Tag Archives: wool

Sew 190 – Eco-dye with tea leaves

It’s taken a while, but I’m now dying with tea. Cream wool is pretty but the colour doesn’t seem warming enough for winter. This men’s wool knit is a favourite op shop find from a few years ago and I enjoy its soft cosiness. Its upcycle as Sew 190 happened by chance – when I splashed it with tea while lounging on the sofa. Although I immediately sponged it, the tea stain remained.

The solution was to gather all the ‘best before 2012’ tea leaves and make a big brew. The wool absorbed the colour beautifully and evenly. I left it soaking in the brew for about 30 minutes, spun out the excess then dried it in front of the fire. The jumper is now a beautiful caramel shade and smells of Earl Grey. Continue reading →

Sew 188 – ARLF farewell honours

It was an honour to be commissioned to create a unique, relevant farewell gift for Dr Lesley Fitzpatrick who led the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation as CEO for seven years.

The ARLF’s flagship program is the Australian Rural Leadership Program which provides a rare opportunity to enrich, enlighten and empower selected individuals – and I was fortunate to be sponsored through the program in 2009 thanks to the Fairfax Agricultural Media scholarship.

One of Lesley’s achievements as CEO was securing Graduate Certificate status for ARLP through James Cook University. I found the Grad Cert transformative because It led me on a creative journey into eco-leadership, reusing natural fibres to reduce waste and help shift the way we think about fashion and clothing. Continue reading →

Sew 185 – Meredith made a cape

A bit of lateral thinking can go a long way. Meredith brought this gorgeous embellished red wool skirt to our Biloela workshop wondering what she could do to morph a cast-off into something she was more likely to wear.

After turning it upside down, around and about for a few minutes, we came up with the idea of turning it into a winter cape. The skirt was comprised of panels, and Meredith unpicked most of two seams that lined up with her arms. She then used blanket stitch and wool thread to secure and define these openings as armholes. The zip became the collar when half-unzipped and with the edges secured by a couple of random vintage buttons. The zip and fastenings remain in place as collar features – and a signpost to the fact this is a refashioned creation. To finish off the neckline, Meredith sewed a piece of elastic inside the back of the ‘collar’ so it sits up neatly at the rear. Clever! 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 157 – Upcycled jumper poncho

The fabric of my career includes earlier work with the Rural Press Club network which is a great forum to discuss how farming and agriculture feeds into the health of society.

While the specific topic of this morning’s RPC breakfast at Tattersalls was rural health services, I loved catching up with Margie Milgate about her ideas around bush paleo and paleo agriculture – doubly so after watching The Men Who Made Us Fat on ABC TV last night.

We can learn a lot by reflecting on where we’ve come from, how things used to work and complementing modern-day practices with practical old-fashioned solutions – because almost everything old seems to eventually become new again. Continue reading →

Sew 156 – On World Environment Day

On average Australians throw away around 21 million tonnes of waste per year, according to the Australian Government’s Living Greener initiative. This figure includes waste from our homes and gardens as well as waste generated from building and renovating our homes.

Since the population of Australia is 22 million, we’re each contributing nearly one tonne (that’s 1000 kg) of waste every single year. This is three kgs of waste each, every day, every year ongoing.

Steps to reduce waste are simple actions we each undertake to minimise our footprint on the planet – today as World Environment Day and every other day after that. 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 150 – Turtleneck becomes fringe

Tight necklines can be uncomfortable, which might be why there are many turtle-neck wool jumpers to be found in op shops.

I decided to test what would happen when I fringed the neck and Sew 150 is the result. I’ve since washed it on gentle cycle in a laundry bag and the edges developed a nice fluffy effect, no unravelling in sight.

So instead of throwing away jumpers with tight necks, consider fringing. To achieve this effect, cut by following the rib-lines about 1cm apart, taking care to stop before the reinforced edge of the neck. Keep the strips as even as possible – get your eye in by looking ahead of where you are cutting. Wash with care. Sew 150 is teamed with a brown wool jumper skirt, with sleeves used as a tie belt. The different colours is the photo are due to the flash – not a magic new dye process. Continue reading →

Sew 147 – Resewing at embryonic stage

Forecasting social-cultural trends is something European trendsetter Lidewij Edelkoort learned to do by trusting her instincts and she now travels the world presenting at events such as Designex coming soon to Sydney Australia.

In a recent article, Edelkoort reflects on the current move towards nature, organics and the traditional. “We’re seeing the dawning of an embryonic age, where the social mood is shifting to a climate of community, care and compassion. A new epoch with different and more wholesome, localised options … Twenty years ago we craved imported goods. Now we’re turning our attention to things that are local and locally made … We went very quickly into the desire for global things and I think we will also unglobalise rapidly which I think is positive because transportation is taking its toll on society, financially and ecologically. So if we can do less of that, the better it is.” Continue reading →

Sew 146 – A blanket connection

Connectedness and community is something inner-city neighbourhood friend Lisa Baumann and I reflected on this morning. These positive characteristics of old-fashioned country life are not always cultivated in modern cities but are comforting when you come across them.

It was lovely sharing a coffee at Abode and scoping up Lisa’s day-old newspaper before heading home. Then to open the Sunday Mail and find a spread which has stories about Cunnamulla friends and sheep/wool producers Pru and Stu Barkla beside Ministry of Handmade’s Julie Hillier, well it’s made my day. I feel the urban and rural connection. Continue reading →