This quick upcycle was a too-busy knit top turned into a jumper-skirt teamed with op shop top and wool jumper.
It was fun to be at Parliament House yesterday networking with rural colleagues and parliamentarians including Premier Campbell Newman for the 2014 RIRDC Rural Women’s Award.
Congratulations to winner Lauren Hewitt from Brisbane and runner-up Rhonda Sorensen from Malanda. Lauren works for farm group AgForce Queensland and is interested in improving farm profitability – a message which resonates because without profitable farms, there is no food and fibre.
My lovely 2010 Queensland counterpart Sharyn Garrett travelled from Amby in south west Queensland and it was great to see her, pictured right with (me) Jane Milburn and Rod Kelly from Westpac Agribusiness a long-term sponsor of the award along with Fairfax Agricultural Media and the Queensland Government.
I was also inspired yesterday to have Brisbane Visual Arts Community president Lena Tisdall and Jola Szymczyk visit my studio to discuss an upcoming talk on upcycling and global textile consumption. Jola is president of Australian Textile Surface Design Association, Queensland and the driver behind Greater Springfield Creative Hub based on the recognised link between creativity and health.
With all this activity, dressing model Mabel required a quick fix. I originally converted this jumper-skirt last year, but wanted to extend the length a little so added a new waistband of black lycra. Waistbands can be attached using a standard sewing technique described in detail in any stretch knit skirt pattern. In short, cut a strip of lycra and a piece of elastic to fit your waist, sew each into circles. Sit the elastic circle inside the lycra circle and pin together as one making sure the elastic is free to move around. Mark this band in quarters with pins, then match these pins to the skirt (also pinned in quarters) and sew together while stretching the skirt to fit the band. This may sound a little complicated but it’s worth persisting because once learned, you can turn any fabric into an elastic waist skirt. To reduce busyness on the front of this skirt, I moved the coloured pompoms/fur from the front and placed them together at the back. The blue turtle-neck shirt is viscose knit (reconstituted plant fibres) and pink jumper is wool – both op shop.
