Today I thank the many upcyclers and models I’ve had the opportunity to work with during this Sew it Again year.

Looking back at the 360 photos (to date) taken during the year pinned here on Pinterest is a great reminder of the breadth of both old and young who’ve been involved with the project.

Upcycling appeals across generations and of course was a practise routinely undertaken in earlier times when clothing was valued for the natural resources it represents. People refashioned and reshaped, mended and passed clothes along as hand-me-downs.

We’ve been reclaiming some of that conscious and conservative culture during 2014 – and I thank those who have been part of the journey by engaging in workshops at various locations or at the Textile Beat studio in Brisbane Australia. 

During the past two days of the festive season, we’ve done a lot of giving, sharing and sitting around eating – and it’s been lovely to have sons and girlfriends/fiancées here to model the next two upcycles (daughter Lily is still overseas, studying and travelling).

Steph is wearing Sew 360, which is a square tablecloth (cast-off by my friend Kay) repurposed into a top, positioned on the diagonal so it has a square neckline based on the batik edging. After studying the pattern, I decided to cut out the square centre, pinning and stitching blue bias binding (also from Kay!) in place before cutting the centre out (snipping into the corners to help the bias sit flat) and hand-finishing the neck edge on the inside. After trying it on, I just pinned then stitched a few centimetres across the batik print to form ‘sleeves’. Thanks for modelling Steph and hope you get lots of wear out of this tablecloth top.