While I’ve not resorted to singing and dancing, I have been spruiking at every opportunity this year about ways to resew  and restyle unworn clothing into something fresh.

I’m grateful to those who created those opportunities to present talks and workshops in three Australian states and raise awareness about ways to dress with conscience and reduce our clothing footprint on the world. 

There’s a global rethink happening about the way we dress, as people begin to ask more questions about where clothing is made and what from, and there’s a trend back to local and handmade. 

The slow fashion movement is opening our eyes about clothing in the same way the food movement raised awareness about food miles, waste and production ethics, as well as the negative impacts of processed food.

As part of this movement, I’ve been upcycling every day this year – and Sew 361 is a jeans to skirt conversion modelled by  Jenna. There were plenty of old jeans in my opshop stash, and we found a pair which fitted Jenna and set about converting them into a short skirt with frayed hem. The process is: decide on the length, pin, then cut the legs off (cut one, then fold over and cut the other one to the same length), unpick the centre leg seams, and pin back in place as a skirt then use a piece of leg offcut to fill in the gap. We left the hem unfinished and it will fray with washing and wearing. Looking great Jenna!