i make. you wear it.

This week’s guest post comes from Rachel Burke, creator of “i make. you wear it”. 21-year-old Rachel ‘Rahool’ Burke is an innovative fundraiser who hates idle hands, and loves ideas. She believes in hard work and never underestimates a person’s ability to change the world!

In late April of this year I found myself on a long, solitary walk toward Fortitude Valley. The day saw me outwardly troubled – my strides were not meant to be meeting Brisbane turf. On the contrary, my feet and I were supposed to be in Melbourne studying Musical Theatre.

Madelin Newman wears Rachel’s first trial dress for ‘I Make. You Wear It’

Practicing vocal scales, shuffling about in a leotard, and working on my high kicks, THAT was supposed to be my life. However, as I’d decided (after a year of study at VCA) that ‘jazz hands’ weren’t for me, my now Brisbane-based life was watching me stagger across suburban zebra crossings in pursuit of a bacon and cheese burger from Grill’d, and contemplating what on earth I was going to do this year to fill the void of having run away from school.

Yet, somewhere between Kedron and a Kiwi Slurpee from the Lutwyche 7/11 an idea occurred to me that would solve my dilemma. The concept was to set myself a challenge to make a series of dresses in a few hours, over a number of Saturday nights. An on-and-off sewer from way back, and a big fan of the TV show ‘ready, steady…cook.’ the idea of setting myself some sort of creative, time-constricted endeavor, thoroughly appealed.

After an in depth chat to my best friend it was decided that the idea was indeed well suited to a blog and that I should use the concept to try and raise some money for charity.

The next day saw me trawling the Internet in pursuit of a charity that I wanted to assist. After lengthy searching I finally found NAPCAN, an Australian charity set up to prevent child abuse and neglect in Australia. Having known many people who, as children, were once affected by abuse and/or neglect, the importance of what this charity strives to do greatly appealed to me. After reading their mission statement I gave NAPCAN a call and told them that I wanted to try and raise their charity $25,000. The rest …beginning on August 7…is history!

The website www.imakeyouwearit.com was created by the incredibly internet-talented and time generous Matt Hickey, and was launched earlier this month. Thus far I have received support from BORDERS stores and I will be doing live dressmakings in both their City and Chermside stores to raise donations and awareness for the project. Currently I have been working on trialing my ‘quick sewing skills’, cultivating interest in NAPCAN to outside sources, and getting people interested in following my online and offline journey to raise $25,000.

Whilst ‘i make. you wear it’ is striving to support NAPCAN and raise awareness, the project also hopes to encourage other young people to actively pursue their ideas and help out in their community. It’s crazy just how possible ANYTHING is if you are willing to put the hard work in. And hey, if you’re feeling uninspired, maybe get a slurpee and go for a hefty stroll. It worked for me…

I Make. You Wear It. Begins on August 7 2010 and goes until January 1 2011. Check out the website on www.imakeyouwearit.com and show your support!

For more information or to contact Rachel directly, email her at: rachel@imakeyouwearit.com.