Tag Archives: Queensland Rural Regional and Remote Women’s Network

Sew 261 – Wear your own sparkle

Your sparkle is your uniqueness. Wear your sparkle and be the best version of yourself you can be said Julie Cross, one of the many inspirational speakers at Queensland Rural Regional and Remote Women’s Network conference in Charters Towers.

We make our own footprints in life. If we place more importance on the opinions of others than our own, we give away our power.

So inspiring to be part the QRRRWN network full of women doing amazing things – including four fellows from the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation. Georgie Somerset, below left, the outgoing QRRRWN president. Cathy McGowan MP, Catherine Marriott (wearing a Textile Beat history skirt) and Jane Milburn. Continue reading →

Sew 257 – Change T-shirt to suit you

Just a quick post today because I’ve flown north, back to the old stomping ground of Townsville, north Queensland where we lived for many years.

I’m enroute to Charters Towers for the upcoming Queensland Rural, Regional and Remote Women’s Conference, where I’ve been invited to present a Sew it Again Jane workshop on refashion and upcycling. The Women of the Worlde conference from September 16-18 promises to be enjoyable and enriching because there are so many enterprising and inspiring women in the network.

And tomorrow I’ve been invited by Charters Towers Regional Council to present a workshop on turning your creative passion into purpose, which is another exciting opportunity to reiterate ‘start where you are, use what you have, do what you can’. Continue reading →

Sew 244 – Year is two-thirds stitched!

At the beginning of 2014, I set a big goal to upcycle every day this year in an eco-social project demonstrating creative ways to reuse and refashion existing clothing instead of buying new.

Postgraduate study last year affirmed my impression that textile consumption was accelerating at an unsustainable rate, with UN Food and Agriculture Organization figures indicating annual per person usage rose from 7kg in 1992 to 11kg in 2010 – and most of the increase was in synthetic fibres made from petroleum.

There are 7 billion people in the world to feed and clothe, yet a United Kingdom report indicates nearly one-third of clothing ends up in landfill. When I considered that waste of resources and what I, as one little person living in Australia could do to make a difference, I felt compelled to act. Continue reading →