It is cool in Coolah so I’m glad to have plenty of op shop (Coonabaraban Vinnies) wool jumpers to upcycle into Sew 127 using my signature swish of the jumper to skirt conversion.
This is the simplest upcycle of reject and waste natural-fibre garments, and one that features prominently in the Pandora Gallery Upcycled exhibition which was officially opened yesterday, thanks to my creative leadership colleague and friend Ele Cook – and gallery volunteers including Jennie and Jackie.
This country town in central west New South Wales is waste conscious – it even has a Waste to Art project to reuse resources in a productive way. As part of the Upcycled exhibition, we are holding a hands-on Wagga-making workshop (making cushions and blankets from waste textile) on Sunday at the back of the gallery.
Waste is a huge but sometimes hidden issue for the world. In the preface to Paul Connett’s book The Zero Waste Solution, actor Jeremy Irons says the massive growth since World War II of global production, consumerism and its attendant prosperity has come at a price. “As we gloried in our inventiveness and ingenuity at converting the earth’s resources into products that made life easier and more enjoyable for so many, it seems we had not addressed the problem of sustaining and truly valuing our world’s inevitably finite resources.”
He says individuals need to make daily decisions to deal with waste intelligently and keep the subject of garbage and the wasting of the world’s resources higher on the agenda than it otherwise might be.
Sew 127 is two camel-coloured wool jumpers. Wool jumpers sometimes become pilled as the shorter fibres separate off, so I spent a few minutes de-pilling by pulling off the bobbles and ended up with quite a bundle of waste wool. I chose the chunkier jumper to become the skirt, cut it off under the sleeves and shaped it into a skirt. The sleeves were cut off and sewn together to become the neck warmer/scarf, and the neck band trimmed to become the headband. The other jumper was a polo neck which I cut off to be more comfortable, and the neck bit was cut into two pieces and sewn together to become a waistband for the skirt. I didn’t neaten any of the cut seams, but could zigzag if any fraying issues develop.
