The Great British Sewing Bee’s Patrick Grant on why you should stop buying rubbish

Lambswool sweater, £69.50, communityclothing.co.uk

Think about where your clothes go afterwards

Acrylics, polyester, nylon and materials that employ elastics are made from crude oil and fossil-fuel-based resources; 342 million barrels of oil are used to make synthetic fabrics every year. If they are readily disposed of – as cheap, ultra fast fashion products often are – that sits in landfill; a mountain of discarded clothes in Chile is now visible from space. 

Take care of things

“It’s something that was so ingrained in older generations, and we need to get back to looking after our clothes to extend their life. Buy good shoes, polish them and use shoe trees, brush your overcoat when you put it away, steam your clothes to kill bacteria, take pride in them,” says Grant. “When you have too much stuff, your wardrobe becomes packed to the gills and you don’t remove things and air them, so moths breed. Repair, re-use and respect how it was made.”

Less: Stop Buying So Much Rubbish: How Having Fewer, Better Things Can Make Us Happier (£22, Telegraph Books) is out now