Today’s textured pink silk two-piece suit has a simple frill added to enhance its plain neckline, after the skirt bottom was recast as the collar.

Reusing material from nature has been a theme today. My brother’s friend Marcus and I spent the morning at Gingin north of Perth working out a future for the mountain of recycled jarrah timber my brother Paul accumulated over years as a builder.

I guess that’s the problem with upcycling. It is one thing to have an intention to reuse natural resources – but they need to be in the right place in the right hands at the right time to be useful. Otherwise they become a burden. 

The Men’s Shed movement will be the beneficiary of this hardwood when it can be moved from its current location, and here’s hoping it becomes useful in its third life.

Before coming to Western Australia, I photographed enough upcycles on my model Mabel to see me through this period. Today’s is a silk outfit I adapted while doing a full-time managerial role. The skirt was below-the-knee length, so I cut it off and applied the off-cut as a collar, stitching wrong-sides together and letting it fold forward over the existing neckline. I separately resewed the skirt hem and lining, making sure the lining was shorter than the skirt.