It was an honour to be commissioned to create a unique, relevant farewell gift for Dr Lesley Fitzpatrick who led the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation as CEO for seven years.

The ARLF’s flagship program is the Australian Rural Leadership Program which provides a rare opportunity to enrich, enlighten and empower selected individuals – and I was fortunate to be sponsored through the program in 2009 thanks to the Fairfax Agricultural Media scholarship.

One of Lesley’s achievements as CEO was securing Graduate Certificate status for ARLP through James Cook University. I found the Grad Cert transformative because It led me on a creative journey into eco-leadership, reusing natural fibres to reduce waste and help shift the way we think about fashion and clothing. 

To me, home sewing is a life-skill akin to home cooking and refashioning existing clothing is a way to bring home sewing into the 21st century. As with rising interest in home cooking and food growing for health and wellbeing, there is a pressing need to rethink our consumptive approach to textiles and fashion.

As a direct result of leadership study, I’ve embarked on this 365-day Sew it Again campaign throughout 2014 to demonstrate creative ways of reusing existing garments and empower individuals to reimagine and recreate their own wardrobe collections.

It’s a lovely synergy that Sew 188 is Lesley’s Red Wrapture creation, made from reject wool jumpers and Nalli silk from India, which I purchased during the ARLP session there in 2010. I selected and arranged pieces of five unworn jumpers and sewed them together into a wrap shape. The inside was lined with the Nalli red-blue shot silk. The features of the wool garments, including a merino hoodie and button fronts, are incorporated as features on the wrap, with hand-printed silk defining the garment with Textile Beat values – integrity, creativity, natural and upcycled.