Everyone has a unique journey through life. Good things and bad things happen to each of us – and all we can do is make the most of the opportunities that come our way.

My opportunity this year is to spend time every day refashioning and upcycling existing clothing – demonstrating a creative way of dressing that doesn’t involve always buying new stuff. I’m working through my stash of op-shop found natural-fibre clothing, playing with ideas to reshape and resew them.

I’m not trying to become a clothing designer and I don’t pretend to have fashion qualifications – I’m coming at this from the perspective of conserving natural resources in our finite world. I believe refashioning existing clothing also enables sewing – a dying art in most communities – to be a useful life-skill for the 21st century now that it is uneconomic for women in developed nations to sew clothing from scratch. 

It is affirming that Yours magazine views the Sew it Again project as worthy of a story in the current issue … “Waging her own war on material waste, Jane Milburn is sewing new style into forgotten back-of-the-wardrobe items and creating her very own eco chic.” … thanks Yours, and Heather Grant-Campbell who wrote the story.

I enjoy sharing ideas with interested others and it was fun having the opportunity to work with Fairholme College fashion students, including Hayley who models the refashioned white linen look that is Sew 290. This frilled skirt was one I made for myself about a decade ago but was no longer wearing. The girls first chopped off the bottom part of the skirt to shorten it. They refashioned the bottom portion into a bodice top using elastic. Great work, considering they had only 30 minutes of class time to achieve this result.