Tag Archives: wool

Sew 261 – Wear your own sparkle

Upcycled wool skirt and boleroYour sparkle is your uniqueness. Wear your sparkle and be the best version of yourself you can be said Julie Cross, one of the many inspirational speakers at Queensland Rural Regional and Remote Women’s Network conference in Charters Towers.

We make our own footprints in life. If we place more importance on the opinions of others than our own, we give away our power.

So inspiring to be part the QRRRWN network full of women doing amazing things – including four fellows from the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation. Georgie Somerset, below left, the outgoing QRRRWN president. Cathy McGowan MP, Catherine Marriott (wearing a Textile Beat history skirt) and Jane Milburn.  Continue reading

Sew 237 – Kate wears opshop crochet

Kate wears op shop crochetHere’s my gorgeous niece Kate wearing an earth-toned crocheted wool vest with a silk top and two strands of indigenous beads made from seeds and wood.

All of these items were found in op shops and with it being National Op Shop Week  from August 24 to Sunday 31, Kate is modelling a series of outfits styled from charity shop finds that only require a wash and go. 

Although Kate now works in a pharmacy, she spent several years managing a clothing store so knows how the fashion business works to flatter individual features and bring outfits together.  Continue reading

Sew 235 – Refashed hand-knit jumper

Handknit jumper upcycled as skirtHand knitting has undergone a resurgence in recent years due to many factors – the recession, a desire for authentic and long-lasting garments, individual expression, and the reassurance and warmth of traditional crafts.  

Although I knit scarves, I don’t have the patience to knit whole garments – yet I value them and love discovering rejects in op shops where some are dispatched to find new owners and purposes.

You can tell if garments are made of wool by the feel, weight and smell of the fibres (particularly when wet), by looking at them in the sunshine (wool doesn’t glisten) or doing the flame test to a thread (wool will smolder not ignite).  Continue reading

Sew 224 – Opshopchop coat of colour

Upcycled wool jumpers become coat of colours“Uh oh, this is not going quite as planned” … is a frequent thought when you take scissors to garments. Expect the unexpected, let it lead you to creative original solutions and don’t give up until you have a wearable result.

Upcycling is a creative discipline that requires a combination of time, skills, confidence and desire to produce something unique from rejects.

Natural fibres now make up only one-third of modern clothing according to the FAO – the rest are made from synthetics which are mostly pure petroleum.  Continue reading

Sew 223 – Recognising op-shop potential

Jane wears upcycled wrapPart of the pleasure of op-shopping is about ‘the find’. I got this beautiful hand-knit for a very good price ($7) – considering the cost of the wool and the time involved in knitting it.

I love its shape, character and warmth, but it didn’t look very exciting languishing on the hanger. I brought it home, washed it, put a few hand-stitches in the armholes where the yarn seemed to have stretched a little, then secured it at the front with a big pin. I teamed it with an op-shop-found wool skirt, which had a couple of small holes which I mended on the sewing machine. I love the irregular shape and colour tones of this wrap, and enjoy wearing it very much.

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Sew 203 – Where clothes come from

Jane Milburn wears upcycled jumper-skirtDuring the past decade there has been growing interest and awareness in where food comes from, how it is grown and what are its nutritional and sustainable values. We’re alive to fact that we are what we eat.

In a similar way, there now is growing interest in where clothes come from, who made them, what they are made of and whether they are ethical and sustainable – because we are what we wear.

Skin is our body’s largest organ, so the clothing we wrap it in influences feel, comfort and interactions by osmosis. Natural-fibre clothing free from contaminants and toxins must be best. The benefits of natural fibres are eloquently summarised by Wildfibres UK.  Continue reading

Sew 199 – Coffee dyed crochet

Dyeing with coffee groundsWe humans are autonomous, we make our own decisions, or so we think. Watch this documentary The Men Who Made Us Spend to learn how our ‘free choice’ is easily manipulated so a few makes lots of money while our environment is junked with unnecessary resource use and waste.

Investigative journalist Jacques Peretti explains how planned obsolescence, the organised creation of dissatisfaction and computer-aided design have cultivated competitive consumerism throughout capitalist society.

The documentary includes an economist saying change during the past two decades has seen the average American’s clothing consumption double from 34 pieces of apparel per year to 67 – equating to a brand new item of clothing coming into their wardrobe every 5.4 days. Once the garments are no longer ‘socially valuable’ they either go into the waste stream or the global apparel trade.  Continue reading

Sew 197 – Wool jumpers become coat

Jane Milburn wears upcycled woolSew it Again is a social-change project to shift thinking about the way we consume clothing and textiles. The project demonstrates creative ways to upcycle existing clothing and empowers others to tap into their ‘greenest’ clothing of all. It engages old-fashioned sewing skills, encourages a culture of thrift, and shows heart-felt concern for where mindless consumption of fast fashion is leading.

Creative entrepreneur Dr Cathryn Lloyd from Maverick Minds says today’s business is no longer about doing business as usual.  “Complexity and uncertainty reflect the world as it is today.  All businesses require creative entrepreneurial thinking and behaviour. The 21st century belongs to those who can bring their creative potential and leadership skills to their personal and professional lives.” Continue reading

Sew 193 – Sky-blue linen + wool

Lilly B wears Textile Beat upcycled Put natural-fibre clothing on a natural beauty in a Queensland beach setting and it is hard to go wrong!

This upcycle involved an op-shop linen shirt and wool jumper-skirt found separately but now a perfectly matched sky blue. The short-sleeved wool jumper was diced up – the turtle-neck saved for another project, the sleeves turned into flared cuffs for the linen shirt, and the body of the jumper trimmed to be a skirt with narrow elastic waistband. The ribbed hem of the jumper is effective as the skirt hem.

The linen shirt remains largely intact (although shoulder pads and velcro removed) with its sailor collar, front zip and pockets. The change was with the sleeves, which were cropped to below the elbow then the wool sleeve off-cut added for a flared effect. The scarf is another op shop find and the hat belongs to Lilly B, the gorgeous model photographed on the beach at Alexandra Headland.  Continue reading

Sew 191 – Beach beanie + jumper skirt

upcycled jumper skirt and beanieLots of laughter with this wool jumper upcycle as the beanie attracted comparisons to attire worthy of a Dr Seuss character. It was created from the sleeve of a hand-knitted wool jumper, which I unpicked from the body of the jumper and simply tied a knot at the end.   

The body of the jumper was then turned upside down to become the skirt after the sleeve opening was hand-stitched together.  I harvested strips of fabric from a dated blue silk dress – one strip was used to form a narrow waistband, others were used to trim the bottom of the skirt, while the long bottom frill of the dress was knotted to become an elongated scarf. There were several holes in the body of jumper (probably the reason it ended up in the opshop for me to salvage) which I darned with grey wool and they are barely visible in the complex patterned knit. See photos below.  Continue reading