The 60th anniversary of UNICEF’s presence in Malaysia is cause for celebration and I am proud that my sister-in-law Dr Wendy Relf chose to wear upcycled REfashion, namely Sew 176, instead of other available choices.

Photographed below is Wendy, with my brother Professor Tony Capon, Director of the International Institute for Global Health at United Nations University in Kuala Lumpur, as they headed off to this special event tonight. 

Many of us have many, perhaps too many, choices in what we can wear because there is a surfeit of clothes in the world. What happens to clothes when we tire of them, grow out of them, find they don’t suit our shape anymore? 

Sometimes clothes find other owners if we donate them to opportunity shops but we now know that only about 10-20% of donated clothes actually find a new owner – the rest are turned into rags, sent to developing nations or dumped. A truckload of clothes was recently photographed at Reedy Creek waste transfer station, graphically demonstrating the reality of textile waste in developing nations due to our fast fashion habits.

This reality sparked my 365-day Sew it Again project in which I am demonstrating how we can use simple sewing techniques to revive reject clothing for a second life. Sew 176 was a dress from an op-shop somewhere (I’ve forgotten exactly where – been to too many!) which had potential because of the silk used in the skirt. Wendy wanted covered shoulders, so we cut off the bottom of the dress and used this offcut to create a loose collar. The offcut and lining were sewn together on the inside, then turned right side out. This strip was then attached beside each of the back straps, attached at the top of each strap, and the excess gathered at the front and stitched in place by hand. We neatened the hem and sewed together the top one-third of the back slit in the dress. As she always does, Wendy looks beautiful – this time in REfashioned Sew 176!