I went to a awesome clothing exchange/party recently. A good friend brought a old sweater to give to me thinking I could make something out of it. The sweater was sentimental to her and she'd had it since high school. I thought it was so cool to have that close bond with a piece of clothing. I started to think about if I had similar feelings about clothes. I did! and not so surprising all of which were made out of natural fibers! There is a connection to the earth in natural fiber. Sun to grass to sheep to wool to your favorite sweater. Plus, all the wonderful memories associated with that sweater... color, smells, the woolly feel.
Upcycling is the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or a higher environmental value.
Also, at this clothing exchange was a wonderful woman who truly understands the essence of natural fiber. She collects natural fiber clothing that is put in the 'free boxes' at our local dumps. Violette Alby makes amazing improvisational quilts with the old clothes and was telling me about teaching a group on young teens how to quilt at her rural library. This is her website which just recently got up and running. http://earthmothersofinvention.net
Anyway, all of this inspired these braclets and necklaces. Lucky for me that my first up-cycled sweater was green and with spring around the corner I couldn't help making leaves. I cut the cuffs off and cut up some leaves and started hand sewing them on, being careful to leave some give in the thread for the cuffs to stretch. I cut the collar off the sweater and hello! the perfect necklace. On the other necklace I used a alpaca sweater and cut the design around the collar (it's a bit itchy, so a turtle neck with this would work nice).
One more thought about the clothing exchange. It was a potluck with wine, a fire and lots of good friends of mixed ages. Each person stood up and advertised there clothes, when a person wanted a item they just yelled "I want it" or they jumped up or affectionately fought over it. At times this display was very humorous. The clothes no one wanted were put in a pile in the middle of the room, which was free game for everyone. These were all nice clothes, I came with a bunch of nice clothes that I wore after my pregnancy and left with a bunch of nice clothes that fit! No Money exchanged at all! It was tons of fun. At the end the quiltmaker and another lady Jean Nichols
who makes upcycled clothes went through the pile, only after that was the rest taken to the free box at the dump.
