The thing I enjoy most about refashioning existing clothing is the organic process, turning what is readily at hand into something that works for your own shape and needs. Even though I’ve been steadily working my way through various wardrobes of opshop-found treasure this year, I still have an awful lot at hand.

My dear friend Kay is heading off the live in the Czech Republic early next year, sparking a clean-out in which she sends her natural-fibre cast-offs my way knowing they will be put to good use.

Sew 347 is a refashion of two tops into a cool and loose summer dress. The lemon linen was an almost new opshop found top, in a big size which I wasn’t wearing in its current state. 

I wanted to add a skirt to create a loose dress suitable for a run to Toowong Village on a hot day. Kay had given me this olive-green silk top (photo below), which was not a good colour to wear against my face yet an entirely suitable lightweight, size and colour to merge with the lemon. I chopped it off under the arms (the rest will go into my silk-offcut box), neatened the cut edge, then stitched it directly to the bottom of the lemon top. To make them fit, I gathered the extra width in the silk into random pleats on one side and covered the centre join with the spare button from the silk. This is creative reuse (not for the neat people) and after wearing this dress on outings yesterday and today, I know it will be a favourite over summer.