Category Archives: repurpose

Sew 42 – Go Green for greater good

Resewing adventures are a way of creating and sharing ideas to magic discarded clothing into something else – long white cotton skirt turns muumuu by cutting armholes.

Our fashion habits and mores have led the world to the point where mountains of perfectly good clothing are being shipped around the world or sent to landfill.

This year I’m investing time, energy, creativity and skills to devise ways to refashion 365 outfits from old stuff in my wardrobes (yes, that’s plural) with the Sew it Again project.

The project is an initiative of the creative business/social enterprise Textile Beat, which made a splash last year at Brisbane’s Green Heart Fair. Notification came yesterday that the next Green Heart Fair run by Brisbane City Council as part of our city’s sustainability agenda is on June 1 and I’m looking forward to that.

Meanwhile, it’s Go Green Week in the United Kingdom (Feb 10 – 16) and I enjoyed these comments from University of the Arts London’s new Chair of Art in the Environment Lucy Orta. 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 39 – Towards zero waste

Transformed from two jackets, this outfit is for tonight’s opening of the Love Up-cycled exhibition at Reverse Emporium in Brisbane, which includes Textile Beat’s Sew it Again.

Am looking forward to meeting upcyclers likely to have similar values to mine – integrity, creativity, autonomy and purpose.

I’m proud to live in a city with a sustainability agenda that includes a Towards Zero Waste Strategy, and events such as the bi-annual Green Heart Fair which I attended last year. Other cities with zero waste strategies include San Francisco (they’ve just introduced a textile waste program) in the US, Vancouver in Canada and Kaikoura in New Zealand.

Brisbane City Council’s says on its website: “Zero Waste is a goal, a process, a way of thinking that profoundly changes our approach to resources and production. Not only is Zero Waste about recycling and diverting materials from landfills, it is also about restructuring production and distribution systems to prevent waste from being created in the first place. Zero waste ensures that resources already in existence are used to their maximum potential.” 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 34 – Denim gets ripped, not

Old denim jeans are a dime a dozen and for today’s offering, I converted a pair of jeans to a skirt by cropping them at the knees, turning upside down and creating new waistline.

My year of upcycling existing clothing with Sew it Again is all about transformation – of old clothing, damaged clothing, ill-fitting clothing and myself!

I can see how my bossy left brain – the maths/science part – has inhibited my creative right brain with this conversion because it looks a bit too ‘neat’ for my liking. I started off well, upending the jeans is creative, but then tried to tame them with a neat waist and bow.

The exciting thing is that I know that if I work at it every day, my actions and commitment to creatively pursue new ways of doing old things, such skirts in future will be wilder and freer.

Denim is a fashion perennial and according to MX Style it is ripped, pale, overalls and dresses, and boyfriend denim that’s on-trend this season. And apparently rips are back big-time. 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 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 →

Sew 30 – Library full of knowledge

This garment was upcycled by Jane Milburn of Textile Beat. It is part of the Sew it Again project to demonstrate a different way of dressing by repurposing exiting clothing for pleasure, reward and sustainability.

That’s my job this year because I’m stepping up. As Rachael Robertson says in her book Leading on the Edge … ‘if you have the expertise or knowledge, speak out and step up into leadership, regardless of your position’.

The current propensity for endless, almost mindless, consumption means our world is bulging with cast-off clothing which we don’t know what to do with because home-sewing skills are now as rare as hen’s teeth.

Perhaps we are at a turning point. The fashion industry is recognizing the need for change after last year’s Rana Plaza fire in Bangladesh exposed exploitation and a fashion revolution is underway. Continue reading →

Sew 28 – Love upcycled

All credit to New York designer Michael Simon for the gorgeous heart features on this vintage top. I just added a few beads to cover age marks and teamed it with a skirt made from an inverted pink top trimmed with cream linen.

I’m thrilled to be one of 25 upcyclers contributing to the Love Up-cycled exhibition opening February 8 at the Reverse Emporium which is a great showcase for Sew it Again creations.

This is another small step to establishing the values and brand of Textile Beat as a creative, natural and unique way of dressing that is ethical and sustainable.

Reverse Emporium is at Woolloongabba and runs a quarterly series of exhibitions showcasing the work of Brisbane artists that demonstrate an awareness of sustainable practices and a devotion to reducing the impact of their craft on the environment.

It is the gallery shop front for Reverse Garbage, which says Australians generate about 14 million tonnes of garbage each year. About two-thirds of this is commercial and industrial waste – reuse of which reduces landfill and helps protect the environment from further pollution.

I’m an agricultural scientist by training, a communications consultant by practice and this year I’m on a creative journey upcycling natural fibre garments for pleasure, reward and sustainability.

Hearts are highly relevant for Love Up-cycled with Valentine’s Day just around the corner.

I had to dig deep into my stash to relocate this top gifted to me for upcycling last year by my friend Robyn, which she had been given by a friend 20 years earlier but was no longer wearing.

The quality and integrity of the top is so strong that I resisted the temptation to cut into it. Instead, I teamed it with a mod skirt which I created by turning another top upside down, adding thin elastic at the waistline before trimming it across the sleeves and adding a linen bias-cut frill.

Sew 22 – Repurposed trousers to skirt

This was a pair of reject promo trousers that I converted to a skirt by adding an A-line extension from an orange dress which I decorated with circular frills cut from the trouser legs.

Everyone I know has excess garments in their wardrobes. The world is awash with clothing that is no longer fit for purpose, so it makes sense that instead of dumping it in landfill we convert it into something else.

It is disconcerting to read that Australians have the largest homes in the world – after the United States and Canada – and I’m sure this equates to having the biggest wardrobes too!

According to Lindsay Wilson from Shrink that Footprint, the average new home in Australia is 214 m², the US 201 and Canada 181 m^2.The countries with the smallest homes are Hong Kong 45, Russia 57, the United Kingdom 76 and Italy with 81 m².

I live in a big old Queenslander in Brisbane and I’m mindful that our family has accumulated a lot of stuff over the years. In our defence, most of it is pre-loved treasure, gathered from relatives, flea markets, op shops or friends cast-offs – and a lot of found stuff from nature including rocks, driftwood and shells.

On my 365-day upcycling journey this year, I’m working my way through the wardrobes of natural fibre garments I’ve gathered from ops shops and other sources in recent years.

Today’s upcycle was black cotton trousers from the $2 rack at an op shop, which was branded with advertising but appeared new. I cut them off below the zip and added new front and back panels cut from an orange dress to extend the skirt to above-knee. I cut open the leg off-cuts and used a circle pattern (sorry forgot to photograph this) to cut lengths of frill which I then sewed around the skirt. I made flowers from the leftover bits and sewed salvaged buttons at each centre. The top was one I made years ago with the sleeves rolled up.