This linen combo springs from jumper and jacket uplifted by creating jumper scarf with jumper bottom becoming skirt.
It is fun, resourceful and economical to magic something fresh from existing clothing that’s in the reject pile – and I love sharing ideas and skills to help others find their inner creative.
A key learning from postgraduate study last year that applies at any stage of life is seeking the skills/asking for help from those with the knowledge to move you forward.
Some people say they don’t have a creative bone in their body or can’t sew. I believe that’s a self-limiting approach inadvertently sown (excuse the pun) by a parent, teacher, partner or ‘friend’ somewhere in the past.
It is a very simple thing, but what I enjoy about Textile Beat workshops is enabling and empowering people to make small and easy changes to existing clothing to give them a second life. These techniques obviously don’t suit people who prefer precision, neatness, order, quality fit and design – but they do suit those who value resourcefulness, thrift, originality, DIY and not perfection.
It’s interesting to reflect on the ages and stages, skills and talents, motivators and inhibitors, for people taking charge of their own clothing requirements by home sewing/resewing rather than handing it over to designers, machinists and marketers as we have for decades.
As a society, most outsource clothing requirements and wrap ourselves in garments made by others. Unlike the long agos when economies were locally focused, globalisation results in long and mysterious clothing supply chains with numerous stages from raw material to finished garment often traversing many hands and nations – as noted by Choice magazine recently.
Our body shape changes through life so our clothing needs to grow or shrink in different places, therefore basic home-sewing skills are handy to make these adaptions rather than having to toss out and buy anew – as we have been trained to do by people making money from that approach.
Just as you need a bit of time, equipment, confidence and skills for home baking and cooking which so many people are rediscovering for nourishment and pleasure – you also need these for home resewing to create clothing that suits your shape and lifestyle.
It was fun being able to guide Helen to turn a skirt into a muumuu, Kerryn to reinvigorate a skirt as a dress, Delia to merge two shirts into a dress and Phil to transform t-shirts into gym singlets.
Meanwhile, back to my model Mabel who is today wearing a linen suit created from a linen jumper and linen/cotton jacket with wool vest. I cut the jumper across below the sleeves and sewed together to make a long scarf. The op shop jacket was unusual because it had lapels but no collar – and is enhanced by having the scarf sewn on the inside and draped over to form a collar with the sleeves hanging loose. The bottom part of the jumper was tweaked with elastic waist to become my signature jumper-skirt.
