This fire-engine red crocheted wool cardigan was carefully created by an unknown soul before I rescued it from an op shop, rinsed in wool wash, repaired the seams and teamed with a black and red checked wool wrap skirt.

Valuing natural resources by upcycling existing clothing was the subject of a session I shared with Manjimup Senior High School home economics students in south-west Western Australia this morning, and it was great to engage and learn their perspectives. Sustainability is part of the new curriculum and I enjoyed the opportunity to seed ideas for slow fashion and future upcycling projects.

I was in Manjimup briefly to see my gorgeous friend and RIRDC Rural Women’s Award colleague Lucinda Giblett who is doing great work sowing seeds and ideas that enrich life, land and traditions through her community organisation Stellar Violets.  It celebrates learning, living richly, health, land stewardship, local heritage, traditional skills, and the wisdom of elders.

Living whole-heartedly is Lucinda’s ethos – and it was inspiring to share wholesome and nutritious organic food as well as ideas for creating a world that values much more than making money.

Just up the road from Manjimup is Balingup, which currently has fabulous scarecrows in the main street promoting the Balingup Small Farm Field Day on April 26 – and I enjoyed more nutritious food at Tastes of Balingup and chatting slow food with owner Katrina Lane.

Meanwhile, today’s pre-prepared upcycle is an op shop crocheted cardigan and a skirt and scarf cut from 1.5m of wool fabric. It was 120m wide and I cut the full length into two strips, one about 30cm wide and the other 90cm wide. I frayed all the cut edges, then sewed about 6-8 darts on one side of the wider piece so it becomes a skirt fastened with a silver pin.