End of this summer we have started the #100greenstatements project, which means the next two years we’ll be upcycling 100 t-shirts into a green statement. So every week we are going to be collaborating with a new artists or designers who are creating, repairing, styling their t-shirts. Can’t wait to see what they will make. And of course, we are curious: What is their story?
This week Maaike Tralala of Tralala & Fairy Tales: Storytelling gone Horribly Right is in the spotlight, she is a Maker, Mother & Community Organizer.
How did you start (your business)?
I grew up with both mother & grandmother sewing clothes and this was passed into me by both want & necessity. I wanted to learn their craft but it was also necessary to go so if I wanted to create the things I envisioned. Growing up as an expat child in Brunei & Egypt meant using what was available to me to create instead of heading out to the shopping mall.
In my twenties developed into creating Victorian-gothic outfits with bustles, crinolines & corsets, in my thirties I yearned to wear vintage dresses in colorful patterns made with materials but as these weren’t available in the style nor size I was at the time I decided to make my own.
What do you pass on?
Nowadays even my children Puck & Ot will wonder “do we really need it” before buying something. They too relish the fact that we’ll mostly only buy items if we can’t make it ourselves, swap it, or find it secondhand. I love the creativity that comes from setting yourself limits. (I realize it is a privilege to have the means & time to source sustainable materials, we should all strive to do what we can with the means we have and hopefully do so joyfully).
Refuse, remake, replenish
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Read more?
Want to know more about Maaike? You can check out all the green ideas, amazing garden or new projects on her Instagram.