Category Archives: refashion

Sew 326 – Slow refashion flexibility

Personal empowerment is one of the best things about having a few simple sewing skills. You are never dependent on what is currently available for purchase because you can craft something that suits your need and preference.

Own-style ticks all the slow fashion boxes of individual, creative, sustainable, ethical, natural, known provenance, comfortable – and is simply a matter of investing time and applying skills to magic something wearable out of not much.

Now on the home stretch of this Sew it Again year, I’m applying effort to refashion some loose, comfortable shifts for summer as the weather hots up in the Southern Hemisphere. Continue reading →

Sew 325 – Clothes last for decades

What is a reasonable lifespan for clothing? We know that food is perishable and has a shelf-life, but what about our clothes? Fashion has a contrived shelf-life of one season (or less) but what about classic and simple garments that don’t go out of date?

The variables to consider are – the quality of fabric and construction, how often you wash and wear them, whether your shape or needs change, and whether your taste and style moves on.

The act of throwing out clothing because it has literally worn out has become old-fashioned. How many know the experience of garments moving through the stiff-new beginning to become soft-with-age comfortable and rich with memories from many wears? Continue reading →

Sew 324 – Existing clothes revisited

This opshop-found skirt is made from linen-silk blend fabric but had three issues working against it from my perspective. It was too long, too wide and had an old-fashioned, uncomfortable interfaced waistband.

I solved the length and waistband issues by simply cutting off the fixed band (including across the top of the zip). With the band removed, I reduced the girth of the skirt by taking a slice out of it along an existing seam (start from the bottom so the pleats sit neatly). Returning to the waist, I turned the cut edge over twice to make a casing for elastic. The zip now works, in conjunction with the elastic. This compromise method may horrify traditional dressmakers and neat people, but it is a practical workable solution that enables something unwearable to now be worn in a comfortable and viable form. Continue reading →

Sew 319 – Climate change front + centre

United States President Barack Obama said combating climate change cannot be the work of governments alone – we all have the power to imagine a new future, get involved and make a difference.

Obama issued a challenge for nations to address climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in a memorable speech at The University of Queensland ahead of the G20 Summit in Brisbane saying ‘we cannot forget the need to lead on the global fight against climate change’.

Obama said Australia and the United States are big greenhouse gas emitters – and both countries have to step up. Failure to act would mean increasing temperatures, more extreme and frequent storms, longer droughts, more wildfires and threaten the natural glory of the Great Barrier Reef. “This past summer worldwide was the hottest on record – no nation is immune and every nation has a responsibility to do its part,” he said.

Continue reading →

Sew 317 – National Recycling Week

It is National Recycling Week – a Planet Ark initiative developed to bring focus to the environmental benefits of recycling and stimulate behaviour change by individuals and communities.

There are many recycling events planned including some clothing swap parties. It is likely that textile recycling will come further onto the radar in future as society comes to grips with the extent of waste and pollution generated by current clothing habits.

With the Sew it Again project this year, we are demonstrating ways that existing clothing can be recycled through refashion. Continue reading →

Sew 316 – Making a difference

When we slow down and use traditional home-sewing skills to repair and refashion clothing that already exists in the world, we are practising slow fashion. This is the opposite end of the spectrum from fast fashion which thrives on high turnover, continuous and conspicuous consumption of newly made fashion clothing.

Slow magazine recently posted a story about the Sew it Again project, while another thoughtful magazine Womankind has a great article about the merits of meaningful creative practice. Womankind says that the story of making something may have disasters and triumphs along the way, but it brings meaning to our lives. Continue reading →

Sew 314 – Linen tops the list

The casual crinkled look of linen is naturally beautiful. I have a crush on linen which I’ve written about before and believe it to be the most sustainable of all natural fibres. Just machine wash, shake and hang to dry and wear as is – and if you want a nice even crinkle, give it a short tumble-dry. I haven’t ironed linen for years – saving lots of energy and effort.

There is a sign (right) in one of Brisbane’s fabric stores (Spotlight) promoting the casual wrinkled look as being the way to wear linen these days. Hooray – hope it leads to more people wearing linen because based on the embodied energy information outlined below, linen is the most energy efficient fibre available. I’ve sourced this table from the O Ecotextiles website, which used an academic study done for the New Zealand Merino Wool Association as its original data.

Continue reading →

Sew 313 – Who wants our waste

“It’s time to stop giving our crap to the poor.” We think we are being kind and generous when we donate our unwanted clothing to charity – but are we just shifting our old stuff their way to help ourselves? When we give to people in need, we should give quality stuff – or cash.

In this thought-provoking post on We Are That Family, Kirsten wrote: ‘Just because our donation feels like we are helping, in reality, we could be hurting. Bales of used clothes are sold to African countries for resell and they end up flooding the market and often put local textile businesses and seamstresses out of business.”

Yesterday I wrote that Australia exports 70,000 tonne of used clothing each year (according to NACRO) mainly to UAE, Pakistan and Malaysia – that is 70,000,000 kg of cast-off clothing every year. Every pair of jeans (less than 1kg) takes 10,000 litres of water to grow the cotton fabric (according to WRAP UK). They are big numbers. Textile waste is a big issue and the more I read, the more I’m convinced that as a society, we need to change our ways. Continue reading →

Sew 312 – Old jeans live again

Textile waste from the clothing industry comes in two forms – either pre-consumer waste generated during the design and marketing phase, or post-consumer waste in the form of second-hand clothing.

Post-consumer waste is the main focus of Sew it Again because the project grew out of my thrift shop ‘habit’ and instinctive sense of ‘rescuing’ natural fibres garments – and during this year I’m working my way through the accumulated surplus (five wardrobes +).

In Australia there are about 3000 opportunity shops run by various charitable groups which operate under the National Association of Charitable Recycling Organisations (NACRO) umbrella and collect post-consumer waste to either redistribute to those in need or sell to raise funds to fulfil their missions. People who frequent thrift shops do so for many reasons – it may be from necessity, or from thrifty green values (like me), or collectors looking for something unique (that’s me too). Continue reading →

Sew 310 – Sharing refashion confidence

We don’t live in a perfect world, so why expect that our clothing, our sewing and our refashion projects will be perfect?

In my book, a finished project has a few quirks and minor imperfections is far superior to the one that remains incomplete waiting for its ‘perfect’ moment to arrive – or sadder still, it never even got started.

Sometimes you just have to dive in and make something happen in order to move forward in an organic if unstructured way – a bit like the Sew it Again project itself!

I have learned some people worship neatness in the same way I value original randomness – and upcycling and refashion is not for those people. When Kristina arrived at the Textile Beat studio yesterday she knew her neat cautious approach was holding her back from playing fast and loose with the scissors. She just needed confidence to let go and try something new – and see what happened. Continue reading →