This garment was upcycled by Jane Milburn of Textile Beat. It is part of the Sew it Again project to demonstrate a different way of dressing by repurposing exiting clothing for pleasure, reward and sustainability.

That’s my job this year because I’m stepping up. As Rachael Robertson says in her book Leading on the Edge … ‘if you have the expertise or knowledge, speak out and step up into leadership, regardless of your position’.

The current propensity for endless, almost mindless, consumption means our world is bulging with cast-off clothing which we don’t know what to do with because home-sewing skills are now as rare as hen’s teeth.

Perhaps we are at a turning point. The fashion industry is recognizing the need for change after last year’s Rana Plaza fire in Bangladesh exposed exploitation and a fashion revolution is underway. 

I love clothes as much as the next person but because of my upbringing and background, I’ve been making my own or renovating others for years.

My little part in the fashion revolution is to spend a year demonstrating ways that we, as individuals, can reuse existing clothing and textiles by applying simple home-sewing skills to create our own ‘resew’ style.

Thanks to the wonderful Brisbane Library I’ve been reading amazing books about sustainable fashion, eco-fashion, eco-chic, upcycling, reusing, repurposing, refashioning – and I’m finding almost all are published in the United States or United Kingdom.

Two notable exceptions are the fabulous eco-fashion magazine Peppermint which is based in Brisbane and Murdoch Books written by South-Australian based India Flint. I’m looking for more – and perhaps I’m in the process of writing one myself through this project.

Today’s offering is a skirt made from a vintage cotton beautifully hand-stitched tablecloth that I found in a Dubbo op shop. I offset its square shape with a similar-sized piece of handkerchief linen as lining, cutting a hole in the centre of both. To do this, fold both together into quarters, lay a round plate off the centre and cut out a semi-circle with circumference equivalent to hip measurement divided by four. Stitch these two pieces together then sew to a circle of stretch fabric for waistband. I renovated the top (another op shop find) by shortening its length and adding a button to secure its floppy neckline.