The sewing adventure of today was being inducted into using sewing machines at the State Library’s Fabrications Laboratory in what is a fabulous facility known as The Edge. Here’s my glasses case, right, made with guidance from Emma Constance.

After being inducted, one is then eligible to use the machines (solid old Berninas) when the lab is open for bookings during several free sessions each week. It is a maker space, or as the website says: “The Fabrication Lab, in The Edge basement, is a creative space with a host of resources for you to bring your creative visions to life.” Fabulous initiative which helps extend opportunities to sew, which is a life-skill just like home cooking.

In a collaboration with QUT, the Fabrication Lab is also home to a Kombucha experiment growing sustainable clothing by adding bacteria and yeast to sweet tea which then ferments to form a flexible curd on its surface that is moulded into garments and bags, see photos below. 

Another way to produce sustainable clothing is to upcycle existing garments that aren’t being worn and give them a second chance at life. That’s what we’re doing every day in 2014 with the Sew it Again campaign, now up to Sew 333 of 365.

Sew 333 is a maroon op-shop found cotton-knit shift dress with a frill neck that was a bit short for my preference. I merged this shift with a linen T-shirt with a big open neck that was super-saggy. I cut three strips off the bottom of the T-shirt and left the top portion intact as a crop top. I sewed two of the strips together and added them to the bottom of the maroon shift, making random tucks at the side to enable the two to fit together. To finish off, I removed some pilling from the shift using a battery-powered gadget