Tag Archives: ATASDA

Sew 248 – Silk jacket shortened

corporate wear in silkMaterial World is another Voyeur magazine September story of interest that outlines where the world’s best textiles come from. It tells of silk from Varanasi in India, angora from Ankara in Turkey, merino wool from Marlborough New Zealand (Australian merino growers are up there with the best too), crocodile from Crocodylus Park in the Northern Territory and cotton from Texas in the United States.

I’m not sure of the origins of the pure silk in this Keri Craig jacket but I picked it up from a Brisbane op-shop because I love rescuing natural fibre garments in danger of being overlooked and then dumped. Although its wide lapels and long line were somewhat dated, I hand-washed it before giving it a restyle to team with a fine black and white hounds-tooth check skirt (also opshop found) to create a corporate look.  Continue reading →

Sew 169 – Gorgeous zero-waste skirt

Creative reuse of waste garmentsAt a global level people are beginning to question the way we dress, where clothing comes from, and whether it is made with ethical and sustainable processes.

As there is rising interest in home cooking and food growing for health and wellbeing, there is a pressing need to rethink our approach to textiles and fashion. Fast food and fast fashion are convenient – but not necessarily sustainable or good for us and our planet.

My model for a social and environmental shift includes empowering individuals to reimagine and recreate their own wardrobe collection by creatively chopping and changing existing clothing to suit themselves.

Instead of global generic bland brand dressing, this shift involves local, individual unfashionistas branding themselves through sustainable, ethical eco-clothing as part of a REfashion Revolution turning waste and reject clothing into something to wear with pride. Continue reading →

Sew 96 – Creative inspiration

upcycled silk history skirtIt is affirming to be around people who value your work, as it was for me yesterday meeting many wonderful women of threads at the Australian Textile Artists and Surface Designers Association Queensland social day.

Upcycling existing clothing is not new but many have lost the skills and confidence it requires or are not prepared to spend time and effort in doing so. We all have different priorities and are at different stages of life, but textile artists, designers and quilters, get what I’m about.

A common first-world problem is wardrobes bulging with clothing – we often keep stuff we bought in previous years and (on average) we each go on to buy another 11kg of clothing every year, according to FAO fabric apparel statistics. Multiply that by 7 billion people in the world and you begin to appreciate the impact clothing habits have on global resource use and ecological health. Most of the rejects end up as landfill.

Av consumption is 11kg of apparel fibre per person per yearTo demonstrate what 11kgs of clothing looks like, I boxed up some cast-offs (thanks Sally) photographed right.  To show fibre types, the synthetics nearly fill a 50-litre storage box, the cotton about half a box and the wool, linen and cellulose fibres are about one garment each.

In the front of this photo, there’s a measuring stick distilling the FAO figures from which I’ve calculated that on average, each person in the world is each year consuming 6.6kg synthetic, 3.74kg cotton,  400g cellulose fibres (eg viscose), 200g of wool and 150g flax/linen. In reality, the world is drowning in clothing. You almost can’t give it away except to third-world countries where most first-world cast-offs end up, leaving skill-displacement and disposal problems in their wake. Continue reading →