Tag Archives: jumper-skirt

Sew 193 – Sky-blue linen + wool

Put natural-fibre clothing on a natural beauty in a Queensland beach setting and it is hard to go wrong!

This upcycle involved an op-shop linen shirt and wool jumper-skirt found separately but now a perfectly matched sky blue. The short-sleeved wool jumper was diced up – the turtle-neck saved for another project, the sleeves turned into flared cuffs for the linen shirt, and the body of the jumper trimmed to be a skirt with narrow elastic waistband. The ribbed hem of the jumper is effective as the skirt hem.

The linen shirt remains largely intact (although shoulder pads and velcro removed) with its sailor collar, front zip and pockets. The change was with the sleeves, which were cropped to below the elbow then the wool sleeve off-cut added for a flared effect. The scarf is another op shop find and the hat belongs to Lilly B, the gorgeous model photographed on the beach at Alexandra Headland. Continue reading →

Sew 189 – Jumper to jazzy skirt

Tradition and convention tend to keep us locked into established patterns – be that of behaviour, processes and possessions. A jumper is a jumper – until you turn it on its head.

Transforming old reject jumpers/sweaters into skirts is one of my favorite and easiest upcycles – and it’s the focus of an upcoming workshop on July 25 at the Jumpers and Jazz Festival in Warwick. If you’d like to join us, at the Abbey of the Roses activity, you can book here.

I love wearing long wool skirts with tights for winter warmth so I’ll be making more in coming days to demonstrate creative ways to reuse old wool jumpers with holes in them. Continue reading →

Sew 46 – One from the gestational file

This orange and black stripped outfit once was a woollen jumper which I’ve turned into a jumper-skirt with sleeves as a neck scarf, teamed with a wool top.

It’s from my files because I was distracted at the Rural Press Club, catching up with journo mates such as Jane Paterson, Steve Gray, Gordon Collie, Teena Girdis, Neroli Roocke and meeting new ones Sue Neales from The Australian and Cassandra Hough from ABC Toowoomba, respectively runner-up and winner of the Excellence in Rural Reporting awards.

The link between the rural sector and what I’m doing here with Sew it Again is not immediately obvious until you think about where your clothes come from. They’re either made from natural farmed resources (wool, cotton, flax, hemp, alpaca etc) or man-made from petroleum, oil or gas.

After the Rural Press Club I went to Avid Reader bookshop in West End to pick up my newly-arrived copy of The Sustainable Fashion Handbook by Sandy Black (I just had to have my own copy), bumped into my dear friend Kay Pearse who is off to the US tomorrow, and then it was time to pick up Darcy from a city meeting and on to the airport to pick up son Max.

A fun day but no time at home feeding the baby – model Mabel needed a change of clothes! Continue reading →