Refashioning clothing you already have instead of buying new is what I, Jane Milburn, am doing every day this year as a mindful, resourceful and purposeful project demonstrating sustainable ways to dress by upcycling unworn natural-fibre garments.

To create Sew 273, I took a plain black silk skirt with frill hem and randomly altered the hemline before embellishing it with fringing cut from two butter-cup yellow unworn silk garments – a jacket and a striped shirt.

To begin, I cut on the diagonal across the bottom of the skirt to create a more interesting sloping hemline. I cut the bottom frill from the offcut and stitched it to the new hemline.  I then cut a strip from all the finished edges (including buttons, button-holes, collar) of the silk jacket to create a long and continuous hemmed silk length which is about 4cm wide, and zigzagged it in place above the bottom black frill.  Continue reading →