One Sports Car and Metres of Clothing

Originally a scoop neck dress

"I cant believe its been almost a week now since Sylvia and I returned from our latest double trouble adventure in the Grampians. We were both attending the Grampians Texture Festival at Halls Gap, a beautiful area , three hours drive from Melbourne. This event, run annually is attended by approximately 400 people, usually obsessed creatives like ourselves. From the moment Sylv, picked me up in her cute little sports car I knew that we were going to be challenged about space. The car was packed to the rafters by the time my bags were in and we had planned to do some op shopping on our return from the conference even though we had made a pact not to buy anything. After all, this workshop we had chosen was Deconstructing Garments, making beautiful new clothes out of preloved ones. Both of us have been collecting our stash for some time and we have enough clothes to fill at least 3 lifetimes if not more!

I was not lying about the car

Our course was run by the gorgeous Philomena Hali, a very talented textile and fibre artist from Alice Springs who has worked for 19 years in the textile industry. More recently, Phil has been working with "Sustainable Coulture" as she calls it, teaching workshops and participating in an exhibition and fashion parade showing off this fashion. As the show was so successful last year, Phil is busily planning for another this year.


For five glorious days we played with clothes, turning them upside down, sideways, inside out, chopping , adding. Deconstructing clothes requires an open mind. There are no rules. Some of our play included mens suits being transformed to dresses, jumpers into pants, tablecloths to skirts, the ideas were endless.


Phil also introduced us to a great book for recycling ideas Junky Styling. Its available through Artisan Books in Melbourne.


Here are some pictures of my work.

Originally this garment was a long pullover vest

This garment was a very large skirt originally

Detail of the flower I made on this top