were saving the off cuts and finding different ways to use them. It was a really nice period of play and exploration. Sewing with Scraps is really based on the things that we did from that.
Above: Birgitta Helmersson and Sam Grose. Photo: Southern Sweden Design Days, 2025.
The book itself is based on three core methods: strips, which is using thin strips of fabric to build up texture on a base fabric, collage, which is like applique, building up a picture, an image, a texture or a pattern on fabric using offcuts, and patchwork, which is probably the most common technique.
When you're looking for stuff from your scrap box, it’s quite hard to find a valuable use for it. So, we really wanted to show how you can use scraps in a way to make clothing that's really wearable or fun.
I’ve really enjoyed writing this new book. As much as I love zero waste patterns, and I love the technical side of it, I was starting to feel like I was moving too far away from a more playful way of working with cloth.
So, it helped me to just get closer to the fabrics, to get free and experimental. It's given me a renewed sense of love for what I'm doing.
The Future of Fashion: Reducing Waste and Rethinking the System
There's a lot of focus at the moment on remake, repurpose, recycle, which is fantastic. And I think we should continue finding ways to use this waste and these materials.
But it's actually the systems creating the waste that are the biggest problem. Buying new things all the time, following trends. It’s just this big machine and it’s not sustainable.
There's a lot that's changed. We’ve had new textile laws come in Europe, businesses can't throw fabrics or textiles in the bin. But in most of these countries, there aren’t actually any systems in place to recycle or do anything with them.
It will be interesting to see what happens next. Apparently there are more new laws coming for fashion companies soon.
And it’s about us taking care of what we have, not buying too much, building a wardrobe of clothes that we love and appreciate and truly enjoy wearing.
Blog cover image: Emli Bendixen, from Zero Waste Patterns, Quadrille 2023.
Studio, crop shirt and block pant photos, and images of purse and hands holding book: Matilda Tönning
Know someone working with materials in exciting, sustainable ways or making a difference in their community through craft? We’d love to feature their story. Get in touch at hello@destasher.co.uk.
