Monthly Archives: January 2014

Sew 21 – Skirt with a story to tell

This history skirt is upcycled from five reject garments made of silk, screen-printed cotton, linen and vintage buttons found at opportunity shops during a road trip up the Queensland coast.

History skirts are an original design and concept which I created based on a gored skirt pattern. It was inspired by a shirt I bought from the amazingly creative Mary Ede of The Skirt, who is based in Townsville north Queensland.

I wondered what could be done with all the natural fibres, fabrics and found stuff I was rescuing from op shops along the way – and the Textile Beat creative business/social enterprise and this Sew it Again project are results of that wondering.

It is rewarding when people like champion swimmer, expert trainer and stylish dresser (among other things) Lisa Curry support one’s efforts.

Last year, when Lisa Curry stepped into Blackall Cultural Centre while on her Aussie road trip inspiring health and wellbeing, her attention was immediately captured by my history skirts.

While Lisa’s eyes were drawn to its colour and creativity, her decision to purchase this upcycled natural fibre garment demonstrates support for slow fashion as one small way to boost ecological health and reduce our carbon footprint.

I posted this story of Lisa’s orange and avocado history skirt: “It was handcrafted in Brisbane by Jane Milburn from at least 10 upcycled fabric sources including an Italian linen dress, silk shirt and tie, rayon vest, cotton scarf, floral cotton from Nana’s fabric box, vintage buttons and more.”

I’ve got Col Jackson from Blues Country Magazine to thank for this photo taken at the QRRRWN annual conference, and my Australian Rural Leadership Program colleague Ele Cook from Coolah in New South Wales to thank for helping me follow my heart on this creative journey inspiring the upcycling of natural fibres for pleasure, reward and sustainability.

This chocolate swirl history skirt has several pockets for gadgets and each panel has a feature created from off-cuts. It is brought together by a stretch-knit waistband and hemmed with a border of raw silk. Because the construction is time consuming, it is a labour of love. I’ve teamed this skirt with a knit top from which I removed the roll collar and hemmed with zigzag.

Sew 20 – Inspired by junky style

This outfit is cotton trousers turned crop-top and wool jumper turned skirt – with the top inspired by Junky Styling’s wardrobe surgery and the jumper-skirt being from my own imagination.

I’ve been upcycling on-and-off for decades but became more serious two years ago when I rediscovered op shops and took to ‘rescuing’ natural fibre clothing selling for a song – some perfect some dated or damaged but all worthwhile resources.

At one stage I had 100 wool jumpers, many more than needed for Brisbane’s mild winter, so I converted some into easy, comfortable skirts with the sleeves being used as neck scarves.

Five wardrobes later and doing leadership study last year, I looked around the world via the internet and came across the wardrobe surgery being done by Annika Sanders and Kerry Seager in London.

I discovered their book Junky Styling Wardrobe Surgery which ignited fresh ideas and affirmed my commitment to upcycling natural fibre garments for pleasure, reward and sustainability.

In Junky Styling, Annika and Kerry write: “Recycling worn, discarded, second-hand clothing involves taking a garment that already has an identity and looking at it as a raw material, studying the existing form and details, then applying them to a new design – a complete reinterpretation and disregard for the existing identify of the piece. This involves a vision and an understanding of form and functionality.

“We reckon that you can recycle anything, and it’s a wonderful way to engage our imaginations. With such a vast array of materials used in clothing, we have always maintained that distinction between ‘natural’ and ‘manmade’ fabric. The quality of natural textiles has always made them first choice for our raw materials. Our first clothing creation was made from a pure wool grey pinstripe suit; the feel, strength and durability of the cloth impressed and continues to inspire us. The cloth also helped to define the identity of Junky Styling as a ‘new take on tailoring’. With no attention paid towards promoting an image or branding, the raw materials spoke for themselves and showed that Junky Styling was all about lasting quality and sustainability.

“Recycling is extending the life of an item. Nothing exceeds its ‘sell-by date’ – the date just changes and keeps changing, continually updating until the fabric falls apart.” View video clip here.

We all have unworn clothing in our wardrobes and my 365-day Sew it Again project is demonstrating how you can update yours using simple home-sewing techniques.

This jumper skirt was an old wool pullover – conversion technique shown in my Stitch in Time column October 2013 – the holes in which were covered by sewing on buttons. The black singlet was a cotton lycra off-cut with seams just zigzagged to finish. With the Country Road trousers, I cropped the legs off, cut away the inside seams and zigzagged around the bottom edges. I created armholes by cutting away the pockets and extending the opening by unpicking the side-seam until it was comfortable. I found a cord in my string box and used it to draw in the waistband/neckline.

Sew 19 – Creativity in dress

It took several additions to be satisfied with this dress and I am still not entirely so. It is a bit twee, lacking creative spark.

Creativity is an interesting quality, which my edition of the Macquarie Dictionary defines as the state or quality of being creative. Creative, adj, 1. having the quality or power of creating. 2. resulting from originality of thought or expression. 3. originative; productive.

As an agricultural science graduate, creativity didn’t feature much in my formal education and I always scratched my head when encountering star sign characterisations of Pisceans which generalised us as artistic types.

It was only after children and having fun with paint, clay and glue that I began experiencing the potential for creativity and the concept of producing something out of not much.

More recently while pausing again to look around my world and undertake further study, I read Deepak Chopra who identified creativity as one of the most significant spiritual laws in The Seven Spiritual Laws of Superheroes.

Chopra defines creativity as a leap in consciousness that brings new meaning or new context to any situation or problem. Cultivating creativity turns problems and obstacles into challenges and opportunities. In every adversity there is a seed of something magnificent.

He says creativity is the principal force that drives all life, evolution and the mechanics of science. To effectively harness creativity and lead in your life, Chopra recommends:

Determine what to get rid of – what in your life detracts from its quality and is unnecessary? Commit to letting go of whatever it is that is holding you back, including toxic habits, emotions, relationships, substances and environments.
Practice clarity of vision – what do you want to create? Ask yourself what you really want, why you really want it, and if manifesting it will serve a higher purpose for humanity
Follow the nine steps to accessing your creativity with diligence and detachment. The steps are: intended outcome; information gathering; information analysis; incubation; insight; inspiration; implementation; integration and incarnation.

I’ve taken these thoughts on board in developing this Sew it Again campaign as a personal leadership response to the burgeoning waste of textiles and clothing churn I see all around us. I am now in the implementation phase – Day 19 of a 365-day demonstration of upcycling natural fibre garments for pleasure, reward and sustainability.

From my op shop stash, I used an old silk shirt to create straps and embellishments to turn this skirt into a dress. I used the former shoulder pads to create button brooches, which looked a bit too neatsy on their own, so I gathered up the collar to create another brooch and randomly stitched another torn strip from the shirt across the dress front.

Sew 18 – Silk skirt now dress

I love recreating cast-offs into something fresh, as I did by turning this beautiful but unworn long silk skirt from an op shop into a comfy and cool shift dress.

For everyone, clothing is essential. As well-known Australian designer and champion of natural fibres Liz Davenport said in Management Today September 2013, ‘you can get to an event without a car and without breakfast … but not without clothes’.

Clothing choices impact on our well-being, self-esteem and self-image, but there is a bigger picture to consider as we become mindful about where clothes come from and their true cost.

In Sustainable Fashion and Textiles, Kate Fletcher has written a definitive text on this subject in which she says the reuse of textile products ‘as is’ brings significant environmental savings. The energy used to collect, sort and resell second-hand garments is between 10 and 20 times less than that needed to make a new item. Continue reading →

Sew 17 – Old-new not new-new

This cotton dress once was sleeveless and long now is short with peplum and sleeves following a hand-sew modification.

It was a $2 purchase from the op shop sale I wrote about in this post – op shop sales being just as frequent as sales in the thousands of dress shops and department stores pushing newer, brighter, seemingly ever-cheaper clothing.

In her book Overdressed: The shockingly high cost of cheap fashion, New York-based writer Elizabeth L. Cline said that for many consumers, part of the appeal of cheap fashion is that it allows them to get rid of their purchases when newer, more with-it items come along.

She sites astonishing textile consumption figures when clothing is combined with sheets and towels. Every year, Americans throw away 12.7 million tons, or 68 pounds of textiles per person, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, which also estimates that 1.6 million tons of this waste could be recycled or reused.

You might think this clothing churn is not bad for the environment because some of it can be reused, but Elizabeth says a tremendous amount of clothing is in fact not getting recycled but getting trashed, and the environmental impact of making clothes is being entirely overlooked.

There’s a large disconnect between expanding wardrobes and the additional demands for fossil fuels, energy and water – and the resulting impact on our environment and climate.

As an agricultural scientist and journalist, it is from the perspective of reducing and reusing natural resources that I’m undertaking this Sew it Again campaign to demonstrate simple ways we can upcycle natural-fibre clothing from our own and others’ wardrobes.

Today’s watermelon pink cotton dress was adapted with hand-sewing done while chatting and watching TV. I trimmed the bottom from the long skirt to make it knee length then used the hem off-cut as a peplum around the waist and to create sleeves. It took a little time, but was not difficult and the rhythm of the needlework was relaxing and satisfying. It reconnected me to skills I learned from previous generations of my family, when home-sewing was as natural a part of everyday life as home-cooking. I have an aversion to ironing and find that giving cotton good shake after washing and smoothing the crinkles by hand is enough to avoid the need for it.

Sew 16 – Composing outfits

This outfit is a compilation of three items gathered separately which I brought together in a wardrobe try-on session.

It is easy to end up with a lot of oddments and separates in the wardrobe, doubly so when you buy op shop as I do. So instead of having a scramble each morning about what goes with what, I have sessions where I bring together all the mishmash stuff and create outfits which then hang together.

Dressing this way, you never see anyone else in the same outfit – as can be problem when you buy the latest fashion trend.

In their book Paris Street Style: A guide to effortless chic, Isabelle Thomas & Frédérique Veysset say we express our idea of who we are by the clothes we wear. It’s an unconscious, unspoken language that we direct at other people.

“You have to find your own look. There’s no need to knock yourself out to stand out; all that’s required is to be aware of who you are. If you are that, you can develop a harmony between your clothes and your personality. It’s not a question of age or money, more of a state of mind and an intention.”

They quote sociologist Patricia Delahaie as follows: Today, in the era of individualism, everyone can live and dress their own way, inventing themselves and the images that suit them best. Everything is possible now … your look reveals quantities of information about you. To what tribe do you belong? What image of yourself do you want to project? Do you wish to join the mass, or do you need to assert that you’re different? Is it your intention to be seen, or would you prefer to stay in the background? Are you eager to express your creativity, do you need to display the sides of yourself that are sporty, asexual or even rigid?

There wasn’t much sewing involved in today’s offering. The linen wrap-around skirt (Turtle Creek) is as found in an op shop. The designer linen top (Carla Zampatti) is also as found in op shop, except for the add neck scarf – a cast-off from my sister which I thought was a perfect lift to bring the outfit together. It is just stitched on the inside of the neckline and can be easily removed if preferred.

Sew 15 – Silk au natural

Silk has a natural glow which draws my eye and this beautiful Anthea Crawford raw silk suit shines with integrity after a hand wash, no iron, and a few tweaks to update it.

As you many know, silk is produced from the chrysalis of silkworms. In her book Sustainable Fashion and Textiles: Design Journeys, Kate Fletcher says most commercially produced silk is cultivated and involves feeding the worms a controlled diet of mulberry leaves under special conditions.

The fibres are extracted by steaming to kill moth chrysalis (because if the moth is left to emerge the silk filament is damaged) and then washed in hot water to degum the silk. Sounds a bit grim – and all the more reason to treasure and reuse garments, and just wash and hang rather than dryclean and/or iron.

This book by Kate Fletcher was the first I read during postgraduate study last year which informed my journey to inspire upcycling natural fibre clothing for pleasure, reward and sustainability.

Its eight chapters provide innovative ways of thinking about fabrics and garments based on sustainability values and a broad, interconnected view of design that I will return to many times during this 365-day eco-clothing project.

Kate’s book includes actions and ideas, using practical skills and creative thinking to innovate, ways of working or visions compatible with sustainability – all drawn together into a holistic, multi-layered way that is roots-based, nature-inspired and an interconnected vision for the future.

Each of us can make a difference through small changes in the way we dress and the clothing we wear. Why buy new-new when you can make old-new?

I wondered whether I should remove the Anthea Crawford label from this suit and decided not to. The garment retains all the integrity of the original design, fabric and shell buttons – and I’ve just made a few small adaptations to give it a second life. I removed the shoulder pads, cropped the sleeves and the chunky waistband. I also trimmed the skirt length, and added this as a collar by sewing to the inside neckline, using a few tucks to make it fit, and then letting it drape over itself.

Sew 14 – Textile metaphors

This fabric has a tapa-cloth look but it’s just an ordinary cotton skirt turned into a dress by adding shoulder straps.

Tapa cloth is made from bark and one of many naturally-derived textiles that form society’s early story-telling history.

Beverly Gordon says in her book Textiles: the whole story, there are some potent textile metaphors that are now part of our everyday vernacular describing life experiences.

We talk of ‘spinning a yarn’ when we draw out words and put them together to tell a tale, and we ‘put a spin on’ ideas or events, shaping them as we would like them to be.

People who dabble in magic ‘weave’ spells. These days we also follow ‘threads’ in online conversations, as our discussions weave in and out of each other.

We talk about life ‘hanging by a thread’, which reminds us of our fragility and the preciousness of our time on Earth. Fibre terms are used to describe deterioration or coming apart – things are frayed, ripped, tattered or shredded.

Gordon says a new textile, like a new life, is clean and fresh, and unused cloth often functions as a symbol of purity as well as wholeness. In contrast, worn cloth represents the end of wholeness and, like a worn-out life, has little future.

Through this 365-day eco-clothing project, I’m creating a new story about worn cloth by using creativity and imagination to stitch-up a second life for discarded garments.

Today’s offering was a long, full skirt found in an op shop. It makes a cool, loose dress when strappy shoulders are added. For the straps, I used fabric scraps from two other garments. The spagetti straps looked a bit plain so I added another layer of similar fabric for interest and balance. Pin straps in place before sewing, and adjust the position or length according to your preference.

Sew 13 – Linen has longevity

Linen is one of my favourite natural fibres and a linen knit is a rare thing. Linen is made from the flax plant, not grown commercially in Australia, and arguably the world’s oldest fibre.

It is cool to wear, becomes softer with age and you can tell something is linen from the way it crinkles after washing. I never iron it because I love the crushed look of 100% linen.

Flax is grown in Europe and apparently world demand for flax peaked in 2005 at 709,000 tons and suffered demand destruction of 123,000 tons in 2006. It recovered to 705,000 tons in 2009 and declined again in 2010 to 682,000 tons. FAO textile consumption survey 2013

This garment was a long top but the sleeves were too tight relative to the body of the garment so I cropped them off and just used zigzag stitch to secure the raw edge.

I extended the length to become a dress using linen fabric which I gathered up and then doubled over before stitching to the bottom of the top. I knotted the sleeve off-cuts to a strip of linen fabric to form a scarf, which is doubled over and draped around the neckline as a collar.

Sew 12 – Adventure in imagination

This skirt once was a plain but well-made cotton drill skirt which was going begging so I gave it a new lease on life by adding assorted silk and linen stripes using waste fabric.

I get a fantastic sense of satisfaction from making something out of not much, living a more creative and meaningful existence. Those words are straight out of the mouth of Kevin McCloud in his Seaside Shack series on ABC1.

Kevin said making something fresh out of not much is rather fun. Upcycling is an adventure into our imagination – and the experience of making things is powerful and enriching.

“The pleasure is in the making and doing, not buying and consuming,” Kevin said. “Making things with your hands, you feel like you have done something, achieved something.”

“The best kind of recycling is when you take things and transform them into something special that looks like it is really expensive.”

While Kevin’s design challenge is adapting reclaimed and upcycled building materials to a new use – mine is to adapt, reuse and upcycle discarded clothing.

This skirt is for my friend Georgie Somerset. We cropped the old skirt to a length that suited her, then I cut up a silk top (forgot to photograph it) and used the frill as the new skirt hem and a brooch. Then to the skirt front, I sewed various strips gleaned from my silk off-cuts box and other oddments of tablecloth and ribbon.