Green thrift describes the action of upcycling old stuff for ecological and financial health … and wellbeing.
Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can. That’s what I’m doing right here, right now, using a few traditional sewing skills to adapt found clothing to demonstrate how we can all join the Fashion Revolution by upcycling.
Refashioning clothing that already exists makes good sense. The hard work has been done (zips, buttons, hems already in place), resources expended (cotton grown and spun, fabric woven and dyed) and dollars already spent when items were newly purchased.
We think new clothes will boost our spirits and maybe they do for a while, but ultimately it is the body (and the mind) in them that determines wellbeing. When you open your mind to the creative possibilities that exist within your wardrobe (or your friends’ or a nearby op shop) the sky is the limit if you apply a few simple skills and techniques for adapting stuff to suit your body shape.
The gorgeous books by New York academic Sass Brown – Eco fashion and Refashioned – are full of creative inspiration from upcyclers around the world. Just by looking at the pictures, inspiration rubs off on the reader. I usually borrow not buy books these days, but had to make exception with these. After lending my copies to a friend for a few weeks, I was excited when they came back last night – as a reminder about the limitless potential of clothing and textile resources which already exist in the world.
Today’s Sew 99 is an upcycled XL men’s cotton shirt, decollared and desleeved, turned back to front and resewn as a sleeveless top. After removing the sleeves, I neatened the armhole edge by turning over twice and zigzagging. I removed the shoulder panels at back (and front, see photo), put gathering thread through the top edge of shirt body and resewed it to the collar leaving a gap of about 2cm at each side where the armhole joins. From the jeans, I cut away the bottom half of the legs and up around the inside leg. The little kink at the top of the leg can be awkward, either cut across seam (see photo) or undo seam and overlap panels. I then pinned and zigzagged the shirt sleeve to fill the V gap so the jeans are now a skirt. The shirt, jeans/skirt and belt are all op-shop found, now upcycled for a second life.
