The Melbourne Cup has been run and won – this year by a German horse Protectionist ridden by English jockey Ryan Moore. I was idly watching the post-race coverage on Channel 7 only to see an upcycled silk creation win the Myer Fashions on the Field.

The winning design worn by Christine Spielmann started life as a free-flowing much-loved Camilla kaftan that became torn. As the story goes, Christine was attached to the fabric (a gift from her mother) so she gave it to bespoke designer Nadia Foti to upcycle into a fresh and winning look. A fabulous result – and great second-life for beautiful silk natural fibres. 

I deliberately chose a non-fashion upcycle for the Sew it Again blog today and it is the final project generated from last week’s home-schooling workshop at Petrie. From the reject T-shirt pile, Emma selected a snake-skin-patterned viscose top and decided she wanted to turn it into a ‘pet’ snake and a pouch to keep it in.

See below for the ‘before’ photo. The bodice part of the top was cut off and sewn together by Emma’s mum to make the snake, which was then stuffed with T-shirt off-cuts, a piece of red T-shirt became a tongue and vintage buttons the eyes. The remainder of the top was sewn together across the bottom, and a black strap (from Chantel’s project Sew 302) added to create a carry pouch for Emma’s bespoke pet! All part of a year of reusing reject clothing, reducing textile waste and developing creativity with the Sew it Again project.