Tag Archives: Fairholme College

Sew 294 – Pulling the threads together

Dr Wendy Relf and Adrienne Richards at Hawkesbury Regional Gallery

It is always helpful to gain fresh perspective on the Sew it Again project as I did today with my sister-in-law Wendy Relf and Hawkesbury Regional Gallery education and public program officer Adrienne Richards.

The project is a creative journey that connects head and heart. It bridges memories of childhood, agricultural science study, communications work and a love of nature – as well as purposefully engaging me in issues of ecological health and wellbeing. As I chatted to Adrienne about my journey from early days on the farm through agricultural science to rural reporting and then issues-based communications work – her summation was that Sew it Again is ‘pulling all the threads together’. Thanks Adrienne, I’ll take those words and put them to good use!

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Sew 292 – Restyle with a bow

The choices we make when we dress each day influence the kind of world we live in. The greenest clothes are those that already exist in the world, mountains of which are readily accessible from your own wardrobes, through op-shops, friends cast-offs or clothing swaps and can then be refashioned.

Having a few sewing skills is empowering. It gives you choice, because you are not restricted to what is newly available for purchase at any particular time. You can choose fabrics you like in colours and styles that flatter your style. And you can be uniquely original – and never run into someone wearing your style. And best of all, by reusing natural fibre clothing you can help save it from prematurely ending up in landfill. Continue reading →

Sew 291 – Re-learning care for clothes

The study of home economics has disappeared from some Australian schools entirely and is considered a lightweight in others – yet it teaches important life-skills about food and nutrition, sewing and textiles, and consumer citizenship.

Lack of knowledge about food and food preparation is no doubt contributing to obesity while absence of simple sewing and laundering skills leads to many clothing being discarded prematurely.

Recent United States research discussed in this Ecouterre article found that young people there have little idea of how to care for clothes. Textiles and Apparel Professor Pamela Norum from the University of Missouri-Columbia surveyed hundreds of American baby boomers and millennials about clothing consumption and found the ability to sew, hem, repair, and launder diminished across generations. Continue reading →

Sew 290 – Sewing in the 21st century

Everyone has a unique journey through life. Good things and bad things happen to each of us – and all we can do is make the most of the opportunities that come our way.

My opportunity this year is to spend time every day refashioning and upcycling existing clothing – demonstrating a creative way of dressing that doesn’t involve always buying new stuff. I’m working through my stash of op-shop found natural-fibre clothing, playing with ideas to reshape and resew them.

I’m not trying to become a clothing designer and I don’t pretend to have fashion qualifications – I’m coming at this from the perspective of conserving natural resources in our finite world. I believe refashioning existing clothing also enables sewing – a dying art in most communities – to be a useful life-skill for the 21st century now that it is uneconomic for women in developed nations to sew clothing from scratch. Continue reading →