We had a quick trip across the border yesterday to enjoy one day of the Mullum Music Festival at Mullumbimby in New South Wales and found a relaxed funky spirit that encompasses the entire community, as well as an amazingly creative, sustainable dress scene.

Highlights included seeing Darren Percival at the Civic Hall, a great dinner at The Middle Pub and chatting with Andrew Nichols from Mullum Glassery. While I’m trying to be non-consumerist this year, in support of creative reuse I bought two glasses from Andrew which he refashions from spent wine bottles (see photos below). 

Because we were only able to stay one night, we missed this evening’s opportunity to see The Church – so I’ve made do by watching their magical Under the Milky Way via this video clip  from their induction into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2010.

The Sew it Again upcycling project goes on regardless, with Sew 327 being a shift dress refashioned from a sarong. I bought the sarong a few years back because I admired the hand-painted/beaded detailing but found I wasn’t wearing it. To upcycle it into a dress, I folded it in half, sewed partway across the short edge then left a gap as the neckline before sewing the other part of the short edge. One armhole was created by leaving a gap at the top of the fringed edge sewn together as a side seam. The other armhole is created by cutting a slit in the opposite side and neatening it using bias-binding. Photo taken by Darcy in front of the Magic Bus which shuttled between venues – although we chose to walk for incidental exercise.