What do you think?
Rate this book
Sew Your Own
Sew Your Own What happens when a man, dazzled by hi-tech, happy to have his suits made by robots and his daily chores out-sourced to Bangalore, sets out to find the meaning of life? John-Paul Flintoff's improbable and very funny book charts a journey through call centres and allotments, rat-catching and Savile Row tailors. He talks Zen Buddhism with Richard Gere and custard pies with Jeremy Clarkson, paints with Billy Childish, goes refuse collecting, and finally learns to crochet in public. The results are comic, heartwarming and inspiring.
“Very funny, I hope it does well” – Jane Garvey, Woman’s Hour
“Meet the man who made his underpants from nettles” – Mary Ann Sieghart, BBC World Service
"I couldn’t put it down. It was moving and utterly brilliant” – Rachael Matthews, Cast Off
“Wonderful, amazing, funny and warm! And inspiring!” Tom Hodgkinson, author of How To Be Free
“Accessible, funny, well researched, and an inspiring pleasure to read” – The Ecologist
“Very funny, I hope it does well” – Jane Garvey, Woman’s Hour
“Meet the man who made his underpants from nettles” – Mary Ann Sieghart, BBC World Service
"I couldn’t put it down. It was moving and utterly brilliant” – Rachael Matthews, Cast Off
“Wonderful, amazing, funny and warm! And inspiring!” Tom Hodgkinson, author of How To Be Free
“Accessible, funny, well researched, and an inspiring pleasure to read” – The Ecologist
- GenresNonfiction
256 pages, Paperback
First published August 17, 2009
5 people are currently reading
108 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
June 2, 2010
This is quite an odd book - it doesn't really work as a book, but it doesn't really work as a collection of newspaper columns either, it's a kind of mongrel son of the two. That is a shame, because I really was interested in the story of Flintoff's efforts to live sustainably, and to find a religion that might suit him, and to learn to make his own clothes, and all the other mad schemes that he seemed to take up in a loosely linked and very ADD way.
I liked the list of books at the end that he had read over the year that he was conducting the experiment. I wish there had been a similar list of websites, or people etc, as there is no way I can plough back through the book to find a website that sounded interesting, and reading in bed, as I do, with no bedside table, and living with thieving pen chewing dogs, there is no way I can write down that sort of info at the time I read the book without making the sort of effort that is unthinkable late at night.
Some of Flintoff's ideas were very interesting, but they were mixed up with the bizarre and the boring. And I found the undies bit quite gross actually. I was getting mental pictures that I just don't want to give head room to.
Basically, this book is not a guide to sustainable living, and can't be used as that. The changes Flintoff made to his life were peculiar to him. It's not a guide to how to look into the issues either, as Flintoff is a journalist, and so can investigate things he is interested in, whereas most of us have far less of an opportunity to do the same. This book is a story - a story of one man's response to his concerns about peak oil. And even given the clumpy way it is written, it is quite an interesting story.
It did make me think through some wider issues, but I am not sure that I can follow Flintoff's example. I have an office job, two children, no husband, and already grow veg, repair rather than throw, recycle unwanted items (making new ones) and live as sustainably as I can. I'm not sure there is room for me to do too much more.
I liked the list of books at the end that he had read over the year that he was conducting the experiment. I wish there had been a similar list of websites, or people etc, as there is no way I can plough back through the book to find a website that sounded interesting, and reading in bed, as I do, with no bedside table, and living with thieving pen chewing dogs, there is no way I can write down that sort of info at the time I read the book without making the sort of effort that is unthinkable late at night.
Some of Flintoff's ideas were very interesting, but they were mixed up with the bizarre and the boring. And I found the undies bit quite gross actually. I was getting mental pictures that I just don't want to give head room to.
Basically, this book is not a guide to sustainable living, and can't be used as that. The changes Flintoff made to his life were peculiar to him. It's not a guide to how to look into the issues either, as Flintoff is a journalist, and so can investigate things he is interested in, whereas most of us have far less of an opportunity to do the same. This book is a story - a story of one man's response to his concerns about peak oil. And even given the clumpy way it is written, it is quite an interesting story.
It did make me think through some wider issues, but I am not sure that I can follow Flintoff's example. I have an office job, two children, no husband, and already grow veg, repair rather than throw, recycle unwanted items (making new ones) and live as sustainably as I can. I'm not sure there is room for me to do too much more.
September 8, 2011
This wasn't the book I was expecting to read. I suspect that's less my fault, or indeed Jean-Paul Flintoff's fault and more to do with whoever wrote the marketing blurb for the back and front covers. So, to start, this isn't (really) a book about making your own clothes. True JPF does make clothes, but actual clothes-making takes up about 10% of the book.
The crux of the book is about how modern humans have become separated from huge chunks of how life works - our whole lives are cogs within a production line. We do our little but of living, but our water, our food, our clothes, our entertainment appear from nowhere ready-made and provided, and our rubbish and waste disappears in the same way. Before the WWII, most people, especially those living outside towns, would be largely responsibile for everything that happened in their home, even for how their home was built, now we outsource everything.
So, a suit measured and sewn by robot becomes a diving board for an investigation into becoming more connected with life - from rat-catching, to rubbish collecting, to clothes-making. He delves into religion too, thinking that he had also become disconected spiritually too, meeting up with quakers and mormons and Scottish presbytarians and catholics, none of which touch him anywhere until he finds buddhism.
The book is interesting enough, but it feels very disconnected (ironically enough) as though all the very short chapters were written as column filler material for a newspaper. I also get the feeling that a lot of the anonymous quotes he gives are made up, when he rings people up with ludicrous freedom of information queries.
So, worth a read, but don't approach it, like I did, imagining that it's going to be a book about sewing.
The crux of the book is about how modern humans have become separated from huge chunks of how life works - our whole lives are cogs within a production line. We do our little but of living, but our water, our food, our clothes, our entertainment appear from nowhere ready-made and provided, and our rubbish and waste disappears in the same way. Before the WWII, most people, especially those living outside towns, would be largely responsibile for everything that happened in their home, even for how their home was built, now we outsource everything.
So, a suit measured and sewn by robot becomes a diving board for an investigation into becoming more connected with life - from rat-catching, to rubbish collecting, to clothes-making. He delves into religion too, thinking that he had also become disconected spiritually too, meeting up with quakers and mormons and Scottish presbytarians and catholics, none of which touch him anywhere until he finds buddhism.
The book is interesting enough, but it feels very disconnected (ironically enough) as though all the very short chapters were written as column filler material for a newspaper. I also get the feeling that a lot of the anonymous quotes he gives are made up, when he rings people up with ludicrous freedom of information queries.
So, worth a read, but don't approach it, like I did, imagining that it's going to be a book about sewing.
December 11, 2009
'Through the eye of the needle', by John-Paul Flintoff, has the subtitle 'The true story of a man who went searching for meaning - and ended up making his own Y-fronts' and I thought I would pick up some tips about making my own clothes from it, which is something I have been thinking about for years but haven't really got around to trying.
Once I started reading it I realized that I had the wrong end of the stick, to a certain extent, but I wasn't disappointed because the book is a good read and follows a path I can relate to.
It's divided into two parts, and then into lots of short chapters, which makes it ideal if you have to read in short bursts. In Part 1 the author wakes up to some of the ways in which his life has been unethical and unsustainable - including jetting across the Atlantic to have two suits made to measure which he never wears and were almost certainly made by sweat-shop workers.
He then undertakes several activities which are, at a first glance, completely unrelated: engaging a personal shopper, trying out various religions and outsourcing his life. He investigates political parties, examines economic theories and learns about environmental issues like climate change and Peak Oil. At the end of the first part he comes to a conclusion that will be familiar to many - that if you're not part of the solution then you're part of the problem.
In Part 2, John-Paul starts down the path to self-reliance, making shelves and killing rats. He discovers permaculture and starts making his own clothes - some from scratch and some recycled from old material. He embarks on some major experiments, encouraging the residents of an old people's home to get involved in craft projects, and trying to rediscover the (almost) lost art of making yarn from nettles.
By the end of the book he has made a complete outfit, including underpants, but it's not the point of the book. The point is that we have allowed ourselves to become disenfranchised, removed from the things that really make us happy in life and constantly brainwashed with the idea that we're all fairly useless and need lots of things to be made for us in order that we might continue to exist.
'Through the Eye of a Needle' is a thoroughly enjoyable read, but don't expect to finish it in a hurry - as soon as you begin Part 2 your head will fill up with Things You Can Do and you'll be jumping up to get on with them. So whilst it won't tell you how to make your own clothes, it will inspire you to find out, which is a much better thing :)
Once I started reading it I realized that I had the wrong end of the stick, to a certain extent, but I wasn't disappointed because the book is a good read and follows a path I can relate to.
It's divided into two parts, and then into lots of short chapters, which makes it ideal if you have to read in short bursts. In Part 1 the author wakes up to some of the ways in which his life has been unethical and unsustainable - including jetting across the Atlantic to have two suits made to measure which he never wears and were almost certainly made by sweat-shop workers.
He then undertakes several activities which are, at a first glance, completely unrelated: engaging a personal shopper, trying out various religions and outsourcing his life. He investigates political parties, examines economic theories and learns about environmental issues like climate change and Peak Oil. At the end of the first part he comes to a conclusion that will be familiar to many - that if you're not part of the solution then you're part of the problem.
In Part 2, John-Paul starts down the path to self-reliance, making shelves and killing rats. He discovers permaculture and starts making his own clothes - some from scratch and some recycled from old material. He embarks on some major experiments, encouraging the residents of an old people's home to get involved in craft projects, and trying to rediscover the (almost) lost art of making yarn from nettles.
By the end of the book he has made a complete outfit, including underpants, but it's not the point of the book. The point is that we have allowed ourselves to become disenfranchised, removed from the things that really make us happy in life and constantly brainwashed with the idea that we're all fairly useless and need lots of things to be made for us in order that we might continue to exist.
'Through the Eye of a Needle' is a thoroughly enjoyable read, but don't expect to finish it in a hurry - as soon as you begin Part 2 your head will fill up with Things You Can Do and you'll be jumping up to get on with them. So whilst it won't tell you how to make your own clothes, it will inspire you to find out, which is a much better thing :)
February 17, 2011
The version of the book that I read was called "Sew Your Own: Man finds happiness and meaning of life – making clothes" which I presume is a reprint under a new title?
I really wondered where this was going after a series of rather random and apparently unconnected initial chapters. It felt rather like a Tony Hawks book that wasn't working. However, I persevered and the strands started to come together (no pun intended). I liked the way that a big-picture pursuit of meaning was intertwined with the simplest and most traditional craft skills that most of us have lost. No wonder Gandhi was referred to throughout.
I ended up enjoying the book and wondering if I should try to fix some old shirts...!
I really wondered where this was going after a series of rather random and apparently unconnected initial chapters. It felt rather like a Tony Hawks book that wasn't working. However, I persevered and the strands started to come together (no pun intended). I liked the way that a big-picture pursuit of meaning was intertwined with the simplest and most traditional craft skills that most of us have lost. No wonder Gandhi was referred to throughout.
I ended up enjoying the book and wondering if I should try to fix some old shirts...!
May 15, 2011
A memoir of sorts that I picked up for its title, Sew Your Own, as it's known in the UK and Ireland, is an inspiring book not for the author's compelling personal odyssey, but for its humorous, digestible and practical approach to finding ways to live creatively, self-sufficiently, and sustainably. Through his reflections upon various economic philosophers and his encounters with real-world people who have found practical ways to live out their ethics as regards work and consumption, Flintoff explores the world of DIY and permaculture without using either of those buzzwords. By the end of it, he convinced me that, at minimum, I too could sew my own clothes among other things.
June 5, 2012
I read this book because one of my favorite eco-friendly sewing bloggers sozowhatdoyouknow.blogspot.com recommended it. This was a quick read but, made a GREAT IMPACT on the way I now consume goods, i'm even taking it a step further by no longer buying any sort of fabric or clothing brand new. One person CAN make a difference!
October 9, 2009
Recommended by India Knight, it's a fast read, but interesting little bits and bobs about religion, consumerism, kids, etc.
Read
August 5, 2011inspiring stuff.
April 26, 2012
A really thought-provoking and enjoyable book. I've darned my socks as a result!
October 13, 2020
I was a bit disappointed by this book. I bought it because of a reference in Fibershead to making clothing out of nettles. That turned out to be a very short chapter. The author is a London based journalist, with a wife and a young daughter who embarks on an exploration of DIY projects, in response to peak oil. He learns to crochet and to sew his own clothing. At the beginning of the book he outsources larger and larger chunks of his life. Then he turns to a self reliance. He interviews numerous celebrities and also engages in a spiritual search. I sympathize with the project, but the book as a whole did not work for me. The chapters are short (revised newspaper columns?) and the story is very much focused on the author's successes and failures. The latter are lightly presented--I think we are supposed to find the style amusing. HIs wife is the skeptical foil, a writing device which slightly irritated me. I think the author's intention is to make one feels that anyone could do these things, and that if we did, the world would be better off, and we would all be happier.
June 12, 2022
Before Frankl, psychology was mainly composed of Freudian psychoanalysis (arguing that human behaviour is governed mainly by the subconscious and moulded through childhood experiences and trauma) and Adler's approach which argued more holistically, claiming that human behaviour is governed by romantic, familial, or romantic pressures. To be honest, while Frankl's theories were very interesting, the beginning of the book was even more appealing to me.
September 22, 2025
I got bored half way through. It’s well written but a bit on the dry side.
September 30, 2010
I really liked the idea of this book but then having read it it felt like a bourgeous argument on why we should abandon mass trade
I am a seamstress and a knitter and a crocheter and i wanted him to actually talk about that at some point not about how much he admired ruskin and ghandi
one was reminded of a famous quote by William Morris - that poetry should be of the type a man could do whilst working at his loom
well Mr Flintoff, I admire that you considered buying a loom but i would rather have heard your adventures thereof, the art of learning these things than the research you did in it's place.
I am a seamstress and a knitter and a crocheter and i wanted him to actually talk about that at some point not about how much he admired ruskin and ghandi
one was reminded of a famous quote by William Morris - that poetry should be of the type a man could do whilst working at his loom
well Mr Flintoff, I admire that you considered buying a loom but i would rather have heard your adventures thereof, the art of learning these things than the research you did in it's place.
April 12, 2016
Some collections of journalistic writing work, but this doesn't. Flintoff tackles weighty issues in a lighthearted way, but the collection seems superficial as a result. I would have liked more in-depth discussion of issues such as consumerism and waste. My favourite chapter was about Ivor Cutler, but unfortunately it was extremely short.
November 11, 2011
Life is too short to try and read a book you just aren't enjoying!
This book was odd! It wasn't what I expected at all and a little too deep in places on various topics to keep my interest or for me to enjoy!
Would I recommend it? Certainly not!
Onto something better I think!
This book was odd! It wasn't what I expected at all and a little too deep in places on various topics to keep my interest or for me to enjoy!
Would I recommend it? Certainly not!
Onto something better I think!
November 19, 2012
Gently inspiring. Just the right mix of seriousness & humour. Lovely read!
Read
November 29, 2012I read the American edition...i thoroughly enjoyed it and have recommended it to a teen book group as a great introduction to philosophy.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews