Tag Archives: New Zealand

Sew 284 – Green Heart is fair

It is great to live in a city that invests in a sustainability ethos by hosting the free Green Heart Fair twice every year as a community and sustainability festival, promoting innovative green living in a fun, family-friendly way.

The Green Heart Fair website says “more than 100 of our leading sustainability organisations, community groups, artisans, foodies, green-thumbs, conservationists, businesses and eco experts will be sharing information and knowledge with visitors on how to live more sustainably and offering vital tips to reduce rising cost of living pressures”.

Textile Beat will be there with some Sew it Again garments on display and running a free T-shirts Reworked workshop. Continue reading →

Sew 241 – Little black dress lives on

Great to have more of my New Zealand family involved in the Sew it Again project, with cousin Keri being the latest to upcycle and wear a Textile Beat refashion as Sew 241.

We went op-shopping in Brisbane during National Op Shop Week, as you do, and Keri found a little black dress of dated style with good potential because of its viscose fabric and pretty neckline.

After washing it, Keri grooved-up the hemline by cutting it into a modern curve and cropped off the puffy sleeves. When teamed with a red top and tights (from my stash) this is ideal work-wear for Keri whose management role within childcare centres straddles the office (add a black jacket) and occasional hands-on involvement. Continue reading →

Sew 240 – Snip and tie shoulder straps

Op shopping is such an adventure and much more fun than shopping for new stuff because you get to make discoveries.

This is a quote from my young New Zealand visitor Olivia after we called into a few op shops during National Op Shop Week, in-between the usual sightseeing and conventional shopping.

What a great insight from a nine-year-old, right, modelling one of her finds. The I Love Aus singlet was perfect, apart from being too long in the shoulders. All we had to do was snip each shoulder on the diagonal and tie a knot to shorten and prevent the shoulders slipping off (see photos below). Olivia then teamed it with op-shop-found shorts to suit her young athletic style. Continue reading →

Sew 239 – Small tuck revives castoff

It was great to have a reason to head to Byron Bay yesterday, playing tour guide around the lighthouse and Wategos for my New Zealand cousin Keri and her offspring Olivia and Liam.

Although I didn’t buy anything, I took the opportunity to chat with Glen Casey who owns the new Patagonia – Byron store and learn about the company’s impressive environmental and social commitment.

The integrity of Patagonia products is reflected right through the company and includes the Common Threads Partnership to encourage recycling and reducing consumption by creating products that last a long time. The partnership is fostering a culture of reduce, reuse, repair, recycle and reimagine to lower our collective environmental impact. A fabulous ethos underpinning a great clothing company. Continue reading →

Sew 182 – Merino lives on

I’m half-way through the Sew it Again project – and celebrated by flying into the Gold Coast this morning with the sun rising on a beautiful clear sky day – and a bush walk up Mt Coot-tha with daughter Lily where the clear skies meant we could see across Moreton Bay.

I loved visiting the colourful, cultural melting pot that is Kuala Lumpur to catch up with my brother Tony Capon and his family, and my aunt Kate McLachlan from New Zealand, but city high-rise living in a tropical metropolis is very different to our leafy-green Queenslander lifestyle in inner-suburban Brisbane where we live close to nature. Continue reading →

Sew 179 – Versatile linen cape

Linen is an ancient fibre made from flax which lasts a long time and is sustainable because its production does not usually involve a lot of water and chemical use. I love the crushed look linen gets after washing and wear it that way without ironing as a badge of honour – saving effort and energy.

The upcycled part of Sew 179 is the strip of linen fabric with frayed edges which I cut into two wraps a while back. One remains as a wrap, as worn below when I visited to Heli Lounge Bar to enjoy KL’s landmarks. The other strip I’ve turned into a versatile cape, secured in its many incarnations by fabric-covered safety pins. Continue reading →

Sew 155 – Treasuring natural fibres

The beautiful properties of natural fibres remain long after the product is grown and garment created – they’re worthy of being treasured, mended and adapted.

This super-fine merino jumper gathered from a New Zealand op shop during a 2011 trip with daughter Lily is treasured for its softness, warmth and lustre. It’s upcycled as Sew 155 to overcome two issues, the tight neck and newly emerged holes.

Many say they don’t have time to mend. They’re too busy doing more important things (earning money, social media, drinking wine, shopping, exercising, pampering, ferrying offspring etc). Certainly essential chores absorb our time, more so at busy life stages.

But the sense of accomplishment and soul satisfaction that come from pausing to mend and adapt a quality garment rather than shopping for new are immeasurable and, I believe, under-rated at this point in our history. Continue reading →

Sew 87 – Signpost for wool

This black wool jumper carries the distinctive Woolmark logo but I’m less certain about the fibres in the second jumper I converted to a skirt and scarf for this outfit.

Wool is a beautiful fibre from nature and it is great to see the trademark Woolmark making a comeback after languishing for a period while the wool industry got its act together.

Australia is the leading wool producing nation but New Zealand spearheaded the wool comeback with its Icebreaker Merino story dramatically showing the way. Check out Southern Alps and Merino 101 here – such a great product and the quality remains long after the price is forgotten.

Prince Charles is an influential ambassador for wool as it aligns with the sustainability philosophy he has championed for a lifetime. The Prince’s Campaign for Wool helped revive the Woolmark as the signature of assured provenance.

Woolmark is owned and funded by Australian growers and it was leadership from Stuart McCullough that brought the Woolmark out of mothballs to celebrate 50 years in 2014 and proudly feature in Italy’s L’Uomo Vogue March issue about Australia.

Today’s upcycle is of a black op shop wool jumper which I smartened up by removing the pilling which can accumulate with wear and now it’s as good as new. The second jumper is too lightweight to be 100 percent wool but nonetheless was perfect for conversion to my signature jumper-skirt, but reshaping the bottom and using the sleeves as a scarf.

Sew 66 – Old shorts to skirt

Upcycling male ambassador Phil sent his too-big old shorts my way and I recreated them as a shabby-chic skirt.

Reinventing old stuff for a new life and engaging others in creatively discovering ways to reuse existing clothing is my purpose this year with the Sew it Again campaign.

This campaign brings together all that I know and believe in from my upbringing living simply on a sheep farm in New Zealand, through agricultural science study, work as a rural reporter and advocate, then postgraduate study in eco-leadership and wellbeing.

It was wonderful to share stories and a meal with gorgeous Julia Shapley when she visited the studio yesterday. Julia’s on her way to becoming a ‘glamorous hippy’ as she follows her heart on a creative journey that involves many new and exciting projects – at least one of which involves design, fabric and sewing. It feels good to connect with friends who share similar values and also believe that anything is possible when you engage with universal intelligence.

In this photo, Julia is wearing a dress of her own making – simple yet glamorous – and reading a favourite book of mine, The Sustainable Fashion Handbook by Sandy Black. Continue reading →

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 →