Sew 124 – Upcycled in Coolah

Casey's homespun and knitted jumper upcycled by mendingVery excited to have my first Upcycled exhibition now hanging in Pandora Gallery at Coolah in New South Wales as a celebration of natural fibres and (re)fashion from today until May 16.

Upcycled is an interactive exhibition about the history, origins and uses of natural fibres which explores creative ways to refashion existing clothing for a second life.

Our consumer society is using textiles at an unprecedented rate, with thousands of tonnes of waste clothing dumped in landfill or shipped to third-world countries every year.

Thanks to my ARLP leadership colleague Ele Cook and gallery coordinator Jennie Stephens, I’ve been able to mount this exhibition to showcase some of my repurposed reject garments 365-day Sew it Again creations to raise awareness of the ethical, social and environmental issues of textile waste. 

Upcycled denim

I’ll be upcycling for sewitagain.com every morning in the gallery from today until May 16 to inspire creative re-use of natural fibre clothing into ‘slow fashion’ using sewing and traditional handcrafts. 

Sew 124 is a homespun hand knit I made for son Casey about 20 years ago. It has been stored for sometime and had developed a few holes when I took it out of storage. I darned it with flecked wool (while Georgie was driving to Mt Tabor) and it’s now part of Upcycled.

Upcyced handknit