I learned the word Mottainai form Sustainable System and started to be aware of how many wastes I created just for one project. So I decided to look for recyclable waste material in school. I found these used fabrics in one of the secret places where my professor introduces us to. They are in small shapes but in very good quality, so I planned to make a wallet out of them because the wallet I have right now is too big to fit in any of my bags and too small to be used as a purse.
I choose to use cloth because I saw them sitting in a box in all beautiful color but waiting to be thrown away. They are thrown there because they have a tag glue on the clothe and it’s difficult to take it off, so designer usually just cut this part off and thrown it away. So I decided to lengthen their life by carefully removing the glued tag and utilize them. Also because when I am exploring places with reusable material, the tatami cloth caught my eyes. I am in love with Japan, and tatami is the representative of Japanese culture, I felt that piece of cloth calling me to pick it up, so I did.
I first started by matching different patterns together to find ones I like. The unique Tatami cloth is the material for the floor in a traditional Japanese house, and it would be very interesting to construct a wallet with an architectural material. I picked 3 most sustainable and strong clothes because I want this wallet to have a distinct shape and able to hold heavy and many things.
The method of construction was planned to be sewing with the sewing machine, but it took me half an hour to figure out how to use the machine, and at the end, the machines even shut down, so I decided to hand-sew.
It took me extra time but hand sewing made me understand more about the structure, where to sew to be more aesthetic and sustainable.
This is the final result.
This project I learned two main things.
First, hand sewing is “faster” that sewing machine.
Second, now I understand why hand-making and using recycled materials are widely recommended but not really practiced by most people. Because skills such as how to use a sewing machine are required and also the amount of time to handmake it instead of earning the money to buy it is comparable. In order to spread the concept of handcrafts, there should be more promotion on the nostalgia or memorial idea these handcrafts have.
Before I learned the concept of “Mottainai”, I have always heard people saying that word in Japanese animation or TV show and I am curious about its meaning. Now I realize how heavy Japanese put the idea of recycling through their media and promote it to its audience especially children. To me “Mottainai” is the idea of ” 来之不易”, which means it wasn’t easy for it to come, which indicate that it was a lot of processes and effort for it to be created, so use its full usage.
