ppy is monitoring hot copper, page-8

Nothing much happening here (waiting for the end.....) so I thought I would add this wonderfully optimistic period piece from over ten years ago!!

2 December 2002* "Going bananas over new outfit"
by Margo Zlotkowski, The Cairns Post

http://www.transformaustralia.com.au/media.htm

GOING BANANAS OVER NEW OUTFIT

A Tully seamstress is going bananas about a new paper made from the trunks of banana trees. MARGO ZLOTKOWSKI reports.

The world's first outfit made from the trunks of banana trees can be washed, dyed, stitched and even ironed, but there was one use its Tully designer Carla Perkins had not thought of. When you are sick of it, you can feed it to the cows. The product's manufacturer Tom Johnston made the suggestion to a horrified Carla at a Melbourne Cup function in Cairns last month as she was giving the outfit its second airing. Her first outing in it, to the Cairns Amateurs in September, secured her a finalist's berth in the glamourous line-up for Fashions on the Field. Of course, after spending about 100 hours designing, cutting and sewing Tom's revolutionary new banana paper into a stylish vest and skirt combo with matching hat and bag, turning it into cow fodder now is the last thing on Carla's mind.

In fact, Carla - and Tom too - believe it is more likely the outfit will end up in a museum somewhere as the prototype of the world's first range of exclusive banana paper garments. "Each outfit will be unique. You'll be wearing something that no one else in the world will have," Tom says. But the plan hinges on Tom's company Transform Australia getting the capital to build the world's first banana paper factory near Mareeba that will allow him to manufacture the paper locally. The $12 million factory will process banana stems harvested by a machine invented by Tom. In the meantime, sample sheets of the paper are being created on a small scale by Tom's business partner, Adelaide banana paper inventor Ramy Azer, and turned into a range of products - from business cards and lampshades to wallets and handbags.

For Carla, who is the office manager at Tully Welding Works and a mother of two, the potential to turn her passion for designing and making her own clothes into a business is a dream come true. Formerly of El Arish, she says she has been making her own clothes since she was 18 and managed to save up enough money to buy her first sewing machine. Since then she has made hundreds of garments for herself, friends, family, her husband Russell and her children, Danny, 13, and Boyd, 11. "I've got a million and one ideas in my brain for new outfits," she says. A regular at race meetings in Cairns and Innisfail, Carla says longtime friend Tom invited her to make a race-day outfit out of his banana paper after she suggested it might be wearable. Although she says it looked and felt a bit stiff at first, after washing it and lining it with linen, it now stretched comfortably with her body. But the experiment has not ended there. Carla is keen to try making a collared banana paper jacket with slits in the arms for flexibility and a layered skirt. She also wants to dye the paper so she can work with more vivid shades.

"I told Tommy I'll definitely do something for next year's Amateurs - maybe a three piece suit," she says. "This is just the first step - to show people how versatile it is." Meanwhile, Tom is planning to make a wool-lined banana paper men' s vest for himself and believes there is also a market for men's paper shirts and ties. His only concern is that his company and its products will be forced overseas if he cannot find Australian backers. "Australia needs to jump behind it or lose