Tag Archives: cotton

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 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 20 – Inspired by junky style

This outfit is cotton trousers turned crop-top and wool jumper turned skirt – with the top inspired by Junky Styling’s wardrobe surgery and the jumper-skirt being from my own imagination.

I’ve been upcycling on-and-off for decades but became more serious two years ago when I rediscovered op shops and took to ‘rescuing’ natural fibre clothing selling for a song – some perfect some dated or damaged but all worthwhile resources.

At one stage I had 100 wool jumpers, many more than needed for Brisbane’s mild winter, so I converted some into easy, comfortable skirts with the sleeves being used as neck scarves.

Five wardrobes later and doing leadership study last year, I looked around the world via the internet and came across the wardrobe surgery being done by Annika Sanders and Kerry Seager in London.

I discovered their book Junky Styling Wardrobe Surgery which ignited fresh ideas and affirmed my commitment to upcycling natural fibre garments for pleasure, reward and sustainability.

In Junky Styling, Annika and Kerry write: “Recycling worn, discarded, second-hand clothing involves taking a garment that already has an identity and looking at it as a raw material, studying the existing form and details, then applying them to a new design – a complete reinterpretation and disregard for the existing identify of the piece. This involves a vision and an understanding of form and functionality.

“We reckon that you can recycle anything, and it’s a wonderful way to engage our imaginations. With such a vast array of materials used in clothing, we have always maintained that distinction between ‘natural’ and ‘manmade’ fabric. The quality of natural textiles has always made them first choice for our raw materials. Our first clothing creation was made from a pure wool grey pinstripe suit; the feel, strength and durability of the cloth impressed and continues to inspire us. The cloth also helped to define the identity of Junky Styling as a ‘new take on tailoring’. With no attention paid towards promoting an image or branding, the raw materials spoke for themselves and showed that Junky Styling was all about lasting quality and sustainability.

“Recycling is extending the life of an item. Nothing exceeds its ‘sell-by date’ – the date just changes and keeps changing, continually updating until the fabric falls apart.” View video clip here.

We all have unworn clothing in our wardrobes and my 365-day Sew it Again project is demonstrating how you can update yours using simple home-sewing techniques.

This jumper skirt was an old wool pullover – conversion technique shown in my Stitch in Time column October 2013 – the holes in which were covered by sewing on buttons. The black singlet was a cotton lycra off-cut with seams just zigzagged to finish. With the Country Road trousers, I cropped the legs off, cut away the inside seams and zigzagged around the bottom edges. I created armholes by cutting away the pockets and extending the opening by unpicking the side-seam until it was comfortable. I found a cord in my string box and used it to draw in the waistband/neckline.

Sew 17 – Old-new not new-new

This cotton dress once was sleeveless and long now is short with peplum and sleeves following a hand-sew modification.

It was a $2 purchase from the op shop sale I wrote about in this post – op shop sales being just as frequent as sales in the thousands of dress shops and department stores pushing newer, brighter, seemingly ever-cheaper clothing.

In her book Overdressed: The shockingly high cost of cheap fashion, New York-based writer Elizabeth L. Cline said that for many consumers, part of the appeal of cheap fashion is that it allows them to get rid of their purchases when newer, more with-it items come along.

She sites astonishing textile consumption figures when clothing is combined with sheets and towels. Every year, Americans throw away 12.7 million tons, or 68 pounds of textiles per person, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, which also estimates that 1.6 million tons of this waste could be recycled or reused.

You might think this clothing churn is not bad for the environment because some of it can be reused, but Elizabeth says a tremendous amount of clothing is in fact not getting recycled but getting trashed, and the environmental impact of making clothes is being entirely overlooked.

There’s a large disconnect between expanding wardrobes and the additional demands for fossil fuels, energy and water – and the resulting impact on our environment and climate.

As an agricultural scientist and journalist, it is from the perspective of reducing and reusing natural resources that I’m undertaking this Sew it Again campaign to demonstrate simple ways we can upcycle natural-fibre clothing from our own and others’ wardrobes.

Today’s watermelon pink cotton dress was adapted with hand-sewing done while chatting and watching TV. I trimmed the bottom from the long skirt to make it knee length then used the hem off-cut as a peplum around the waist and to create sleeves. It took a little time, but was not difficult and the rhythm of the needlework was relaxing and satisfying. It reconnected me to skills I learned from previous generations of my family, when home-sewing was as natural a part of everyday life as home-cooking. I have an aversion to ironing and find that giving cotton good shake after washing and smoothing the crinkles by hand is enough to avoid the need for it.

Sew 14 – Textile metaphors

This fabric has a tapa-cloth look but it’s just an ordinary cotton skirt turned into a dress by adding shoulder straps.

Tapa cloth is made from bark and one of many naturally-derived textiles that form society’s early story-telling history.

Beverly Gordon says in her book Textiles: the whole story, there are some potent textile metaphors that are now part of our everyday vernacular describing life experiences.

We talk of ‘spinning a yarn’ when we draw out words and put them together to tell a tale, and we ‘put a spin on’ ideas or events, shaping them as we would like them to be.

People who dabble in magic ‘weave’ spells. These days we also follow ‘threads’ in online conversations, as our discussions weave in and out of each other.

We talk about life ‘hanging by a thread’, which reminds us of our fragility and the preciousness of our time on Earth. Fibre terms are used to describe deterioration or coming apart – things are frayed, ripped, tattered or shredded.

Gordon says a new textile, like a new life, is clean and fresh, and unused cloth often functions as a symbol of purity as well as wholeness. In contrast, worn cloth represents the end of wholeness and, like a worn-out life, has little future.

Through this 365-day eco-clothing project, I’m creating a new story about worn cloth by using creativity and imagination to stitch-up a second life for discarded garments.

Today’s offering was a long, full skirt found in an op shop. It makes a cool, loose dress when strappy shoulders are added. For the straps, I used fabric scraps from two other garments. The spagetti straps looked a bit plain so I added another layer of similar fabric for interest and balance. Pin straps in place before sewing, and adjust the position or length according to your preference.

Sew 12 – Adventure in imagination

This skirt once was a plain but well-made cotton drill skirt which was going begging so I gave it a new lease on life by adding assorted silk and linen stripes using waste fabric.

I get a fantastic sense of satisfaction from making something out of not much, living a more creative and meaningful existence. Those words are straight out of the mouth of Kevin McCloud in his Seaside Shack series on ABC1.

Kevin said making something fresh out of not much is rather fun. Upcycling is an adventure into our imagination – and the experience of making things is powerful and enriching.

“The pleasure is in the making and doing, not buying and consuming,” Kevin said. “Making things with your hands, you feel like you have done something, achieved something.”

“The best kind of recycling is when you take things and transform them into something special that looks like it is really expensive.”

While Kevin’s design challenge is adapting reclaimed and upcycled building materials to a new use – mine is to adapt, reuse and upcycle discarded clothing.

This skirt is for my friend Georgie Somerset. We cropped the old skirt to a length that suited her, then I cut up a silk top (forgot to photograph it) and used the frill as the new skirt hem and a brooch. Then to the skirt front, I sewed various strips gleaned from my silk off-cuts box and other oddments of tablecloth and ribbon.

Sew 10 – Fasten with fabpins

This skirt was lovely in its day but wasn’t being worn so I’ve given it a second life as a dress that is fitted with the help of fabric-covered safety pins – which I’m calling fabpins.

You need to find good quality safety pins and wrap them bottom to top with a strip of fabric that is then anchored by a knot. They can be used in place of buttons, but ideally need to be unpinned and excluded from the wash.

Good quality cotton fabric such as was used for this skirt has a high thread count, feels beautiful to touch and can last for decades. It is a shame to see such garments tossed out when styles change and wearers move on to the next best thing keeping up with the latest fashion.

A great Opinion Letter in the 4 January issue of New Scientist magazine provides a fresh take on the idea of ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ which is relevant here.

Wiebina Heesterman from Birmingham UK suggests a switch to ‘powering down with the Joneses’ and challenging neighbours to take actions to help reduce waste and fix the climate.

Wiebina says then you can say things like: “We use far less energy than anyone else in the street, we only had to pay $500 for gas and electricity this year, what about you? Or: “Look at my 1920s dress: it belonged to my great grandmother – I bet you haven’t got anything that beautiful.”

I’ve got a few garments that belonged to my Great Great Aunt Winnie stashed in a top cupboard somewhere which I upcycled and wore during university days (back in the late ‘70s that was!). They’ll be ready for re-upcycling soon as part of my 365-day upcycling journey this year.

Meanwhile with Sew it Again 10, I cut off the bottom border of the skirt and cut it in two. I draped these two panels to form the top, making tucks at the shoulders and sewing the panels to the skirt band, which opens with a side zip. I sewed the top panels together at the side opposite the zip, and secured the overlaps front, back and zip-side using fabpins.

Sew 1 – adding value to cast-offs

A new day, a new year and a new creative, sustainable and unique way of dressing in upcycled natural fibre garments.

You are what you repeatedly do. During 2014 I’m following my heart on a creative journey through this values-based Sew it Again project which has evolved from study with the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation.

The project is inspiring upcycling of natural fibres through daily posting of repurposed garments, such as this History Skirt, right, created for bright university student Belinda in my Textile Beat studio from pieces of discarded cotton dresses and shirts. Continue reading →