The future is not a destination, it is a journey made up of small steps. We need courage to design our future with purpose and deliberation, to be the change we want to see.

I’m in Canberra and reflecting on these words articulated by Federal Member for Indi Cathy McGowan in a Charters Towers speech last week at the QRRRWN conference. Cathy referred to visionary garden designer Capability Brown who created landscape legacies in the United Kingdom with instructions for 200 years into the future. Cathy challenged us to project ourselves into the future, to get involved, put up our hands for leadership and influence outcomes. 

Now that I’m on the home stretch of this Sew it Again upcycling year, I’m thinking more strategically about the future I can create within my circle of influence. There are so many elements layered into the project, including sustainable resource use, natural fibre production, understanding where clothing comes from and how it is made, being resourceful and thrifty, individual expression, originality, connection, ethical purchasing, creative reuse, empowerment, reducing waste, well-being, heart and commitment, and of course REfashion. I’ve spent a lot of time on the dance floor this year, using sewing machine and hand-stitch, refashioning clothing, photographing and publishing them on this blog. Now it is time to get up on the balcony to get perspective on what the future may be. That thought-pattern is shades of the Australian Rural Leadership Program run by ARLF, from the offices of which I’m writing today.

I’ve come to Canberra for the 2014 RIRDC Rural Women’s Award celebration dinner at Parliament House, to which all the alumni (I’m Queensland 2010 runner-up) are invited. It is great to be inspired by the stories of women working to advance their businesses, communities and causes around the nation – indeed the world. 

The future is made up of small steps and I’m now on step 266 of my year-long journey into creativity. My family is supporting me on this journey – including husband Darcy, who brought home these heart stones and seeds from a bush trip, right. Beautiful found objects from nature. Thanks Darc, you’re rock solid.

Sew 266 is an upcycle whose journey began on an earlier trip to north Queensland several years ago. My friend Fiona bought a plain black tiered skirt as the basis for a belly-dancing costume to which she planned to sew a metre of gold coin dangles. Clearly it needed more enlivening than that, so I gathered two scarves from the op shop – one was gold and black striped with a beaded trim, the other was yellow with sequins and also beaded trim. (It is so much cheaper to buy and reuse existing items than it is to buy trimmings new).

It was then just a case of filleting the scarves by cutting them into useful pieces (some of the striped scarf cut across and the rest lengthwise) and sewing the various elements to the skirt, improvising whenever the fabric ran out before I got all the way around the skirt. When I asked Fiona for upcycles from her wardrobe (Sew 264 and 265) she gave me this one to wear – as a dress not a skirt – the sheered waistband works just as well as a top. And there’s a certain symmetry in its inclusion here, because I realise I’ve been upcycling long before formalising it as a call to action in this Sew it Again campaign.