Category Archives: refashion

Sew 43 – Black & white rerun

Clothing can be endlessly upcycled until it wears out. This skirt is on its third life. It began as a dress (1) from op shop, I removed top to make a skirt (2), which I’ve now re-upcycled (3).

For relaxation when I worked 9-5+ as a communications manager, I’d visit op shops on Saturdays gathering odds and sods to create ‘new’ office outfits – such as this one.

There’s an art to successful op shopping. In her book DIY Fashionista, Geneva Vanderzeil, includes a five-point plan to get the most out of secondhand shops to which I entirely concur:

Go often – things are coming and going all the time, so if you don’t scoop the great stuff someone else is going to
Dig deep – the best finds are often at the bottom of the pile
Be imaginative – think outside the box – tops for bottoms, outerwear made into daywear, evening to day – the options are limitless, you just need to create them in your mind
Location, location, location – the best jumbles are often found in places where a proportion of the population have a reasonable income leading to better quality cast-offs
Get to know the staff – often people in charity shops are volunteers – become friends with them and they may put things away for you Continue reading →

Sew 41 – Heart in the right place

To liven up this cotton $2 op shop dress, I eco-dyed it along with some silk which was then used to lengthen hemline and embellish neckline along with beads.

I’m making it my business this year to reinvent existing clothing to demonstrate how using creativity and effort enables us to dress in a different, more mindful, way.

My inspiration comes from seeing and reading what others are doing around the world, as documented by people such as Sass Brown in her books Eco Fashion and Refashioned.

Brown also has a website ecofashiontalk.com and today posted an article about creative challenges involved in upcycling post-consumer waste. Continue reading →

Sew 40 – Changing clothes and habits

Skirt becomes one-shoulder dress by creating an armhole, lifting the hemline in a few minutes to create a second life.

I’m refashioning a garment a day as a creative way to distil wardrobes of clothing horded or rescued from op shops because I appreciate their intrinsic value as natural resources.

For me this is not just about remaking and selling clothes at places like Reverse Emporium, it is about leading – demonstrating by actions – how simple old-fashioned home-sewing skills can empower us to dress in a different way.

My Sew it Again project emerged from postgraduate study with the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation through James Cook University which was transformative – it led to eco-leadership in an authentic space of my own making.

I’m tapping into a global sustainable fashion movement in the United Kingdom and United States which is raising awareness about where clothes come from and what is their true cost. Continue reading →

Sew 38 – Scissors do the trick

This rework of a shirtmaker dress was quick and easy with a curved reshape of the hemline, scooped at the front, then the sleeves cropped and just zigzagged to finish.

I feel a bit of a butcher taking the scissors to such garments but my conscience is clear because its from an op shop, tossed out because a button fell off.

The fabulous thing about cutting and resewing existing clothing is you can experiment, have fun sewing and trying techniques without breaking the bank or wasting new resources.

I’ve been harvesting natural resources at ops shops for some time now, which is why I’m spending this year working my way through the stockpile and demonstrating a different way of dressing with Sew it Again. (My son Max laughed when I told him I’d filled up a loyalty card and got $50 of free stuff – ‘its like frequent flyer points’ he said.)

The whole idea of endless consumption of stuff and continual growth of society – which we’re sold as being good for the economy – is unsustainable. The Impossible Hamster video shows why. Then there’s this amazing video by the Planetary Collective which documents the Overview Effect felt by astronauts when seeing the beauty of Earth as a planet. Continue reading →

Sew 37 – Consumerism creates waste

Another day, another outfit – and another amazing new book! The Sustainable Fashion Handbook, by Sandy Black – which was just waiting on the library shelf for me to find.

Today’s outfit is refashioned from items off the $2 op-shop rack, just one step away from becoming landfill yet barely worn. The shirt sleeves became a belt, extended by an offcut from skirt which helps blend the pink and beige stripe separates.

In her 2014 book, Professor Sandy Black says taken holistically the textile and clothing life cycles consume more energy and water than do the product lifecycles of any other industry except construction or agriculture – with cleaning, drying and ironing of clothes by consumers being especially costly. Continue reading →

Sew 36 – Quality shines through

This op shop skirt oozed quality so I couldn’t bring myself to chop into it and instead added dress straps cut from the legs of a pair of trousers which I’ve attached using safety pins.

Closer inspection marks the skirt as a Cappopera design made in Italy from a beautiful linen-cotton blend fabric and splendidly stitched. The previous owner must have moved on from this life, this style or this size – but either way it became a natural resource worthy of upcycling.

Finding a plethora of such beautiful garments in op shops started me on this Sew it Again year of resewing existing garments as a demonstration of what we can all do if we rediscover a few simple home-sewing skills.

In her article Exploitation is still in vogue on ABC’s The Drum, eco-entrepreneur and activist Hannah Parris says Australians are enthusiastic garment consumers. Continue reading →

Sew 35 – Dress renovation

This op shop dress was done over by shortening it, taking pinking shears to the armholes then adding a knit-fabric collar cut from the bottom-half of an op shop vest.

Resewing existing clothing for a second life is creative, ethical, thrifty, sustainable – and fun. It takes is a little time (making that is the hard part), a simple sewing skills and imagination.

Society is now much more aware of where food comes from and its impact on our health and environment – and is gradually coming to consciousness about where clothing comes from and its equivalent impacts.

In her book Sew Eco, Ruth Singer says the textile and fashion industries are fraught with potential environmental and ethical issues. Some to consider are: Continue reading →

Sew 33 – Renewal by upcycling

This bias-cut silk skirt was shortened by cutting off the old waistline and replacing with thin elastic, then recasting the waistline offcut as a draped collar for a matching silk shirt.

My friend Robyn Sheptooha called in with a bag of surplus clothing the other day and we shared a cup of tea while she told me the story of each – how it came into her life and why it was going out – and being put to good use as garment fodder for my 365-day Sew it Again upcycling project.

We met ages ago with boys in Year 3 and meander in and out of each other’s lives, catching up when time permits.

I did so enjoy reading Nikki Gemmell’s column Swamped Again in The Weekend Australian Magazine yesterday because it took me back to those days on the whirligig, bringing up three children with little time to call your own. Continue reading →

Sew 32 – Ethical dressing

The beautiful buttons on this linen outfit are from my mother-in-law’s collection gathered over her lifetime in Cairns north Queensland and given to me in metal cake tin containers.

Quality, heritage and warmth are interwoven in my journey to revive traditional home-sewing skills and reuse natural resources for pleasure and purpose.

I’m also discovering a global ethical fashion community conscious of where clothes come from, how they are made and their ‘true cost’ to people and the environment.

Beautiful, informed people such as founder of manifeco.com Kate Black who wrote on Huff Post recently:

“Ethical fashion, also known as eco, green or sustainable fashion, can take many forms; it can be items that have been passed down (through family or from thrift and vintage shops), clothes from small-batch or local designers, even big brands are getting in the game with fair-trade certifications and using environmentally preferred fibres like organic cotton or tencel.” Continue reading →

Sew 31 – 1 of 12 months’ upcycling

This denim jeans-to-skirt conversion marks the completion of one month’s upcycling in my year-long campaign transforming discarded garments for a second life. Yippee. I’m learning, discovering and connecting with others as I demonstrate choices we have for a different way of dressing that is mindful of ecological health, Earth’s limited resources, wellbeing, ethical sourcing, creativity, thrift, resourcefulness and individual choice. At its heart, this Sew it Again campaign seeks to revive home-sewing as the enabler to wean us from dependence on others for everyday clothing which is as important to our health and wellbeing as the food we eat. Home-cooking has made a comeback, so why not home-sewing? I’m demonstrating ways of resewing existing garments at home as a quick, easy, rewarding and affordable way of dressing because there are mountains of discards stashed away in wardrobes and languishing in op shops. Continue reading →