You can go out without breakfast or a car – but you can’t go out without clothes. It is the story of those clothes that is the focus of my Sew it Again campaign to inspire resewing existing clothing for a second life.
I’ve been asked to talk about my work at the Brisbane Visual Arts Community hub by the Australian Textile Artists and Surface Designers Association in Queensland today and I’m taking along my model Mabel in Sew 95, which is three shirts reworked as a shift dress.
All the materials I use are found, mostly from op shops and always natural fibres. I love linen, wool, silk, cotton in that order.
This eco-leadership work comes of the back of my training as an agricultural scientist and various roles as a journalist and communications consultant.
I’m following my heart on a creative journey, inspired by my values of integrity, creativity, autonomy and purpose. My three key objectives are to:
- inspire creative upcycling of existing clothing for ecological health
- empower others by sharing skills to repurpose clothing to suit themselves
- revive home-sewing as a life skill for pleasure, health and wellbeing
Through my Sew it Again year, I want to raise awareness of of where our clothes come from, what they’re made of, who made them and how their natural resources can be used for other purposes.
And I want to demonstrate that a few home-sewing skills can change your world – anyone can produce creative, unique, sustainable clothing to suit your shape and size by refashioning clothing that already exists in your wardrobe or nearby op shops.
These three blue shirts were part of bundle of clothing being moved-on by my friend Sally. I cut the cuffs, collar and hem from the polo shirt. I then sliced the two business shirts into a number of bits – the collar, the sleeves, and rectangular panels from the front and back (six in total). The business shirt collars are buttoned together and resewn to neck of the polo where its collar had been (I added in a little of the polo collar at back to make the new collar fit). I buttoned (where possible) or sewed the rectangular panels together to make a circle, varying the colours, and marked this skirt into quarters (using a pin) then put random tucks to make it fit the polo waist. Use trial and error with pins before sewing the skirt to the polo and top stitching. I sewing together two of the sleeves (at shoulder ends) to become a belt of sorts. I cropped off the cuffs of the other two sleeves, folded them on an angle and sewed them to the polo sleeves, using pinking sheers to finish the raw edges. A couple of seam offcuts were knotted to a safety pin to become a brooch feature at the neck front.
