Indrani Perera

poet, publisher & mentor

Tag: up cycling

Fast Stitching

All the slow stitching was driving me nuts. It was taking forever and I just wanted to make something pretty to wear – right now!

I've got an old wool jacket and it's threadbare in places. Moths have eaten holes in one of the elbows. The sleeves are torn, ragged and worn at the wrists. None of the zips work but it's warm and I spent good money on it. No way am I gonna throw it out!

Then I had a brainwave. Patch it up with eco-dyed wool scraps left from making the vest I'm *still* slow stitching. So I cut out leaf prints, acacia pod prints and green copper rod marks. I managed to avoid most of the parts where there were black (possibly) mould spots from the eco dyeing – bonus!

I like the organic feel from the slightly wonky hand stitching and the unevenly cut fabric. The wool has already started to fray a little around the edges because I didn't bother to zig-zag them first.

I get so much joy from mending the things I own and continuing to use them long after they should have been thrown in the bin. It's crazy how happy it makes me feel. When I mend something, it becomes completely mine – no-one else will wear or mend their clothes in the same way I do. We're all unique and it's nice to have clothes to reflect my individuality.

I love fast projects where I just dive on in and trust it's going to turn out okay. There's a fluidity and grace to working fast with no pattern and minimal thought. It's liberating and gratifying when it works out.

Thanks to my gorgeous girls for taking the photos

July 5, 2018
Fast Stitching

All the slow stitching was driving me nuts. It was taking forever and I just wanted to make something pretty to wear – right now!

I've got an old wool jacket and it's threadbare in places. Moths have eaten holes in one of the elbows. The sleeves are torn, ragged and worn at the wrists. None of the zips work but it's warm and I spent good money on it. No way am I gonna throw it out!

Then I had a brainwave. Patch it up with eco-dyed wool scraps left from making the vest I'm *still* slow stitching. So I cut out leaf prints, acacia pod prints and green copper rod marks. I managed to avoid most of the parts where there were black (possibly) mould spots from the eco dyeing – bonus!

I like the organic feel from the slightly wonky hand stitching and the unevenly cut fabric. The wool has already started to fray a little around the edges because I didn't bother to zig-zag them first.

I get so much joy from mending the things I own and continuing to use them long after they should have been thrown in the bin. It's crazy how happy it makes me feel. When I mend something, it becomes completely mine – no-one else will wear or mend their clothes in the same way I do. We're all unique and it's nice to have clothes to reflect my individuality.

I love fast projects where I just dive on in and trust it's going to turn out okay. There's a fluidity and grace to working fast with no pattern and minimal thought. It's liberating and gratifying when it works out.

Thanks to my gorgeous girls for taking the photos

July 5, 2018
Feeling Lucky

Can I brag, just a little? I am so in love with the gorgeous eco dyed patterns on this op shop wool blanket. I keep holding it and stroking it, marvelling in all the leaf prints and patterns. I can see a forest goddess face, branches of leaves and tracks in the earth.

You know there are some days that are just lucky. The day I went op shopping in East Bentleigh was one of the lucky days. I was looking for white wool and silk to eco dye. And I found both! There were two silk dresses in one shop and two white blankets with blue stripes on the edges at another op-shop. I had just enough money to buy one of each plus a white long sleeved cotton top. For so long, white was not on my shopping list. Now I'm a mad eco-dyer and white is most definitely at the top of my list!

I trimmed off the blue stripes on the edges of the blanket and then cut it in half. I bundled one half with gum leaves (the incredible oranges are from the star of the eco-dyeing show – Eucalyptus cinerea), acacia pods and rusty bits of metal and then wrapped the whole shebang around a rusty old tin can. The whole lot was popped into a stainless steel pot and boiled for a good 5 hours. I didn't add any other leaves to the pot as I have done with most of my experiments so far – I was interested to see what would happen without the added colour in the dye bath.

After it boiled and then sat in the pot for a few days I began to worry. The lovely old lady at the op shop who sold me the blanket was alarmed when I told her my plans. She learnt to wash clothes in a an old copper (I'd give me eye teeth for one of those to use outdoors over a big open fire!) in a country town and was told to never boil wool. I worried the wool would felt together. I worried there would be no prints (a recent adventure dyeing on a llama wool shawl yielded no leaf prints and little colour).

My luck held – the blanket didn't felt together and gave me the most amazing leaf prints. It's my faith and trust blanket – have faith in the process and trust the result will be exactly what you need.

May 21, 2018
Feeling Lucky

Can I brag, just a little? I am so in love with the gorgeous eco dyed patterns on this op shop wool blanket. I keep holding it and stroking it, marvelling in all the leaf prints and patterns. I can see a forest goddess face, branches of leaves and tracks in the earth.

You know there are some days that are just lucky. The day I went op shopping in East Bentleigh was one of the lucky days. I was looking for white wool and silk to eco dye. And I found both! There were two silk dresses in one shop and two white blankets with blue stripes on the edges at another op-shop. I had just enough money to buy one of each plus a white long sleeved cotton top. For so long, white was not on my shopping list. Now I'm a mad eco-dyer and white is most definitely at the top of my list!

I trimmed off the blue stripes on the edges of the blanket and then cut it in half. I bundled one half with gum leaves (the incredible oranges are from the star of the eco-dyeing show – Eucalyptus cinerea), acacia pods and rusty bits of metal and then wrapped the whole shebang around a rusty old tin can. The whole lot was popped into a stainless steel pot and boiled for a good 5 hours. I didn't add any other leaves to the pot as I have done with most of my experiments so far – I was interested to see what would happen without the added colour in the dye bath.

After it boiled and then sat in the pot for a few days I began to worry. The lovely old lady at the op shop who sold me the blanket was alarmed when I told her my plans. She learnt to wash clothes in a an old copper (I'd give me eye teeth for one of those to use outdoors over a big open fire!) in a country town and was told to never boil wool. I worried the wool would felt together. I worried there would be no prints (a recent adventure dyeing on a llama wool shawl yielded no leaf prints and little colour).

My luck held – the blanket didn't felt together and gave me the most amazing leaf prints. It's my faith and trust blanket – have faith in the process and trust the result will be exactly what you need.

May 21, 2018