Sherlie McMillan (at rear, in green) getting hands-on in a recent workshop(Photo: Lis Bastian)
Story by Linda Moon
Global problems are creating renewed interest in traditional DIY skills like sewing. Here’s how a local grandmother is sharing her rag trade experience to make a difference and how you can get involved.
Key Points:
Upcycling old clothing helps the planet, saves you bucks and empowers your creative side.
Each year 200,000 tonnes of clothing go into landfill in Australia, according to the Australian Fashion Council.
At age seventy, Sherlie McMillan has a goldmine of skills and knowledge. And the retired pattern maker (for Macpac, Kathmandu and others), and former tutor at New Zealand’s Design and Art College and Christchurch Polytech, has found plenty interested to learn from her.
This year she trained a group of 18 to 25 year olds in how to upcycle fashion. Now, in July, the Blackheath Rotary Club member from New Zealand is back at the sewing machine training the newest bunch of recruits. In a win for all 18+ folk, the Upcycling Fashion program has been opened up to allow adults of all ages, male and female, to join in.
Career opportunities
Since news spread via word-of-mouth that Sherlie could do alterations, she’s had more requests for local work than she can keep up with. “I get so many jobs now that would have been done by the mother of the house,” she said. Things like sewing on a button or taking up a hem.
“You can create your own job if you learn some of these skills,” she said. “Especially in the Blue Mountains where there aren’t a lot of jobs out there. And you don’t need a lot of equipment.”
Sherlie, who has 40 years experience in the industry, taught her own three sons to sew when they were young. “At one stage I’d bring home work and they would be repairing the garments and getting paid for it,” she said.
So what’s involved?
Sherlie (at whiteboard) and eager upcyclers in the making.(Photo: Lis Bastian)
What is upcycled fashion?
It’s the transformation of unwanted or surplus clothing, textiles or scrap fabric into new, unique garments. People can upcycle anything – including their own clothing or something from a thrift store.
A key skill is altering secondhand clothing to make it fit. This might involve letting it out and pattern making – which involves lots of measuring and drawing a flat outline on cardboard to fit the garment to the body, Sherlie said. Another key skill is learning how to repair clothing.
Upcycled fashion can incorporate artwork, embroidery, crochet or knitted elements. “Wool and fabric can all be combined. Artwork looks fabulous when it’s incorporated into a garment,” Sherlie said.
Lost human skills
Sherlie’s interest in pattern making was initially driven by having a non-standard body shape and difficulty finding clothing that fitted her. But most of her sewing skills were gained before she turned 12. “We would sit around the fire and listen to a radio and our hands would be doing things,” she said.
“A lot of these skills are being lost. My dad was overseas in the Second World War and he knitted and repaired socks for himself. It was just normal. There wasn’t the same number of things you could buy. If you bought something you would treasure it and look after it.”
As a working mother before the digital age, Sherlie still managed to find time to mend and look after her family. Thanks to the Internet and ultra-busyness, today most of us feel we lack time to repair our own clothes. However, interest in traditional skills is on the upswing, with experts pointing to the cost-of-living crisis, environmental awareness and other factors.
“I do think some of the basics skills are being lost.” – Sherlie McMillan
Workshop participants enjoy the social aspect as much as learning a new skill (Photo: Lis Bastian)
Why upcycle clothing?
“Environmentally, it’s important that we don’t continually buy cheap clothes and discard them,” Sherlie said. “It’s better we reuse and try to make a garment last longer than one or two seasons.”
“Garments can be made into so many other things,” she enthused. “It’s cheap on the pocket. And you can pick up the most wonderful things. People sometimes don’t know the value of the product that they manage to get in a lot of the secondhand shops in Australia.”
Along with encouraging waste, fast fashion (cheap, trendy clothing churned out quickly) is simply bad news.
Synthetic textiles, like nylon, polyester, acrylic, spandex and rayon, are chemically engineered, petroleum-based products. They can’t break down in the environment.
Fast fashion also contributes to modern slavery, animal cruelty and environmental devastation. “Faux fur” claims, for instance, are often fake – it’s cheaper to produce the real thing. Humans working in the industry face exploitation and life threatening conditions. In fast fashion, ethics are low and cheap toxic dyes and chemicals are common, harming workers and the environment.
As reported by ragtrader.com.au, in March France’s lower house of parliament voted in favour of a bill proposing a ban on ultra-fast fashion.
About the workshops
On a positive note, we can all learn to source ethical fashion, upcycle, swap, buy secondhand and repair our own clothes.
Sherlie’s workshops run monthly, on the first Saturday of the month from 9am to 3pm at the Blue Mountains Planetary Health Centre at Katoomba. As they’re very hands-on, participants are capped at a maximum of 12, which encourages a cosy closeness. “Socialising has been part of this initial group and friendships have built up over time,” Sherlie said.
Participants are encouraged to bring along their own sewing machine. But it’s not essential to taking part. Nor do you need to know how to use a sewing machine.
“People tell me what they really want to know and I work from there,” Sherlie said. For some this means starting from scratch, for others it might be learning how to understand the tension on their sewing machine. The programs incorporate pattern making and how to fit, alter and repair garments. “I work with a basic T-shirt. But you can turn it into a dress or shirt or a coat or a lot of things,” she said.
The workshops also teach what to look for in a good upcycling piece. In line with a skill-share concept, the idea is that everyone can share what they know and be as creative as they like.
It feels good to make something new out of something old! (Photo: Lis Bastian)
Free Skillshare Saturdays
The Upcycling Fashion Program is a community outreach activity of Blackheath Rotary Club. It’s also part of Skillshare Saturdays, which launched on Saturday 6 July at the Blue Mountains Planetary Health Centre. All programs are free.
Meet Sherlie and some keen upcyclers in this short video
Take Action:
Check out what participants from the Fashion Upcycling workshop had to say about it here.
Contact [email protected] if you’d like to join in or if you have a skill you’re able to share.
This story has been produced as part of a Bioregional Collaboration for Planetary Health and is supported by the Disaster Risk Reduction Fund (DRRF). The DRRF is jointly funded by the Australian and New South Wales governments.
The Community Tree Planting Day for the Glossy Black Cockatoo is on this Saturday 5 July near Cowra! Learn more about how you can help grow connected landscapes to save the Glossy Black, including more about the Community Tree Planting Day, by fast forwarding to 48mins in our video "Falling in Love with Glossy Black Cockatoos" here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCERdF21Ud0&t=2075s
Register your interest to join everyone at the Tree Planting Day here:
Join us for this fabulous workshop: Designing Your Future Home on Saturday 19 July (10am-12 noon) Create a Healthy, Comfortable and Energy-Efficient Home
Join local Passive House Designer Karina Rafailov from Earthy Haus for a relaxed, interactive, and inspiring workshop. Whether you’re planning a new build or thinking about a renovation, this session will empower you with the knowledge to create a home that’s healthier for your family and kinder to the planet.
Places are strictly limited in this hands-on workshop so bookings essential here (link in profile): https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/workshop-designing-your-future-home-tickets-1417752157869
As an increasing number of people are being affected by winter viruses, we’re offering a free session of Tai Chi and Qigong on Saturday 5 July in the warmth of our beautiful Frogs of the Blue Mountains exhibition. Places are limited so book in early here (link in profile): https://bit.ly/40fnGW2 Learn more about these Chinese medicine movement practices in the video interview with Virginia Field on our YouTube channel (link in profile) and read about how Chinese medicine helped her overcome illness as a young woman in our story: Healing Body, Mind and Spirit with Tai Chi and Qigong here (link in profile): https://www.katoombalocalnews.com/tai-chi-and-qigong/
If you’re interested in learning how to propagate native plants and are keen to help our bush regenerate, the Bushcare Seed Collectors meet on the second Tuesday of the month. Check out how they cook Banksias to release their seed and learn more about the group, and native seed collecting, in Katoomba Area Local News here (link in profile): https://www.katoombalocalnews.com/bushcare-seed-collectors/
If you’d like to join the group, contact the Bushcare officer Tracy Abbas on 4780 5623 or email [email protected]
Littlejohni, the Rare and Endangered Northern Heath Frog, photographed in Woodford!
When the Frogs of the Blue Mountains exhibition opened at the Planetary Health Centre in March it featured photos of 20 different local frogs. We were thrilled, however, when Andy Klotz and other members of the Hawkesbury Herpetological Society recently managed to photograph another frog in Woodford: the rarely seen and endangered Litoria littlejohni, also known as the Northern Heath Frog or Orange-bellied Tree Frog. We’ve added a photo of that frog to the exhibition and created a new Frogs of the Blue Mountains video in which you can listen to its call on our YouTube channel. We interviewed Andy to learn more about the Littlejohni and how they managed to find its small local population. You can read this story in Mid Mountains Local News (link in profile). #biodiversity #bluemountainsfrogs #northernheathfrog #litorialittlejohni #bluemountains #woodford #planetaryhealth #hawkesburyherpetologicalsociety...
Our newsletter is now out! Read about how you can contribute to @bluemountainscitycouncil`s Biodiversity Conservation Strategy; watch our video on Falling in Love with Glossy Black Cockatoos; see the new photos of the rare Northern Heath Frog; watch how the Bushcare Seed Collectors cook banksias to release their seeds; learn more about Tai Chi and Qigong, the Chinese medicine movement practices; and take part in our next workshop on Designing Your Future Home with Passive House Designer Karina Rafailov from @earthy_haus
Read it here (link in profile): https://bit.ly/40e4GHr
Our video on Falling In Love With Glossy Black Cockatoos is now up on our Planetary Health YouTube channel (sorry, it`s too big to share here but there`s a link in our profile).
Jayden Gunn finishes his presentation by saying:
"Care is like a snowball. The more people you tell the bigger the snowball gets, and the further it goes. And the more we know, the more we care. And the more we know, the more we`re able to help."
The video is of our fabulous Forum on Growing Connected Landscapes for the Glossy Black Cockatoo, and includes presentations by Jayden Gunn, BirdLife Australia, Amanda Foxon-Hill from Mid Lachlan Landcare, and STEM teacher Samantha Bowden from Glenbrook Public School. There`s a link with the video on how to register for the Community Tree Planting Day in Goologong on 5 July (and it`s also in our profile). Video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCERdF21Ud0&t=13s
Today we`re enjoying eating ripe medlars! Medlars are attractive cold climate fruit trees that were popular in Medieval gardens. They`re one of the few fruits that can be harvested in late Autumn and eaten in early Winter when they`re fully ripe. This is a great time of year to plant them for a future harvest. Check out our short video on how to eat them! #coldclimategardens #ediblegardens #medlars #growyourown #planetaryhealth #bluemountains...
We`re thrilled to share that last night @BlueMountainsCityCouncil`s Planetary Health Centre won the Innovative Leadership Award (Population Under 150K) in the 2025 NSW Local Government Excellence Awards. What a great end to World Environment Day! 🌏 This award celebrates how local government can lead transformative change for a more sustainable future. Thank you to everyone who worked so hard with us to make our vision a reality. You can read more about what we`re doing at our website (link in profile): http://www.bluemountainsplanetaryhealth.com.au/ @ph_alliance #planetaryhealth #worldenvironmentday #localgovernmentleadership #nswlocalgovernmentexcellenceawards...
Blocking out a couple of hours a week to step off the treadmill and give ourselves time to nurture our relationship with the earth and ourselves, is one way to keep our creative spirit and ‘lust for life’ alive. If you haven’t done so yet, one opportunity over the next week is to spend some ‘slow’ time in the 2024 Wynne Prize exhibition at the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre before it closes on 15 June. Read more in Katoomba Area Local News here (link in profile): https://www.katoombalocalnews.com/the-2024-wynne-prize/ @bluemountainsculturalcentre @artgalleryofnsw #wynneprize #landscapes #bluemountains #katoomba #artexhibition #planetaryhealth...
Recognising how violence and war impact the health of the planet, the Blue Mountains Planetary Health Initiative has become a member of the Blue Mountains Peace Collective. On Sunday 25th May, we attended a presentation by Dr Keith Suter on Making Peace in the World Today at the Leura Uniting Church. In this powerful presentation Dr Suter questions why we learn about war rather than successful peace negotiations! View the video of his presentation below and read our full story in Katoomba Area Local News here: https://bit.ly/3Fl4WgQ (link in profile)
With an extra day up your sleeve this long weekend, it`s a great opportunity to give nature a hand to regenerate and provide more habitat for our fellow species! Join our fabulous all ages Planetary Health Bushcare Group from 1.30pm and then participate in the Forum on Growing Connected Landscapes for the Glossy Black Cockatoo at 4pm, followed by drinks and nibblies! You can also start the day with a fabulous Tai Chi session at 8am. Visit our Planetary Health Pluriversity website to book in and learn more (link in profile): https://bmpluriversity.org/program/
Or ring 0407 437 553 for more information. #planetaryhealth #bushcare #katoomba #bluemountains #glossyblackcockatoos #landcare #biodiversity #habitat #wearenature #togetherwecan...
Linda Moon has lived in the upper Blue Mountains since childhood and is a freelance writer for Australian media. A qualified naturopath, permaculture designer, mother and former student of social work, her passion is building local community, gardening, mental, emotional, social, housing and environmental health – all of which are linked!
Blocking out a couple of hours a week to step off the treadmill and give ourselves time to nurture our relationship with the earth and ourselves, is one way to keep our creative spirit and ‘lust for life’ alive. If you haven’t done so yet, one opportunity over the next two weeks is to spend some ‘slow’ time in the 2024 Wynne Prize exhibition at the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre.
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