The reasons why I’m upcycling natural fibre garments during 2014 include because it is creative, mindful, resourceful, flexible, sustainable, thrifty, bespoke, handy, fun, ethical, reducing waste, shifting habits, demonstrating alternatives and non-toxic.
This Ecouterre article about toxic threads provides further affirmation: “Around 80 billion garments are produced worldwide, the equivalent of just over 11 garments a year for every person on the planet, according to Greenpeace. The growing volumes of clothing being made, sold, and disposed of magnifies the human and environmental costs of our clothes at every stage of their life cycle, which means that even minute quantities of toxins can cumulatively amount to the widespread dispersal of damaging chemicals across the globe, the group says.”
When you refashion clothing that already exists in the world your conscience is clear. Clothing has a journey through life in the same way as do we, our ideas and our actions.
The first public outing for my upcycling endeavour was at the Queensland Rural Regional and Remote Women’s Network conference in Blackall last year – and I am excited to be invited back as Sew it Again Jane this year to Charters Towers in September.
I met Dominique Tan in a Blackall session in which we were articulating our business concepts and she described my venture as ‘bespoke, creative and sustainable clothing’.
Dominique is good at championing new ventures as she and husband Dr Richard Tan OAM have initiated squab production, freshwater cultivation of Sleepy Cod and Jade Perch in Australia and are researching aquaponics as part of a diversified agribusiness they run along with Dr Tan’s work as a long-standing rural doctor in Biloela. Watch an ABC Landline story on the Tans here.
Anyway, Dominique supported me by purchasing a wool history skirt for her daughter and backed the creative and artistic potential for regional workshops.
Dominique doesn’t do much sewing herself – she prefers to cook. When whipping up another great meal as my host last weekend, she showed me this much-loved, washed and worn apron. And of course it made perfect sense for me to upcycle it for her as Sew 170.
Bought in Singapore and made from batik, the straps were shreaded through wear. I carefully unravelled, ironed (a rare thing for me, but this occasion warranted it) and clipped off the stray threads on the neck and and waist ties. I cut strips from a stray denim jean leg and pinned to the back of the apron ties before zigzagging multiple times.
So your apron is in the post Dominique – along with another I have upcycled from a reject shirt that will appear as Sew 171 tomorrow! Many thanks for great meals (loved the squab), hospitality and practical support and encouragement. And can you please post a photo on FB/textilebeat of you wearing this in your kitchen?
