Transformed from two jackets, this outfit is for tonight’s opening of the Love Up-cycled exhibition at Reverse Emporium in Brisbane, which includes Textile Beat’s Sew it Again.
Am looking forward to meeting upcyclers likely to have similar values to mine – integrity, creativity, autonomy and purpose.
I’m proud to live in a city with a sustainability agenda that includes a Towards Zero Waste Strategy, and events such as the bi-annual Green Heart Fair which I attended last year. Other cities with zero waste strategies include San Francisco (they’ve just introduced a textile waste program) in the US, Vancouver in Canada and Kaikoura in New Zealand.
Brisbane City Council’s says on its website: “Zero Waste is a goal, a process, a way of thinking that profoundly changes our approach to resources and production. Not only is Zero Waste about recycling and diverting materials from landfills, it is also about restructuring production and distribution systems to prevent waste from being created in the first place. Zero waste ensures that resources already in existence are used to their maximum potential.”
The council goes one to say that achieving Zero Waste requires a significant behavioural shift within the community. Our current ‘disposable’ mindset needs to embrace the notion of waste minimisation, beneficial reuse, and resource recovery.
I’m doing my little bit in the clothing department with Sew it Again to demonstrate how – with a little imagination and effort – existing clothing can be transformed for a second life.
This outfit was created from two silk jackets – one recast into skirt and collar, the other with sleeves shortened and shoulder pads removed. I found the checked jacket at a Stanthorpe op shop and valued someone’s effort in sewing it from patchwork squares. The colours ran when I washed it, but I rather like the blurred effect that created. I cut off its sleeves and lining, and released the interfacing and collar to extend it to a size suitable for skirt. I pinned and fiddled with the sleeve openings until they sat flat and then top-stitched. I added some black tulle (from my fabric stash) to fill out the short edge of the skirt, sewed two darts at the waistline, then made some fabpins (fabric-covered safety-pins created for Sew 10) to hold it together. I sewed the old sleeves at the shoulders, and then at the wrists to form a loop which works well as a collar sitting over the neckline of the other jacket – silk scrunches so beautifully in that way. And I love that the patchwork squares are realigned as diamonds – not quite sure how that bit of magic happened but will claim it’s good design.
