An over-large vest knitted from op-shop wool/cotton scraps is resewn into a skirt and neck-warmer.

This 365-day upcycling journey I’m on during 2014 is demonstrating how everything old can be new again. It is a way of clearing out my cupboards, remaking, mending, refashioning and sharing ideas for a different way of dressing.

This vest was a series of three I knitted for myself when the boys were little – two decades ago. Back then, I used scraps of wool and cotton from op shops on round knitting needles and guesswork pattern.  I’ve definitely gone full-circle – back to the future op shopping and upcycling again two decades later! 

One vest I made from wool which I spun from fleece of black and coloured sheep grown by my aunt Kate McLachlan in Otago, New Zealand, on one of my visits there. This picture of me and boys, circa 1994 earth mother, recalls that vest, which sadly became moth-infested when I wasn’t paying attention and had to be thrown out.

The second was made of natural-dyed mauve and purple wool, which I’ll dig out and do something with another day.

This colourful one is the third in that series, which I’ve resewn as Sew 53. I chopped off the vest below the arms, and will use the top bit for another project another day.  I was careful to zigzag before cutting and again after to prevent unravelling.

I sliced a bit off the bottom piece (the vest was so wide) to make a straight skirt by sewing on a waistband made from piece of black lyrca with elastic inserted. The offcut of the skirt was sewn together as a tube which can be used as a neck-warmer or beanie.