Refashioning existing clothing is my chosen creative practice this year as I tap my roots as an agricultural scientist cum rural communicator and branch into eco-leadership bringing awareness to the stories wrapped up in our clothes.

This upcycle is a linen double-breasted coat dress from which I removed the shoulder-pads and extended the hemline by adding sheer panels cut from a reject silk shirt.

Over decades I found myself returning to natural fibres and threads for the pleasure, relaxation and purposefulness they provide that appeals to all my senses. Chances to make paper, textile art, fabric paint, pot, spin, eco-dye, knit, crochet and sew crept into my consciousness between career and children. In fact it was playing with paint and clay when my three gorgeous children were little (now grown) that I attribute my creative development.

Leadership study last year heightened my awareness that the world is drowning in clothing, with cheap and cheerful ‘fast fashion’ feeding society’s over-consumption of textiles – many being synthetic fibres that lead to disposal issues.  Books by journalists such as Lucy Siegle in the United Kingdom To Die For: Is Fashion Wearing out the World and Elizabeth Cline in the United States Overdressed: The shockingly high cost of cheap fashion have articulated these problems well.

I’ve now stitched up my knowledge and skills into this Sew it Again campaign demonstrating creative ways of reuse natural fibre clothing, revive home sewing as a life-skill through resewing existing garments, and immerse in ‘slow’ culture for ecological health and wellbeing. (Scan my 92 upcycles to date on Pinterest, which links to each post.)

I loved coming across Jane Scott’s editorial in our local Brisbane News magazine, in which she wrote that slowing down is hard to do and featured several women who are achieving that through the meditative benefits of craft.

Scott cites Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer’s book On Becoming an Artist: Reinventing Yourself Through Mindful Creativity which argues that creative pursuits, no matter how simple, enrich our lives and generate better health and wellbeing.

So yay, permission to play in my studio – albeit with an eco-purpose in mind – and the daily discipline of refashioning reclaimed clothing for the Sew it Again campaign.

Number 92 of 365 is a beautifully-tailored cream linen Rodney Clarke coat dress that is double-breasted with a peplum waist. It had shoulder pads which I removed by cutting open the lining of the sleeve just enough to extract them. I then pulled the sleeve itself through this lining hole and reshaped the shoulder/arm seams so they didn’t sag where the shoulder pads had been. I didn’t cut off the excess fabric, just folded it to the back with my fingers then resewed the lining opening by hand. I cut three rectangular panels out of an op-shop sheer silk shirt, with the buttons and buttonholes left in place as an ‘eco-fashion’ statement to add to the garment’s upcycled story.  Although I like this natural look, it does bear some resemblance to my daughter’s lab coat and later this year may get a third-life as eco-dyed urchin wear.