I’m Rémy Lazzerini, I come from a family of tailors and upholstery craftsmen, and for the past few years, I’ve been carrying on this family tradition rooted in needlework and material craftsmanship. I launched my first clothing collection as a way to blend heritage, modernity, and eco-responsibility.
A skill I have inherited is the art of clever reuse, avoiding waste. This mindset was passed down from my grandfather, whose movements I observed in his workshop from when I was a child. He used to repair mattresses and furniture by reusing existing thread and fabric — a practice that left a lasting impression on me.
I’ve always been drawn to denim — a material that wears well and becomes more elegant with age. One day, I had the idea to create new garments using denim from old jeans. One of the challenges of working with second-hand fabrics is that the pieces are often small, making them unsuitable for large pattern parts traditionally cut from a single piece.
To overcome this, I developed a concept I call “design to upcycled fabrics”. It’s about creating patchwork-inspired patterns that allow small fabric scraps to be artfully combined, resulting in a distinctive aesthetic.
Tips
Today, I’m sharing with you this pattern, inspired by one of my crop-top designs and specially adapted so you can sew it at home with a basic sewing machine.
Just follow the instructions in the file: print all the pages to scale, place the pattern pieces onto the fabric you’ve recovered from old jeans, trace, cut, and start sewing!
If you're short on fabric, consider buying second-hand clothes online to upcycle the material — it’s cheaper, offers more variety, and most importantly, it’s eco-friendly.
Details
- Publication date
- 11 May 2025
- Author
- Directorate-General for Environment
