Stash reHash

So long and thanks for all the fish

2010-06-06T04:18:00.000-07:00

This is my last post on this blog. The only fabric in this post is the fabric of my life. The only stitches are one perfect row done by a hilariously sweary man. My time in Christchurch is over and with it this blog. I am going offline and I may be some time... so time to euthanise this blog to make way for another sometime down the track.

So here is one of my children's favourite songs to be going out on: "So long and thanks for all the fish". Hopefully I'll depart gracefully and gratefully just like the creatures singing that song. The second line of that song - "So sad that it should come to this" - is apt, as while our whole ten years here have been a pretty wild ride, the past few months have been especially bumpy.

During the ten years I've lived in Christchurch, I've lost a parent, had one child diagnosed with a brain tumour (there are those perfect stitches), and the other child with juvenile arthritis; all this while my partner had a job that saw him alternating between being away from home for months of one year then literally working every waking moment for six months of the next. (When that came to an end last year, I have to admit I focussed on the aspects of Christchurch I've always really disliked, but now I don't give a darn.) This year my partner has lived and worked out of town and I've prepared for our move to Australia.

Despite all this, and thanks to our wonderful family and friends, we leave Christchurch happy, well, sane, together and excitedly looking forward to building a great new life in a new place.

These pictures of my family were taken by an amazing artist called France Herve who was in Christchurch during the 2009 Christchurch Arts Festival staging her show "My heart is a beast". The photo session was her way of saying thank you to my partner. We are Deidre, Guy, Matilda and Harvey.

So long Christchurch. Be good.

(PS My new blog about my new life In Mandurah, Western Australia, is called Pearl E Queen and it lives here.)

I've made it

2010-06-01T11:59:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I look back on the year and wonder where on earth the time has gone and what on earth I've been doing. Today I had to destash some photos from the computer because it did a Mr Creosote and said the computerspeak version of "F*** off I'm full".

I found photos of long departed miscellaneous goods made by me. There were handbags and tea towels...

beachbags...

and hottie covers...

notebooks and address books...

more brooches than you can poke a stick at...

keyrings, necklaces, and many more notebooks...

bunting, aprons, cushions, quilts and covers...

one mad doll...

and several sets of mental costumes.

There were reminders of a whole bunch of stuff I never photographed properly because I took it straight to markets, or never photographed at all because they were gifts or just stuff this household needed like curtains, hats, clothing and cushions.

Oh yes and two fabric markets.

Phew. Think I've earned some couch time. Lucky I haven't destashed it.

Destashing - the pets

2010-05-31T17:23:00.000-07:00

Today I arranged the hardest destashing job yet. We are recycling our cat. Our beloved Topsy is going to live in The Tron with her auntie and cousin. When we put her on the plane tomorrow I suspect the children and I will all get what Ken Oath! calls "dust in his eyes" (The sort of dust he recently encountered during A Song in the Dark. Ok that was quite dusty. I got some too.).

Now we just need new homes for various fish - with names recycled from the unused portions of our baby names lists, so Pearl, Iris, Walter and Percy (hmm, that one wasn't my pick) - and a fresh-water mussel called Muscleman (Any takers? He is no trouble!).

The children are adamant we'll get new pets in Australia. They want an enormous goanna because the little meanies know that is the one thing I am scared of. Apparently it helps to laugh at your fears, so to cure myself I plan to name that goanna Joanna. And make it wear clothes.

The top image is from the fabulous Frederique Morrel and the last three nutjobs were found here.

Because we are all different and need different things

2010-05-26T06:24:00.000-07:00

Over the past few months I have spent a lot of time thinking about what I own, need, don't need, want and don't want as I destash my family's worldly goods in preparation for moving to Australia. Today I spent the morning out with my son then before launching back into the destashing, I spent a few minutes eating an enormous bowl of Stoup (it is fusion food - old family recipe - it is reheated left-over stew/soup usually with grated cheese on top) while muckingaround in Interwebland.

I came across something interesting on Jen's Seedling Clothing blog. Art student Rebecca Marshall is asking for contributions to help her with a project. She needs participants to write anything they want, on anything they like, on the theme "because we are all different and need different things" then scan or photograph it and email it to her by Friday 28th to iamrebecca@live.com .

This struck a chord with me. What do I need?

Maybe some togs. Mine dissolved in the hotpools at Waiwera last weekend. It wasn't pretty but with my planned new My Sister Pat swimsuit it soon will be.

Perhaps some plates. Surely some of my grotty old ones will get smashed in the move and I'll have an excuse to buy some new chocolate ones from Ich and Kar and some dreamhome substitute ones from People Will Always Need Plates.

I'll need an excuse to sew as I'm missing it so much. A Rob Ryan design skirt kit from Clothkits should do the trick.

I'm always on the hunt for dishy sandals I can actually walk in. I feel some Camper Twins coming on.

I sold our sun umbrella but don't want a tan so I've got my eye on these at Bird Textiles.

I sold my bike but I'll need something to hunt the groceries with. I quite fancy a tricycle but my family mock me by pointing out that the Trademe seller describes these as suitable for "the physically challenged".

Oh what a big fat lie. Firstly, that virtual consumerist pig-out would virtually bankrupt me. Secondly, even though when Zest in The Press profiled me last year they called me "Material Girl", the truth is I'm just not into stuff anymore. Sometimes I think that if our shipping container fell into the sea that it would be quite liberating.

Yet there is one thing I really do need and it makes all the desirable, gorgeous, material goods in the world seems frivolous and trivial in comparison. My day out with my son this morning was spent at the hospital where he lay perfectly still for 40 minutes while a large white machine clunked, clonked and pinged around him. He has done this many times over the past six years and thankfully the results have always been good news. So here is my response to the brief "because we are all different and need different things".

That photo was taken in 2004 by Hanne Johnsen as part of The 21st Century Documentary Project, A Place in Time. My children and I were waiting in line for a donkey ride at a local school fair when the photographer approached us. My son had been discharged that afternoon after several weeks in hospital, had recently earned the nickname "Harvelstein" and was patiently waiting to finally do something "fun".

The image at the very top of this post is from a fabulous site called "The Museum of Scientifically Accurate Fabric Brain Art". (From the site: "While our artists make every effort to insure accuracy, we cannot accept responsibility for the consequences of using fabric brain art as a guide for functional magnetic resonance imaging, trans-cranial magnetic stimulation, neurosurgery, or single-neuron recording." Hahaha!) The image is of a hooked rug by Marjorie Taylor. I have to admit, I feel like I need that rug.

Stash reHash - Ashburton!

2010-05-18T20:00:00.000-07:00

It's Stash reHash ladies, but not as we know it! Arthritis NZ are busy planning the next Stash reHash fabric market. Here are the details - don't keep it a secret!

Stash reHash Ashburton
Sunday 27th June, 11am-2pm
at the Sports Hall, Tancred St, Ashburton
Contact Rowena Hart on rohart@clear.net.nz or ph 03 308 9371

To book your own stall at the market, then please contact Rowena.

Volunteers will also be required to help on Arthritis NZ's stall and to help run the market. If this sounds like you, then please get in touch with Rowena.

And one more volunteer is needed. I have set Arthritis NZ up with their own Stash reHash blog site over on Wordpress. As anyone who has set up and written a blog knows, it is quite a steep learning curve to get it all looking how you want it to and working properly. If you are familiar with Wordpress and would be able to help out with setting up their blog, then please contact Angela Stevens at Arthritis NZ on angela.stevens@arthritis.org.nz or ph their office in Christchurch on 366 8383.

That alien fabric above is one of the few pieces left in my stash. It is going to become a quilt for TheShortBloke in my house as I reckon that wherever you live, there'll be times when snuggling up on the couch under a quilt and watching a movie is exactly the correct course of action.

Pants pants

2010-05-18T05:25:00.000-07:00

Somehow I have managed to get to the age where if I accidentally tied too many helium balloons to my deck-chair then reporters would describe me as "middle-aged",  yet I've only just learned some apparently old-hat sayings.

Until recently I thought "pants" only meant two-legged garment suitable for wearing when when climbing ladders, hanging upside-down or when all your skirts are in the wash. Luckily I have hip young friends who inform me that "pants" has another far more interesting meaning. Ever since learning the other meaning, I've ditched naff, stink and crapola like an ungrateful old bag for my new one and only rubbish-word; Yes, I've been wearing out "pants" with gay abandon.

Shopping malls: pants!
Moving ads on websites: pants!
Cup and Show Week (known in this household as Sup and Throw Week): pants!
Repair company that charged me 2x $85 hourly rates + 2x $22 travel charges for a job that took the tradesbloke less time to complete than it has taken me to type this line: pants!

But the most "pants" thing I deal with on a regular basis is my inability to just go to a shop and buy... pants! See, this entire century, I have been unable to find trousers that actually fit me (Elastic waists don't count; I have standards and I'm not "elderly", though according to reporters I probably will be next year). My idea of heaven is being able to swan into a shop and find pants that not only fit me, but are also fashionable, flattering and comfortable. Too much to ask? It seems so.

It is a mystery to me how this has happened.   I am not a house-sized person. I am not even home-unit sized. I am just a normal sized person and I have been the same size the entire time I've been a grown-up (except for pregnancy 1 when I resembled a very short hot-air balloon and pregnancy 2 when I looked like an anorexic with a basketball shoved up my jumper). I am not an odd-shaped person. I have a waist and I have hips. My waist is not freakishly small (it is bigger than my neck) but it is considerably smaller than my hips. I suspect that this old-fashioned shape - which used to make pants shopping such an easy experience - is, in New Zealand, in 2010, the cause of my pants-buying problems.

The low-waisted trousers in favour for the early part of this century are a nightmare on me. Their "waistline" sits at the widest part of my body so there is a constant battle with gravity to keep them up. After bouts of belt-induced sciatica I gave up on shop-bought pants and stuck to homemade pants and skirts.  As pant waistlines have risen again I've ventured back to the shops, but every pair I try on has enough fabric left flapping at the top that if I took in the waist I'd have enough fabric left over to make a matching bra top. The only pants I have tried on recently that fitted me were in the most expensive shop in Christchurch. They were French, gorgeous and fitted like a glove. I seriously considered selling the car complete with one of TheShortFolk to buy them, but instead went home empty-handed - and made a pattern and sewed myself some pants.

I've been reading my stash of vintage fashion books (to sell or to keep?) so envisaged some high-waisted, wide-legged sailor pants like vintage Chanel leisurewear. I imagined wearing them with a small stripey T-shirt, an enormous sunhat, mental sunglasses and high wedge-heeled sandals.  The finished pants fit well and are very comfortable. However they remind me not quite enough of Coco on a cruiseship, and a bit too much of my youngest sister - not as she is now but as she was as a four year old in the mid-1970s in her somewhat-mental favourite Mothercare pants. Sadly my new pants are a tad pants.

That's not my new pants pictured above. Those mental numbers are from a comic strip advertisement in The Netherlands, found here on Neatorama.

Get out! (and about)

2010-05-11T16:44:00.000-07:00

There is lots of interesting stuff happening in Christchurch over the next wee while to put in your diaries. If you don't believe me then let me be your guide - just as I have guided dozens of visitors to Christchurch on my Sisters' Shopping Tours over the years.

Firstly, if your wardrobe would benefit from an injection of dishyness, then head to the Moa Pop-Up Shop, Sat 14th 10am-4pm and Sunday 15th from 10am-3pm at the top floor of Le Petit Apartment at 124 Lichfield St. Those are Moa outfits pictured above and if you like to have a jolly good virtual rummage before you shop, then head over to Moa's website here.

Then head down the road to Galaxy Records at 110 Manchester St, hand over $10 and get yourself a ticket to next week's Pecha Kucha night. Pecha Kucha Chch 08, Thursday 20th May, at Level 5, Unlimited Paenga Tawhiti, doors open 7.30pm / start 8.20pm. If you are one of the few people left in the world thinking Whocha Whatcha?, then read all about it on the Pecha Kucha site here or their Facebook page here. As usual a fantastic line-up of speakers and guaranteed to be the most interesting and entertaining $10 you'll ever spend (yes, I lead a very safe and sheltered life).

One of the speakers you'll hear there is Kris Herbert of Swap-O-Rama-Rama fame. She's organising another Swap-O-Rama-Rama event for 19th June (11am-4pm, Lyttelton Recreation Centre, Winchester St, Lyttelton). By all accounts the first one was a great success, so now is the time to volunteer your services, get in for free and get first dibs on clothes! Swap-O-Rama-Rama is a non-profit event that survives on the strength of its volunteers. Just follow follow this link and sign up for a job that suits you - sewers, designers, screen printers, sorters and just help setting up and cleaning up. There's something for everyone!

And last but certainly not least, A Craft Affair is being held on Sunday 11th July from 11am till 3pm at Our City O-Tautahi in Christchurch. Formerly known as Craft 2.0 Christchurch, this will be the sister event to The Night Market in December. If you are a shopper then mark it in your diary in red vivid marker (oops, texter) as this will be an event not to be missed. And if you are a maker of gorgeous goods and fancy being a stall-holder then hop over to the A Craft Affair website. Stall-holder applications are open now, are limited in numbers, and close on 23 May.

Sadly I'm going to miss most of those as I'll either be busy having Open Homes , or they happen beyond the giant red vivid-marker line in my diary which denotes when my NZ life ends and my Australian life begins. But I suggest you get out, make the most of these events, and by all means have fun.

Destashing - Stash reHash fabric market

2010-05-05T21:23:00.000-07:00

Many years ago my daughter ripped open a birthday present. The gift was a fancy ceramic moneybox in the shape of an anthropomorphised strawberry, with ceramic hands suspended from the body on springs. On seeing the gift, her younger brother cried out excitedly, "Scott Arms! Scott Arms! Scott Arms!", and this then became the object's name. Well actually that is just what I heard thanks my dodgy hearing. My family know to check that I haven't misheard them if I get over-excited by something they've said, before I inadvertently go spreading a far more interesting - but untrue - version of events. So just as I spent many happy years imagining a svelte, maybe anorexic or possibly worm-riddled man while singing "Nine stone cowboy" instead of "Rhinestone Cowboy", so all my son actually said was "It's got arms".

Well Stash reHash could be renamed Scott Legs. I've had many people contact me to ask when the next one is going to be or how to run one in their town. Arthritis NZ made $4,600 on their stall at the last market and I'm very pleased to say that they are going to take over running the whole event. Today I met with Ange and Rowena from Arthritis NZ to hand it over. My meeting today was a bit like what I imagine it is like on the day you change the locks and boot your ShortFolk out to make their own way in the world. I handed over my original sewn poster, my sewn bunting, instructions on how to run the event, notes about the many things I've learned along the way and instructions on how to get hundreds of people to an event on an advertising budget equivalent to the cost of 14 blocks of butter.

The first event they'll be running will be in Ashburton and it won't be too far way. As soon as the date is finalised I'll let you know here. I'm also setting them up a new blog space and when all that is ready, I'll link through to it from here. I thought about it (for 2 seconds) and decided that this blog is going to end when I move to Australia.

One of the main reasons I started Stash reHash fabric market was because I became tired of waiting for various things I've greatly enjoyed in other cities to happen in Christchurch. Since moving here I've missed many, many things. I miss far more than just walks in the bush and seeing native birds. I miss the chance to see contemporary dance on a regular basis. I miss seeing contemporary object art and textile art exhibitions like those I've enjoyed at ObjectSpace, TheNewDowse, Pataka and various other galleries. I miss the sorts of contemporary craft markets I go to when visiting other cities. I really miss the sort of theatre shows I was used to going to at Bats Theatre in Wellington.

Yes, I had a wee moan. Then I decided that moaning is a bad look and to do two things.

Firstly I decided to view the lack of certain things happening here as an opportunity and to do something about the ones I was capable of doing something about. I planned to have a go at running a small, no-risk event (Stash reHash) with a view to running another larger, ongoing event. Well now I'm leaving but I reckon someone else will seize that particular opportunity.

Secondly, I decided to really make the most of local events I am interested in. So I cyber-bully friends into coming with me to exhibitions, talks by artists and writers, Pecha Kucha, concerts and shows. And after many years of thwarted attempts to see The Butler, I am finally going. If outside you see two children locked in a car and puking into buckets, just move along, nothing to see here, Scott Nothingtodowithme.

Christchurch - The Garden City?

2010-05-03T04:57:00.000-07:00

While standing around in our unusually clean and tidy open home on Saturday, lots of visitors commented that our home must be great for entertaining. We said "Yes, it is". Maybe we are easily led, but Ken Oath! and I then looked at each other, looked at our clean and tidy house, thought what a waste it would be not to make the most of it, then got straight on our various communication devices to invite friends to a Sunday afternoon post-open-home-knees-up.

This morning I've filled the yellow bin to overflowing with the resulting bottles, washed and dried all the Crown Crystal and reset the house to its unnatural, surely-only-a-bad-mother-could-have-such-a-tidy-home state. During the cleanup I found a packet of seeds that had arrived around the neck of an Allan Scott bottle of wine (very nice it was too). The sentiment on the packet of native tree seeds -"planting for our future families"- made me think about one of the changes I'd love to see in Christchurch should I ever come back here.

I am not only a recovering fabricaholic, maker of textile goods and member of Overdressers Anonymous, but I am also a maker and admirer of gardens. When we decided to move to "The Garden City" from Wellington ten years ago, I was excited at the prospect of perusing Christchurch gardens, exploring the Canterbury landscape and of possibly building a new garden. But what I found in the gardens and wild spaces of Christchurch and Canterbury was not at all to my liking. The let's-pretend-we-live-in-another-country style of garden so prevalent here didn't appeal to me in the slightest and certainly didn't fit with my idea of a New Zealand "garden city".

Just as I am not the slightest bit impressed by stunning-looking but functionally-hopeless design, so I am not impressed by showy gardens that use huge resources to build or maintain yet provide nothing apart from eye-candy in return. To me, these are the garden equivalent of having cupcakes and wine for dinner: great fun occasionally, but unsustainable and unhealthy if the norm.

My friends and family living in other urban centres around New Zealand not only have Tui in their gardens, but Kaka clambering on their rooves, Kereru pooping on their washing lines, Kotare stalking their fish-ponds and Ruru waking them in the night. They have native butterflies sunning themselves on their fences and skinks on their patios. Call me greedy, demanding and opinionated, but I won't be satisfied until Christchurch has all that too. Only then do I believe that Christchurch, New Zealand can truly call itself "The Garden City".

I admire gardens that a) look stunning, but are easily maintained with minimal resources, b) pull their weight by providing the gardener with food and, most importantly, c) make a positive contribution to the wider environment they are part of. My garden is the one patch of land I really have control over, and it makes sense to me to do my best here before I get my knickers in a twist about environmental damage happening in my city, country or world.

I love all the contemporary designer fabrics, home-wares, artworks and garments inspired by New Zealand flora and fauna that are currently so popular. But I believe this design trend is just 100% Pure nostalgic nonsense unless we also all do our bit to ensure that the real flora and fauna actually has a chance of surviving. (The fabric pictured above is called Harakeke, is by artist Tim Main, can be found in various galleries and shops including Bolt of Cloth and the Christchurch Art Gallery shop where this print is also available as coasters, and it also hangs in my house.)

The city's native flora/fauna situation has improved during the ten years I've lived in Christchurch. The council and various community groups are doing amazing work in the city. But imagine the enormous difference it would make if every gardener in Christchurch also planted a few native plants. Imagine the difference farmers and life-style block owners could make to Canterbury eco-systems if they planted their shelter-belts with a self-maintaining band of mixed natives local to their area - rather than the waste-of-space species needing constant trimming that are currently so prevalent.

If you want to make a positive contribution to this city's eco-system via what you plant in your garden, then it isn't hard, it isn't expensive and you don't need much space. Here is how to do it in a nutshell.

A) Eliminate the negative.
Identify what is currently growing on your property and get rid of any pest plants. A great starting point is the Weedbusters site.

B) Get informed.
The best few dollars I ever spent was buying a booklet called "Indigenous Ecosystems of Otautahi Christchurch" by Lucas Associates. It is still available from City Council Service Centres and is also available to borrow from the library. (There are four booklets in the set covering various geographic regions of the city.) The council has also produced a variety of excellent pamphlets on attracting native birds to your garden and making wise choices about what to plant here. The Banks Peninsula Tui Restoration trust have produced an nice, simple brochure called Tui tucker. The public library has a great selection of books on native plants.

C) Start small / Doing anything is better than doing nothing.
If your preferred way to spend time in the garden is lying in a hammock with a book and a coffee, you can still provide excellent food sources for native birds by just planting a few key plants. Plant them, mulch around them and leave them alone. Many of these plants will have the added benefit of ensuring that other useful plants will arrive in your garden for free via bird poo. I could write a book about best/favourite plants and many others have, but here I'm going to limit myself to my top ten plants. You are big girls and boys so I'll leave you to find out more about these plants and where to plant them yourselves.
1. Wineberry/makomako Aristotelia serrata
2. A Coprosma such as Karamu Coprosma robusta
3. A flax. Either the smaller Mountain flax Phormium cookianum or the larger Phormium tenax.
4. A Pseudopanax such as Fivefinger Pseudopanax arboreus
5. South Island Kowhai. Sophora microphylla
6. NZ jasmine Parsonsia heterophylla. Because butterflies go mad for it.
7. Wirenetting bush Corokia cotoneaster
8. Muehlenbeckia astonii. My favourite plant in the entire universe. Like a beautiful, rusty, wire-netting sculpture. Makes a fabulous hedge and don't trim it.
9. Mahoe Melicytus ramiflorus
10. Cabbage tree Cordyline australis. Don't go on about the leaves dropping and being annoying. Just plant it at the back of the garden where leaf fall won't be an issue.

You'll be able to pick up all these plants from Trees for Canterbury and most will be only a couple of dollars each. Small plants are great and often establish themselves better than bigger ones, especially on hilly or exposed sites.

You can stop here and climb back into your hammock, or you can...

D) Go mad
Learn lots about the indigenous eco-systems of Christchurch and Canterbury and plant masses of appropriate plants on your property. Then volunteer your time and energy for one of the many community planting schemes.

That is it. Easy. And in just a few years time Christchurch could be a fantastic real New Zealand garden city.

For years I have potted up surplus native plants to give to friends. I have a few plants left to destash. If you would like them for your garden and are able to collect them, then please just email me on stashrehash@clear.net.nz .

Home Sweet Open Home

2010-04-27T13:00:00.000-07:00

WARNING: Property Investors and Landlords please leave now, click-as-you-can. Nothing to see here. Away you go. Shoo!

You see, I'm finally there. This weekend is our first open home and I am determined to find loving new owners for our dream-home. By the weekend I'll hopefully be out of denial and ready to welcome visitors. If you know someone looking for a new home who you think would like this style of house, then please pass it on.

Details are:

Trademe listing here.
1950s Pascoe and Hall (designed by Humphrey Hall) modernist home.
Timeless, unique and fabulously functional design.
3 bedrooms, 2 living, plus study.
Superbly sunny and private.
932 sq m section planted in natives and with an extensive vegetable garden.
Double garage with internal access and auto garage door.
One bathroom and large separate laundry.
Micro-park across the road, Christchurch/Westminster Park 1 minute walk away and St Albans Park 5 mins walk away.
35 mins walk to my old job in town in sensible shoes or 40 mins walk in dishy shoes. Took 10 mins to cycle there before I sold my bike.
Warrington St shops, Shirley Road shopping centre, Edgeware shops and The Palms all in easy walking distance.
43 Aylesford St which we say is in Mairehau, our neighbours on one side say is in Shirley and neighbours on the other side say is in St Albans (Sarah Palin would say "I can see Merivale from my house!).

We have absolutely loved living in this home and hope to find new owners who will too. Now I need to go cheer myself up in the company of my friend Bunnahabhain and stitch myself an Open Home sign.

The "To do" list and the "Not to do" list

2010-04-25T23:39:00.000-07:00

Because I am very easily distracted, I have always been a list person. My favourite list was the one I made when Ken Oath! and I moved into the first home we bought together. It was a long and sensible list with things like "Underfloor insulation, sand bathroom floor, investigate drive-on access, paint spare bedroom, fix bathroom window latch, get gas heater serviced, fix dodgy step, build vegetable garden" etc etc. At the bottom of my list, in a different coloured pen, in Ken Oath!'s hand-writing it says, "Have babies!" So we did that then of course finally ticked everything else of the list five years later - about twenty minutes before boarding the plane to move to Christchurch.

For the last few months I have been working through a hallway-long To Do list in preparation for putting our Christchurch house on the market. Last week it was down to fridge-freezer-long and now it is only freezer-long.

Given that I generally do all my own stunts (i.e. a do-it-yourselfer), this means that a) the skin on my hands now resembles the left-over Christmas Day roast potatoes you find in the oven when you return home from your holiday on January 6th, b) while my hands have been busy, my mind has been doing some serious wandering.

Lately it has been wandering to my "Not to do" list. Does anyone else have one of these? These are things that for one reason or another I hope to never do in my lifetime. Below are a few of them. Blogging used to be on that list until someone far cleverer than me suggested it would be just the ticket for Stash reHash, so who knows which of the listed joys I will actually get to experience one day.

1. Vote Act. My family are under strict instructions to get me psychiatrically assessed if this ever happens.
2. Be an All Black. Too shouty for me.
3. Sledge (that rude thing cricketers do). It is simply terribly bad manners and I don't care that you are wearing a sports uniform.
4. Wear a sports uniform.
5. Make my children do outdoor winter sports in Christchurch. So unspeakably grim. Surely people will look back in a hundred years time and consider making children run around outside, in shorts, on a 4 degree sleeting day a form of child abuse.
6. Moonhop to the North Pole/unicycle across the Sahara/flutterboard across the Pacific Ocean or participate in any other "extreme adventure". When "extreme adventurers" come on Nine-to-Noon I have to pop a CD on lest I should start shouting at the radio. I wouldn't want to cause anyone else to shout.
7. Get my mugshot on the "Wanted" pages of the newspaper. Upsetting for my mother.
8. Drive a Hummer. They are for people who are in wars. And saddos.
9. Grow a beard. Or even a moustache.
10. Paint a room beige. If I had the job naming all the paint colours, I'd call all the beiges things like "Surely you can do better than this" or "Warning - contains highly offensive non-colour". Then I'd probably need to get another job.
11. Wear batwing sleeves. And no, not because I wore them last time around. I just find them nasty. Last time they were "in" I ignored them and hoped they'd go away and it worked for nearly two decades. I wagged the day at Fashion School when they taught batwing sleeves in pattern-making class as I hoped I'd never need to use it. The one time I was required to make a batwing sleeve pattern was in the early nineties when I was working for someone who is now one of New Zealand's top designers. Thankfully her technique for "designing" was to go overseas on shopping trips and bring back two of anything she fancied. Then she'd hang one up in the workroom and fling the other one at a pattern-maker's head while shrieking "Unpick!" - never once realising that any good pattern-maker can copy a garment without having to unpick it.
12. Wear a peplum. On me: Ew.
13. Wear a jumpsuit. On me: Ew, ew.
14. Wear godets. On anyone: Ew, ew, ew.

Best I stop now as I've probably offended everyone at least twice. Plus this is starting to sound like a Listener column which I used to quite enjoy, but now think should be renamed "Stuff I hate" (could one of my Wellington poker+vodka friends please invite the offending writer out as I'm sure she's actually a very nice sort who just needs to get out more). Bit like me. So I'm going out now. To Bunnings.

The photos at the top are of fabrics that were my backup plan when I came to realise that "Make wardrobe doors" was not going to get ticked off my To Do list. When I rebuilt my bedroom I couldn't face shelling out dosh for giant white melamine wardrobe doors as that just seemed like a missed opportunity. I'd always wanted a photo mural there, or to jumbo-enlarge my favourite woodland scene paint-by-numbers picture and paint it onto plywood in just brown and white tones with the woodgrain left as the background. Sigh. Then I discoved Erin Michael's prints for Moda above and decided to make huge fabric panels like fake wardrobe doors. Well that fabric is harder to find than a Hummer-driver-I'd-like-to-have-a-cup-of-tea-with, so I'll be leaving....air. But naturally I'll be selling it to the new owners as ... an opportunity!

Three great stash-busting ideas

2010-04-21T21:06:00.000-07:00

Now that I have no stash and no time to make anything more interesting than a folded pile of clean laundry, I keep hearing about lovely events for makers. For a compulsive and usually prolific maker like me, this is a form of torture. So rather than just sit here getting bitter, twisted and frustrated by my inability to participate, I'm going to write about them here in the hope that someone out there participates and I can live vicariously through you.

1. Wild Tea Cosies Competition

I have spies in Nelson. One of them a) loves the wonderful Nelson independent bookstore Page and Blackmore Booksellers, and b) told me about a Wild Tea Cosies Competition they are running. Here is how it works:

Crafters and creators get your fingers clicking. Make a tea cosy to win the book Really Wild Tea Cosies by Loani Prior
Entries close Tuesday 28th May. All entries will be displayed in our window and the winner will be drawn 1st June.

And yes the competition is open to people from outside Nelson. Take or send your entries to:

Page and Blackmore Booksellers Ltd,
254 Trafalgar Street
Nelson 7010

If you would like to have your tea cosy returned, then enclose a prepaid and pre-addressed post bag. 28th May is not far away, so hop to it, click-as-you-can!

2. "It’s a Tree" collaborative community project

It's a Tree is a project by OutdoorKnit, sponsored by The New Dowse, Craft2.0 and Knitsch yarns. The idea is this:

there are a few very tall lamp posts outside the New Dowse in Lower Hutt, and OutdoorKnit decided it would be a pretty fun idea to turn them into something different...trees!
What OutdoorKnit needs is lots of knitted, crochet or even sewn flowers, leaves and native birds to cover these 'trees'. The best medium for this is acrylic - it wears better when the weather gets a bit grotty.

For more info see:
The OutdoorKnit blog and the Craft2.0 blog.

The picture above is of some of the flowers and leaves in progress and the picture below is, well, something else pretty, jolly, special.

If you are in any doubt about how rewarding, enjoyable and successful such collaborative projects can be, then check out this Knitted Wedding. A few years ago, textile artist Freddie Robins curated the exhibition Ceremony (Pump House Gallery, Battersea Park, London) which culminated in the Knitted Wedding of Freddie and artist, Ben Coode-Adams. To read more about it, see Elvis Robertson's great account of it on her Lovely Textiles blog here, or browse through the photo albums here and here. I've never really got weddings, but that, I get.

3. Floral Frocked Floosies

Now don't run away. Just as "hood" no longer just means "odd, infrequently-used, hat-like appendix hanging off the back of a garment", so "floosy" apparently no longer just means "the lady I thought must have missed the No 46 bus up Manchester St and so offered to drive home one wet and windy night on my first week living on Christchurch while on my way home from the library." (Sigh. We still see each other sometimes and smile and wave.) No, to see what a modern-day floosy gets up to, see the picture at the very top of this post.

If you have had even the quickest trundle around the crafty bits of Interwebland, you will have gathered that it is a very caring and sharing place. There are dozens of blogs and websites giving tutorials, patterns and crafting tips for free. Sometimes I look at these sites these and wonder "Who has the time to put all this stuff out there? And why? And what do you get out of it?", but mostly I just think "What a kind lady. Nice tip. Thank you very much".

Sometimes though, when you are attempting a new crafty project, nothing beats being in a real room, with other real crafters, with a nice real person who knows more than you do and is willing to help you. Like the Realworldland version of those online tutorials. Now add cake. I know! Who could resist! Well that is what Floral Frocked Floosies is.

Floral Frocked Floosies is a Christchurch crafting group co-ordinated by Justine from Redflax. They get together every fortnight or so on a Monday at 7ish. The group decides what they want to learn to sew and Justine teaches it - apparently with sometimes hilarious results. There are two different groups - one just for pottering and finishing stuff etc, and one more structured with a set lesson - like cushions, hottie covers, bags, skirts etc. You can find out more at their Facebook page.

So people, go forth, have fun, and if you do participate, then I'd love to see the results. Right. Best go get the washing in.

Destashing - miscellaneous useful stuff

2010-04-20T02:28:00.000-07:00

Do you ever see a Trademe seller and, by the composite of their listings, make up your mind what sort of person they are? Do you ever save a Trademe seller as a favourite just to see if the item you guess they'll list next, they actually do list next? Oh, is that just me....

I've just listed some miscellaneous useful stuff on Trademe. When I went back to cyber-stalk my own listings to see if anyone had looked at them (Must stop now.), I realised that I had become that cliché! My listings tell a story and spookily that story is true.

Yes it is true that I like to get home on my bike, flop down in the garden (actually on a bench-seat I made myself from a plan in a book but the photo didn't match) under my sun umbrella (so as to not get a tan), pop on a pair of mad vintage sunglasses, grab a funny old non-fiction book and say to TheShortFolk "play amongst yourselves!", then relax while they push each other into things on their go-kart, while indoors the cat scratches holes in a once-collectible rug and the vintage tablecloth sits forlornly on the dining table while no-one cooks the dinner.

And looking at my own composite, perhaps my retro-is-a-bad-word friend is right and it is time to reinvent myself. With all those $1s I'll be collecting in a week's time!

Thank you, thank you, thank you

2010-04-18T16:27:00.000-07:00

I had an absolutely wonderful time on Sunday at the second Stash reHash fabric market and I hope you did too. I hope your stash is topped up with new treasures and that you are inspired to make beautiful things. If anyone was ever in doubt about the resurgence of crafts and the existence of the hand-made movement in Christchurch, then yesterday was proof of how strong it is amongst women and men (yes, I was wrong) of all ages.

I must admit that I felt like an alcoholic running a pub, but I managed to stick to my plan and not buy a single thing. Now that my fabric stash has completely disappeared I feel a bit like a sailor without a boat, but I have no time to dwell on that as today I have to do my GST! Aargh! No time for muckingaround again this month, but I can see the future and it involves a reward...

But enough of the silly similes; I have some serious thanking to do.

Thank you to:
• the wonderful stall-holders for taking a punt on this event,
• all the generous people who donated goods for the Arthritis NZ stall,
• the people at Arthritis NZ for always being such a pleasure to deal with especially when it became evident that the gorgeous but gigantic monster we created for the first market had been eating steroids,
• the lovely new people I met along the way who volunteered their time to help at the working bee and at the market,
• all the people who helped spread the word about the event through the press, via Twitter and Facebook, in shops, on blogs and out in Realworldland,
• and of course to all you many, many shoppers. I doubt there has ever been a more patient queue or a friendlier, more enthusiastic bunch of shoppers.

But again mostly thanks to my fabulous friends and family. Many people asked me if I planned to run this event in my soon-to-be-hometown in Western Australia. The answer has to be no because this event only works because here I have such a great network of friends and supporters who help me at every stage of the organisation.

The other big questions of the day were variations on “Will Stash reHash happen again? / Who is going to run it next time? / When will the next one be? / How do I find out if and when the next one will be? / How do I have a stall at the next market?”

At this stage I can’t answer those questions. Discussions need to be had – preferably in wine bars. If definite plans are made before I leave, I’ll let you know on this blog.

Otherwise here is my tip for the best place to find out about any crafty event. In Christchurch we are lucky enough to have Craft Royalty in the form of Lucy from Felt. Her Felt blog is the best place to find out about all things crafty - both in Christchurch and around the country. I've already got wind of a few upcoming events I'll be very sad to miss, so keep an eye on that blog and make sure you don't miss them too.

Blokes, dogs and children

2010-04-15T14:36:00.000-07:00

Recently I received an email from a woman who is coming from out of town to shop at Stash reHash on Sunday. She is concerned that her husband, children and dog will do the old "Are you done yet? Are you done yet?" and cramp her fabric shopping style. Not being familiar with St Albans, she asked for some ideas of where to send them so she can shop in peace.

Good move. I'm going to make a gross generalisation here, but in my experience (most) blokes, dogs and small children don't really get fabric markets. If you are in the same position as this shopper then here are my top tips for where to send them.

Abberley Park. This beautiful garden park is just a few minutes walk away (down Edgeware Road, cross Springfield Road and you'll see the entrance in Abberley Crescent). It has Secret Gardens, often has swarms of butterflies, enough room to kick a ball around, two playgrounds suitable for young children and bridges for playing Pooh Sticks.

St Albans Park. This is a bit further away between Madras St and Barbadoes St down the Warrington St end. Loads of different play equipment arranged in a circuit around the perimeter of sports fields plus a skateboard park, basketball hoop, flying fox.

If the weather is foul then you are spoilt for choice in Christchurch with The Christchurch Art Gallery, Canterbury Museum and Science Alive (not much chop for dogs though) just a few minutes drive away from the market.

But if you really want them out of your hair for a good long time, and your Shortfolk are taller than 1.3m tall (oh, not the dog!), then tell them to drive out to Spencerville and go to one of my all-time favourite places near Christchurch: Adrenaline Forest. This is just the coolest place. My lucky Shortfolk went there yesterday.

And my apologies to all the men who do get fabric markets. Go you!

Pictured above is the rose-covered fabric of a frock which sat in my stash for years. Before that it had sat in my friend's stash for many years before she gave it to me. It has finally been altered and now has pride of place in my wardrobe. The same friend took my children to Adrenaline Forest yesterday, had them for a sleep-over last night (thankyou, thankyou, thankyou) and is hopefully still sane.

New, new, new designer fabrics

2010-04-13T13:53:00.000-07:00

If you follow this blog, have spotted me out in Realworldland or have kept me company in my home, you'll know that my personal taste tends towards the retro, or as a disapproving friend calls it, "The R-word".

But all tastes will be catered for at Sunday's market. Remember that there are dozens of individual stall-holders at Stash reHash selling their treasures. Stall-holders' descriptions of their wares include shabby chic, true vintage, vintage-inspired, Asian, Japanese, contemporary and designer.

Plus three stall-holders are online retailers of new designer fabrics. If you aren't already familiar with their wares then this is your chance to see them in real life. And if you're not usually an online shopper, then this is a great opportunity to meet the great sellers behind these businesses so you can make future online purchases in confidence.

If you fancy checking them out before the market, then hop over and visit:

Annie from Fabrication (picture at the top is Wishing Flowers - Fuschia and below is Antler Damask - Celadon),

Lyndy from Stitchbird Fabrics (picture below is Ducks in a row),

and Melinda who sells as Littlebutton1 on Trademe (picture below is Timber apple mist).

Come and visit them on Sunday and indulge your love of beautiful new designer fabrics because as Melinda puts it, "She who dies with the most fabric wins!"

Coffee, cake, cupcakes and more

2010-04-12T03:41:00.000-07:00

Fabric shopping can be a very tough, energy-sapping business so you'll need to keep your strength up. Outside the market on Sunday you'll find the Retro Espresso coffee caravan for your coffee fix and my friends from the St Albans School PTA selling food including their world-famous-in-St-Albans baking.

Then if after you've shopped and eaten and drank to your heart's content you still feel like a little something else, well how about buying a business! Even that gorgeous coffee caravan is for sale! Read more about it on its Trademe listing here.

How to cure a fabricaholic

2010-04-10T23:12:00.000-07:00

I am usually a pretty verbose person. I have just returned from the Arthritis NZ working bee and I am lost for words so here are some pictures.

10am arrive to find a huge room that looks like the picture above. And this,

and this.

Quickly realise that this is no place for children so escort mine across the road to Science Alive where they spend the day happily doing this (now that is a child with well-managed juvenile arthritis!),

and this.

Get back to the working bee and find lots of amazing helpers sorting the donations. And what did we find? Everything! Trust me when I say that whatever fabric, notion, haberdashery item or miscellaneous crafty thing you are looking for, then it will be on Arthritis NZ's stall. We went mining and we found gold. More things than I can list or describe here. Incredible, amazing, beautiful and inspiring things. And I'm not joking when I say that it will be arriving to the market in a truck. Each helper had different favourites and items they put in the many boxes we labelled "Treasures". Here are a few of my mine.

And that is just from one box. There are this many more.

Many thanks to all the people who have donated these amazing goods and many thanks to all the helpers who came to sort it all out. Now to make this all worthwhile we need shoppers next Sunday. Thousands of shoppers. Tell your friends, your sisters, your workmates and your Mum. Please. And I wasn't joking about that trailer.

Arthritis New Zealand working bee - Helpers required

2010-04-09T04:19:00.000-07:00

I'm not scared of fabric. I'm also not scared of hard work. However when I delivered some donated goods to Arthritis NZ and saw just how amazing the response to their request for donations has been, I quickly realised what a huge job it will be to sort and prepare their goods for sale. This is an "all hands on deck" situation!

Arthritis NZ are having a working bee on
Sunday, April 11th, starting at 10am
and finishing, well, sometime before 11am on Sunday 18th April. Just kidding. Finishing mid-afternoon. If you are able to come along and help even for an hour or so at any stage during that time, then that would be fabulous. Please email me on stashrehash@clear.net.nz and I'll give you all the details of where to come and what to bring.

Pictured above is one corner of Arthritis NZ's stall at the last Stash reHash market in November last year just minutes before the hall doors opened. What you can't see is the room behind their stall filled with many, many more boxes of fabric. They constantly replenished their stall throughout the market. Given that they have even more goods this time, they'll be doing the same again.

So if turning up exactly on opening time, dealing with crowds or queueing isn't your cup of tea, then come to the market a wee bit later in the day. At the last market there were great fill-a-bag deals from 1pm on Arthritis NZ's stall. I met several very happy late-comers who had avoided the crush, had a relaxed shop and left with enormous armloads of fabric set to become playtents, curtains, whole-cloth quilts and bunting and all purchased at absolute bargain prices. I wrote BYO shopping bag in some ads, but if you have a big job planned then BYO wheelbarrow. Or maybe trailer.

Advertising your business, group or event at Stash reHash

2010-03-31T15:26:00.000-07:00

At Stash reHash we have a table set aside for information likely to be of interest to Stash reHash customers. Last time all the brochures, flyers, business cards etc on this table were snaffled up and taken away. As I go around town delivering Stash reHash posters and flyers (dangerous business - see below) I've been collecting more information for this table but I'd love to receive more.

So if you have any sort of shop or business, event, upcoming sale, discount vouchers, craft group, classes, exhibition, organisation or other that you think would be of interest to the sort of crafty people who come to a fabric market, then I'd love to hear from you to help advertise it. Email me at stashrehash@clear.net.nz and I'll be in touch next week to arrange how you can get your advertising material to me.

My day out yesterday delivering posters proved to be a lot of fun but also a wee bit dangerous. Pictured above is the nearly finished quilt I made last night between doing the dinner dishes and watching Lost. The front is fabric I bought at the always gloriously tempting Bolt of Cloth yesterday afternoon. The back is fabric I bought at Stash reHash last time, sandwiched in the middle is one of my woollen blankets and the edges will soon be bound with ancient stash fabric. All those times my not-so-subtle little cowgirl has left our computer screen displaying this page have finally had the desired effect.

Destashing - Our dream-home

2010-03-25T16:45:00.000-07:00

In the past week I have destashed myself of my Realworldland job, my Interwebland job, my main PTA job and my voluntary job all in an effort to concentrate on the biggest destashing job on my To Do list: selling our house. The trouble is, the more time I spend at home getting rid of stuff, tidying and cleaning, then the more I fall in love with it.

When we moved to Christchurch ten years ago, our children were aged 18 months and six weeks old. Ken Oath! was either travelling overseas or working every waking moment in his exciting new job. I didn't know a single person here. Our rental house was in a great neighbourhood (St Albans) but certainly wasn't dream-home. (It had one room I always went into with my hand over my eyes because the curtains were so nasty and another we referred to as Antarctica.) I had only ever been to Christchurch once before; that was a decade earlier and I'd spent that entire visit trapped in a training room.

In short, I needed to get out, get exploring and get myself a life. I bought a double buggy and went out on hunting expeditions. First I hunted myself a collection of Rare Birds, i.e. the best collection of friends you could ever hope for. Then I hunted myself a collection of places I loved going to, including parks, opshops, libraries, galleries and walks. Finally I hunted myself a micro-mini short short-list of properties in the neighbourhood that I was potentially interested in should they ever come on the market.

A year later I was wheeling 60 blocks of butter worth of children home from my Plunket mothers' group, when I spotted one of my short-listed houses getting a For Sale sign installed. No time for muckingaround! I rushed home and got straight on the blower. That night, under the auspices of doing the grocery shopping, I met the agent and inspected this architect designed, modernist but modest, sun-soaked beauty. Within 5 seconds of walking in the front door I told the agent she could can the sales pitch because I was already deeply in love; I was home.

So then I had to go and fess up to Ken Oath! what I'd done. After he'd recovered from the fact that I didn't actually have any chocolate for him, he too arranged to see the house. I waited nervously, then when he got home I excitedly demanded "What do you think? Shall we buy it?" He said what he says best: " 'KIN' OATH!" Soon afterwards the easiest property purchase ever was completed and ownership was transferred from the son of the recently deceased original owner to the happiest little family in StAlbansShirleyMairehau.

We have absolutely loved calling this house home. Over the years I've ogled many other cool homes on Christchurch Modern but the reasons to stay put always outweighed the reasons to move. While our address probably won't impress those peculiarly Christchurch people who go to posh parties and ask grey-haired grown-ups like me what school they went to, this home certainly has numerous other impressive features.

We stuffed it with our eclectic collection of mid-century furniture, retro fabrics, kitsch collectibles, thousands of books and some New Zealand art - otherwise known as miscellaneous-stuff-we-love. Even though I greatly admire sophisticated, contemporary interiors in magazines and on blogs, my own decorating style could only be described as like a magpie on speed. Our interiors make Todd Oldham's look minimalist and will probably make some potential new owners' teeth hurt. Just as both our children's names are in the "What not to name your baby" books, so I suspect that when our interior shots are loaded onto real-estate sites, they'll quickly make their way to various "How not to furnish your home" blogs to be sniggered at by people far cooler and more restrained than us.

Ah well. I'm not scared of being sniggered at. What I am scared of is living in a house so bland that I'd have to leave a trail of crumbs every time I went out so I could find my way home again. I'm scared that someone who really wants to live in Italy will buy this house and do a nasty Italiente makeover on it. I'm scared that the new owner will rip out our huge, tui-ready, native garden and replant it with roses and pansies.

OK, too much idle chitchat and not enough action. I should really be scared of still being sat here in my PJs in four weeks time, still hemming these jolly curtains (that I should have hemmed five years ago) when people arrive for my first open home. Back to work for me.

Destashing - 17 Vintage Metal Sewing Machines

2010-03-24T14:59:00.000-07:00

No, it's not me destashing this time. This stunning collection of vintage sewing machines is currently for sale on Trademe. These are being sold by Jenafer from the Local Vanguard blog who does a sterling job promoting local events, businesses and miscellaneous interesting things. The least we can do is help spread the word for her.

Imagine these in a crusty old museum (my favourite sort - the modern, shiny, all-singing, all-dancing museums make me feel like I'm an eight year old boy who hasn't taken his Ritalin. Give me a wooden cabinet with treasure-filled shallow drawers any day). Imagine these being cared for and used by a retro craft group. Oh, imagine these displayed in a glass-fronted plywood cubby-hole cabinet on the back wall of a cool shop complete with their description tags.

Time to stop imagining and start spreading the word; these beauties deserve a loving new owner.

Destashing - The seriously big scary fabric shears

2010-03-23T03:01:00.000-07:00

Some things are easy to destash. Some, for various reasons, are a wee bit trickier.

My fabric and sewing supplies sorting was trucking along nicely the other day when I opened a box I hadn't opened for years but hadn't quite managed to part with. Some items went into the Stash reHash pile, some went into the opshop pile, some went into the rubbish pile and some went into the rather too large Too Hard pile. Something I put into the Too Hard pile were the two pairs of scissors above.

One pair I had bought as part of the equipment requirements for the fashion and textiles course I did over 20 (!!!) years ago. Being a little-goody-two-shoes I dutifully had my name engraved on them as instructed. Then found I was too much of a weakling to use these 13 inch long monsters on a regular basis and reverted to my small, zippy Solingens. I won the second pair. The award details plus my name is engraved on them. I never used those shears either because they were incredibly sharp and, well, I'm a bit of a dreamer and I was convinced that if I daydreamed while using those they'd have my fingers off. Basically I'm a weak, scaredy, sook. So both sets of shears were left to go stiff and rusty in the bottom of a cardboard box with only some "bargain" elastic (loses its ping if you say boo to it - now in the rubbish pile) for company.

Silly I know, but the reason I found destashing these shears too hard is because my name is on them. I didn't want to be to someone else like Edith Brand is to me. I felt I needed to hand these on personally.

Too much thinking + not enough action = cup of coffee required. Naturally while having my coffee I wandered over to Blogland for a spot of muckingaround. First I hopped over to visit Thoroughly Modern Miss Millie but got distracted by her list of Christchurch's crafty bloggers: some are my friends, some I have met, but some were new to me. I am quite nosy so I went and had a snoop.

And what do I find but a woman in Christchurch who loves and cares for her scissor collection and dreams of owning some enormous shears! The tidyness of the situation was just too much for me. By dinnertime that night my old shears had left their one careless lady owner and were safely in the hands of their lovely new careful lady owner! I hope you enjoy them Gretchen. Sometimes muckingaround in Blogland really is the best course of action.

I opshop therefore I am

2010-03-18T04:23:00.000-07:00

I am an opshopper. I do also like vintage and retro shops where some clever cookie has stuffed their shop full of cracker items, but my favourite shopping experiences are still down-and-dirty, proper, unedited, opportunity/charity/thrift shops.

Non-opshoppers probably wonder why. Well, I love the thrill of the hunt. I love never knowing what mad item will tempt me today. I love the fact that I can go for weeks finding nothing then have an almighty haul all in one day and still have enough cash left for an ice-cream on the way home. I love spotting a glimmer of potential in some tired old thing then remaking, remodelling, sanding, painting or just plain fixing it to turn it into something I love. I love the odd conversations overheard in opshops. I love the cheerful optimism of the term "opportunity shop".

Now that I am de-stashing everything in an attempt to stuff all our worldly goods into a shipping container, I have gone cold turkey on opshopping. And wouldn't you know it, but after years of wishing and hoping that such a thing would happen, a fantastic opshop opens mere hopping distance from my house. Naturally I've fallen off the wagon big-time, but it is worth it and even the conversation is top quality! Pictured above is my new favourite haunt. It is on Warrington Street in St Albans, just by the intersection with Barbadoes St. Loads of haberdashery, doilies, embroidered tablecloths and retro clothing and there was also some really cool retro fabric but, um, I bought it! For a gift, honest. Plus there is a dairy next door for your reward ice-cream.

Plus for those of you still in full opshopping mode, look what else I have found! The Op Art Fashion Awards are "an exciting new concept for designers who must use creativity and innovation to create fashion with materials sourced from an Op Shop, a $2 shop and/or an emporium. The entire creation must not cost more than $200." $200! Such riches! I could outfit my family for a year on that! Well ok, I exaggerate. Not if we want to win an award. Ok, ok, not even if we want to be seen in public.

GST procrastination - no time and no need

2010-03-13T12:54:00.000-08:00

If you read this blog regularly you'll have noticed that there was no GST procrastination this month. There was simply no time for my usual muckingaround. We were like a super-efficient GST tag-team, then when it was done we ticked another dozen equally annoying things off our hallway-long, leaving-on-a-jetplane to-do list.

Plus I now have no need for fantasising about a new life in a mental dreamhome in an odd location. I now know where my new life will be and I figure I'll just sort out the mental dreamhome when I get there. I'll also need to sort out new schools, a brave new GP, unpack our worldly goods and replace the ones I rashly decided were too huckery to ship all the way there. Once all that is ticked off, I'll get on with the real business of my new life in my new hometown.

Whenever I mention where we are moving to, people respond with "Oh, you'll love it. The beaches! The water sports!". I say "Ummm. Keep going..." Because as anyone who knows me knows, I like my beaches on postcards or viewed from the great indoors, and the mere thought of water sports (OK, any sport) makes me come out in a rash. Given that I have never been within a few thousand kilometres of my new hometown, a bit of research is in order to put my mind at rest that the things I love will also be on offer there.

Firstly I consult a book from my waist-high pile of books selected for de-stashing: This is Australia by Miroslav Sasek. All I discover is that I still love this series of books to bits and so put them back on the bookshelves.

So a quick trundle around Interwebland is required. There I discover that a) given the climate, I can safely sell my huge stash of woollen fabrics and blankets at Stash reHash, b) sadly these days the blokes there don't dress as fancily as the Dad in Mr Sasek's illustration, c) I'll need to tune into the local real estate as the few houses I fancy there are described as bowlable redevelopment opportunities, and d) yes there are fabric shops, libraries, art galleries, markets and op-shops. There is even an op-shop apparently desperate for staff...

Phew! Mandurah, Western Australia, here I come. Well, after I've de-stashed myself of my fabrics, jobs, pets, worldly goods and current dreamhome that is.

The computer says no, darn it!

2010-03-09T12:57:00.000-08:00

This post is to the lady who keeps emailing me in ever more grumpy tones re having a stall at Stash reHash, but has obviously never received any of my numerous replies. I've replied to you from all my various email accounts and from several computers. I'm no expert, but I suspect something is bung with your email account.

So please lady, turn your caps lock off, make a cup of tea, stop emailing me and resign yourself to the fact that you won't be having a stall at Stash reHash as they are all sold. Please phone whoever you use to darn holes in your computer and ask them to make-do-and-mend it. Your messages are rude and a bit stalky and are rattling my cage. Stash reHash is like the sign outside the Wunderbar in Lyttelton, ie Nice People Only!

I love the badges pictured above with their gently sweary/make-do-and-mend look. They are made by the very clever Running With Scissors from Auckland. See more of her fancy goods at her blog here, or on Toggle and at various craft markets. For those of us further south, just email R.W. Scissors here.

Do not iron

2010-03-06T16:56:00.000-08:00

My favourite textile care label is "Do not iron". It is the one care label I take very seriously. But I always feel this label should have a qualifier, for example:

Do not iron; do something fun.

Do not iron; do something worthwhile.

Do not iron as it is a complete waste of your precious time.

Do not iron as it may be injurious to your mental health.

I am no Domestic Goddess but I find ironing the most trying of all household chores. While not usually one for violence, if anyone ever gave me an iron as a gift I'd probably find myself in a position where I'd need to deploy the legal defence of provocation. The only way I can bear to iron is while drinking wine and listening to loud, sweary music.

A recent houseguest had a very sad accident with my should-have-been-binned-a-decade-ago iron. Before I remembered to warn him about this domestic White Dwarf he'd already melted an iron-shaped hole in his brand new shirt. He had to attend his business meetings sporting the I'm-currently-living-in-my-car look.

After a week sporting the same look I've given in and bought a new iron. Any excuse for my weekly dose of wine and sweary music.

Stalls all sold

2010-03-02T23:25:00.000-08:00

Yet again the just-let-women-tell-women/lie-back-and-let-the-interweb-do-its-magic/don't-try-to-curate-the-universe approach has come through with the goods. All stalls at April's Stash reHash fabric market are now sold.

What a fabulously eclectic bunch we are! Stall-holders range in age from women in their twenties to women in their eighties. Things we all have in common is our love of fabrics and handicrafts and a seeming inability to say NO when we see a wonderful fabricy thing. Stall-holders have been tempting me silly with their descriptions of their wares. All agree it is going to be a great day. More details about individual stall-holders and their wares to follow soon.

Pictured aboved is some stunning donated vinyl fabric based on a Florence B. design. I'm thinking saddlebags for my bicycle.... no, No, NO, I'm thinking de-stashing....

If my life was a quilt...

2010-02-27T12:04:00.000-08:00

Many women at my stage of life have ridiculously busy lives. I'm one of them. Luckily I can see the future, and by July (if I'm lucky) or August (if I'm realistic), my life will be completely changed; it will be fresh, exciting, streamlined and new.

So if my life was a quilt what would it look like?

For the past few months it has been like an antique folk art crazy quilt: huge and extremely busy but with no overall pattern to make sense of it all, full of stories and drama, every piece unique and worthwhile, crumbling around the edges and unravelling but still amazing and rich.

Whenever life gets like this I feel the need to unpick and discard a few patches or rows, but sadly I'm not world champion at saying "NO" or discarding things. Maybe a better plan is to throw the whole lot away and start again.

In my dreams, my new life in my new city will be serene, under control and gorgeous like of Clare Plug's artworks currently on display at Te Manawa in Palmerston North.

But between now and then I have a heck of a lot to do. My life as a quilt for the next few months just has to be like Katherine May's contemporary crazy quilts made from discarded Action Man and Barbie doll clothing! A mix of the two would be perfect for a girly woman-of-action like me!

Photos above via The Curious Eye (I love your curious eyes misters).

Destashing Garage sale - Saturday 27th Feb, 8am, my place

2010-02-23T12:31:00.000-08:00

With Ken Oath! away for the past few weeks I've been madly destashing our worldly goods in preparation for moving to another country. I've single-handedly restocked the SuperShed, made valiant efforts on Freecycle, had a flurry of activity on Trademe and made pyjama runs to every red-lidded bin on the street at crack of dawn every Rubbishday morning. Despite all this my garage is still so full I can barely wade to my fabric stash to start sorting it out for Stash reHash.Drastic action is required.

I am having a garage sale!
No fabric, but plenty of costume jewellery, retro homewares, clothes, shoes, handbags, more kitsch than you can poke a stick at and a few weird and wonderful "how the heck did that get into my house..." items.

Plus TheShortFolk are having a toy stall. They are already plotting what they are going to spend their millions on. I feel a life-lesson looming...

Saturday 27th February
Aylesford St, which we say is in the suburb StAlbansShirleyMairehau, or if you are a real estate agent you'll know it as East Merivale East,
8am signs go out and doors open. I'm not saying the street number as some cheery soul always decides it is a great idea to arrive at 6am. They tend to meet TheOtherDeidre. The one TheShortFolk refer to as BigChiefGrumpyPants.

Then when you are done at my place, head through the pathway near my house to a giant garage sale, craft stall, sausage sizzle, cake stall event over at the
Christchurch Football and Squash Club
9am-12 noon
250 Westminster St

Sadly TheNewMinimalistDeidre is going to have to resist going to that one.

Donations for Arthritis NZ's Stash reHash stall, please

2010-02-17T16:24:00.000-08:00

Arthritis NZ welcome your donations of good quality fabric, buttons, threads, haberdashery, textiles and craft supplies to sell on their Stash reHash stall. The response last time was incredible and meant they had a very successful day.

Pictured above are some of the donations received so far for the upcoming market, including some gorgeous fabrics donated by the the woman who interviewed me for Zest(Food,Fame & Fashion section of The Press) before the last Stash reHash market (thank you and all the best in your new life).

Donations can be accepted up to Friday 9th April. For information about where and when to drop-off donations, please phone Arthritis NZ on 366 8383.

Swap-O-Rama-Rama, Lyttelton 20 Feb, 11am-4pm

2010-02-15T01:11:00.000-08:00

The instant I heard about Swap-O-Rama-Rama, I excitedly contacted the organiser to say "Yes, I'm in! I'll help! Sounds fabulous!"

It was only afterwards that I felt like a very bad mother when I realised that my youngest child has a zero birthday that day. I've tried to convince my son that there couldn't possibly be a more fun way to spend a day than a clothes swap followed by a workshop session involving printing, refitting and remodelling those clothes and sharing skills with other like-minded people. I just know I'd go home with a sore face from all the laughing and talking. Sadly though my son is not convinced, so I can't make it to Swap-O-Rama-Rama this time.

If you can and this sounds like your idea of a good time, then here is some more information:

NZ’s first SWAP-O-RAMA-RAMA
Saturday FEB 20th, 11am-4pm
Lyttelton Recreation Centre, Winchester St

Entry cost $10 plus a bag of clothing for the clothes swap
A clothing swap where you can create new delights from old treasures. Workshops, design stations plus a cat walk if you are keen. This event is sponsored by Singer (sewing machines) and Yudu (screen printers).
Part of the Lyttelton Summer Festival.

Have fun and think of me while I have a small boy's idea of a great day out!

Handmade Nation - in Christchurch!

2010-02-11T01:00:00.000-08:00

I've just had a very exciting phonecall from Prue from Christchurch to let me know that Handmade Nation is finally going to be screened in Christchurch. Yay, go Miss Millie and Felt for arranging this!

The Christchurch premiere of Handmade Nation: The Rise of DIY, Art, Craft, and Design, a documentary by Faythe Levine, will be on Thursday 4th March at the Hollywood Cinema in Sumner – doors open at 7pm and the movie will start at 7.30pm.

Tickets are $20 each and include a glass of wine and nibbles on arrival.

I've got my ticket, go get yours at Miss Millie's Felt shop here. One screening only so no time for muckingaround!

Show your stash!

2010-02-06T12:37:00.000-08:00

All over Interwebland people have posted photos of their fabric stashes and workspaces. Some are styley and amazing, some are embarrassing bombsites, some are just huge and some have such amazing fabrics they make me green with envy.

I never manage to keep my stash tidy and organised for long. Usually my fabrics are piled so high on my worktable that they resemble the lounge-mountain Richard Dreyfus made in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, only cleaner. If a visiting small child poked them we'd have to call in search and rescue to dig them out from the resulting avalanche.

But today I had a jolly big sort out as the first thing I'm selling on Trademe in preparation for moving is my "current projects" cabinet. If my fabrics are out of sight then I tend to forget about them so this cabinet has been great for reminding me of what I have on the go and inspiring what I intend to make next. Looks so cute I feel like keeping it! Just out of shot is my lounge-mountain with the other 99% of my fabric stash.

I'd love to see what your fabric stash and workspace look like. Fancy showing me?

Dreamjob - Hemptech

2010-02-03T20:06:00.000-08:00

Look what I just found! Dreamjob! Shame that for me it is in the wrong city, but maybe for you or for another fabric-lover this would be heaven.

Those are Hemptech fabrics pictured above. Hemptech have collaborated with various New Zealand designers to produce beautiful printed fabrics often with a New Zealand flora theme. If you aren't aware of what a wonder-fibre hemp is then there is plenty of info on Hemptech's website. It has come a long way from the days when it was mostly used for those nasty saggy-bottom hippy trousers. Oh, I reckon I could sell textiles that beautiful, useful and eco-friendly even while locked up in an isolated farmhouse (yup, Ken Oath! is away and I'm back on the Coro habit)!

Now, I must try to remember what I was actually looking for in the first place....

Here we go again...Stash reHash is back!

2010-02-01T01:32:00.000-08:00

This time around it has been like herding drunken monkeys to get everything arranged, but I'm happy to say the next Stash reHash fabric market will be held on Sunday 18th April, 11am - 2pm at the Scottish Society Hall in Edgeware (same venue as last time.)

If you are a shopper then put it in your diary, tell ten friends, your craft group and your Mum. Please.

If you would like to have a stall then please email me at stashrehash@clear.net.nz with stall-holder in the subject line. I'll send you all the details. Old or new fabric, remnants to rolls, yarn, buttons, notions, haberdashery are all good and welcome!

Two stalls are already booked. Arthritis New Zealand will be back with a huge assortment of donated goods. And I've booked myself a stall as soon afterwards I'm leaving on a jetplane, don't know when I'll be back again. It finally is time to get seriously ruthless with my stash.

Well... unless any Lucienne Day fabric (as pictured above) turns up. I can think of quite a few household items I'd happily Freecycle to make room for a length of that in my shipping container!

Tivaevae love and a flower making workshop

2010-01-21T23:13:00.000-08:00

Today after work I decided not to walk straight home as usual. Today, inspired by Simone Quentin de Manson's post about Christchurch on DesignSponge (long version here) and franz tormers' delightfully optimistic assertion that "Christchurch is the new Berlin", I instead went AWOL for a while and decided to concentrate on the things I do really like about Christchurch. Given that it was mid-afternoon, pouring with rain and thirteen degrees, that meant visiting a few exhibitions.

My favourite was a small but stunning exhibition at Our City O-Tautahi called Tiare Maori. This is part of the Island Summers exhibition and highlights the traditional Cook Island art of tivaevae. Tivaevae are quilts and these examples are absolutely beautiful. I've read lots about tivaevae, (my favourite book on the subject is The art of tivaevae : traditional Cook Islands quilting by Lynnsay Rongokea with photographs by John Daley because it tells the stories of the quilt-making women and I am very nosy!) but realised today that I'd never actually seen any in real life. The exhibition features examples of the many different styles of tivaevae and they are exuberant and vibrant and well, if you like that sort of thing just go and see them.

Also featured in the exhibition were examples of the relatively new but related art of cotton flower making. These are sooooo cool! And on Saturday 30th January there is a workshop where we can go and learn how to make them! I had so much fun learning how to make crochet flowers for Slip that this seems too good an opportunity to miss. Anyone care to join me? (Ignore the book by date, I checked today and there are still spaces.)

Go on, it'll be fun! Let's ignore the weather and make Christchurch the new Rarotonga!

New Year, new dreams, new market?

2010-01-17T14:08:00.000-08:00

The children are baking chocolatey treats without me. Ken Oath! is water-blasting the paths around the flat-roofed 1950s architect-designed, U-shaped, dream-home to spruce it up for possible sale (tempted?). And I am dreaming about an item from my "Christchurch would be a far cooler place to live if only..." list. Sometimes this list is just long and depressing and sometimes it screams "opportunity!". As a real-estate agent would put it, some things about Christchurch are "ripe for refurbishment".

See one of the things I wish Christchurch had is a gorgeous, dangerously tempting, regular, contemporary craft/design/handmade goods market. I'd love to see a local version of the fabulous markets I've gone to all around the world. A market so good I would mark it in my diary the second I hear about it and arrange to meet my friends there. Somewhere I'd proudly take my design-aware visiting-from-out-of-town sister or friend to.

Auckland and Wellington have regular contemporary craft markets springing up all over the place enabling makers can find their niche and have regular opportunities to sell. But still nothing similar in Christchurch. Christchurch may be over-run with markets but none of them do it for me either as a shopper or a stall-holder. Call me greedy or deluded but I think what this place needs is something like Melbourne's Rose St Artists market.

My dream market would meet the following criteria:

Indoors. Non-negotiable. No discussion. Outdoor markets in Christchurch are grim and risky for selling handmade goods for at least 10 months of the year.(Christchurch is simply not the tropical South Pacific paradise sold to all those poor flimsy-frocked Japanese brides who must get hypothermia as they punt down the Avon on the happiest day of their lives!)
Handmade and/or designer, quality goods only (ie no second-hand stuff, no $2 shop type stuff, no hotdog man pumping fumes onto stock) with an application/selection process for stall-holders.
Great variety of goods including ceramics, glassware, clothing, jewellery, textiles, childrens things, homewares and accessories. Not just chick-crafts but also the sorts of things that blokes produce and sell. I'll get into trouble for this, but cool stuff, not naff stuff.
Stuff you can't find any old day in the shops or what is the point?
A market where artists/craft artists/object art makers sell their "diffusion" lines of homewares, clothing, accessories or jewellery. Where art and design students book a stall to sell off their end of year show work or treat it like a mini exhibition opportunity. Where emerging designers test new lines. Where crafters supplement their online sales. Where makers sell lines not suited to retailing because the markup makes them too expensive or which don't sell well online because customers need to touch them. Where out of town makers whose goods are not otherwise sold here come and sell.
Held regularly. I'd love to think Christchurch could sustain a regular market (monthly? quarterly?) with a rotating list of stall-holders who could book in as a oncer or regularly. A different mix of stall-holders each time means it stays interesting for shoppers.
Reasonable stall costs.
Venue. What is the perfect venue in Christchurch? Roomy but not too expensive or hassley to hire. Preferably comes with tables. Bit of character would be great. Easy access via car, bus, foot or bike. Near a money machine. Near cafes or with enough room to have a tearoom section of the market. Near foot-traffic or anywhere and so good it becomes a destination in itself? Set venue or popping up in a different place each time like a pop-up shop?
No entry charge on the door for shoppers. Never, ever, ever. Why is it that the craft markets with the naffest goods are also the ones with door charges? Yikes, now I'm really going to get into trouble.
For locals. Tourists could come too of course but once things are designed specifically for them they become grim.
On a Sunday because nothing ever happens here on Sundays.

Too greedy? Deluded? Would it work or would it bomb? Would you book a stall? Would you shop there? Am I the only person in Christchurch dreaming about this? Please tell me your thoughts. What is your dream-market like? Do you run a market? What works and what doesn't? Should I just make it happen or should you! Should we do it together? So many questions!

The image above is of The Finders Keepers markets. Read about it Christchurch people and weep!

GST procrastination, again...

2010-01-14T01:32:00.000-08:00

Some people never learn. Seems I am one of them. I should have finished my GST hours ago but instead I am mucking around and concocting mental dream-homes again.

First I wander over to the Christchurch Modern blog to see what is new, well old (surely that Jan 13th one is just some fake photoshop joke to see if anyone is awake. Eeww).

Then move on to Trademe - briefly because of all the horrid jumpy ads - and find an ex Abbatoir and and ex Army Hall ripe for refurbishment. Hmmm. I'll go with the Abbatoir.

It would need some new furnishings so I head over to Mr Mod for a chair, Duncan Sargent for some shelves and Workroom for coatstands. Shaping up nicely.

I'd go to Dilana for some rugs, Just Scandinavian for some Stig Lindberg and Josef Frank curtain fabric and Orla Kiely for a jumbo tapestry cushion (and 10 frocks, though I suspect they'd make me look like a 1960s air hostess). Swing back to NZ for a nice bunch of Ferrit's fancy flowers.

But what would I do in my Taihape dreamhome? Well I guess I could start with my GST return.

Powerhouse launches International Lace Award

2010-01-10T00:01:00.000-08:00

Lace and I have a very one-way relationship.

I greatly admire the beauty of fine, hand-made lace and marvel at the skills, patience and perseverance of its makers. I read books on museums' collections and visit lace-themed exhibitions . Recently I've enjoyed spotting and reading about contemporary examples of real lace through to the many lace-inspired artworks and designs rendered in cutout, ceramics and print. I love the delicate beauty of Rob Ryan's papercut work, Cal Lane's metal cutout artworks and Janet Morton's lace trees. Closer to home I love the lace-like designs of the ironwork on the old bridges across the Avon in central Christchurch and Lonnie Hutchinson's cutout building paper work sista7, which is back on display at the Christchurch Art Gallery.

However whenever I try to take my admiration of lace to the next step and try to wear it, lace does not love me back. I always feel like one of the super-prim models from my 1975 Golden Hands Encyclopedia and Ken Oath! tells me I look like I'm heading out to sell Tupperware.

The Powerhouse Museum in Sydney has an extensive lace collection and a Lace Study Centre. They have also launched an International Lace Award for which they define lace as "an openwork structure whose pattern of spaces is as important as the solid areas." The award results should be very interesting given that it "seeks to encourage contemporary design and challenge conventional notions of lace and its application in the areas of fashion, the built environment and digital multimedia." With the exhibition happening in July/August 2011 during the museum’s international design festival Sydney Design 2011, I plan to just hang out in Sydney for a couple more months until all the ball-kicking nonsense is finished with back in NZ.

My absolute favourite lace object has to be the fences pictured above. Lace Fence is made by Dutch Design House Demakersvan. I am always drawn to things that are both gob-smackingly beautiful and functional and for me these certainly fit the bill. Stunning. Fingers crossed there will be some examples of these in the Sydney exhibition.

Corduroy skirts are a sin

2010-01-02T18:31:00.001-08:00

Yes I know this will be old news to some of you, but I just love this so much I had to pass it on.

The smiley chap in the photo above is Syracuse University junior drama major, Chris Pesto. He decided to take action when he noticed two adults (one wearing an ankle-length corduroy skirt) on his campus holding signs that said “Homosexuality is a sin”. Before he knew it he had 100+ people holding signs for gay rights alongside him.

More information here. Priceless. I like his style!

Best came

2009-12-24T20:40:00.000-08:00

Today it is Christmas and I am at home with my favourite people. We have had a lovely quiet day. The day is warm and sunny. Ken Oath! is cooking a divine meal wearing his new apron, TheShortFolk have picked roses and are now shelling peas. I'm on beautifying duty.

When I was collecting donations for Stash reHash a lovely elderly lady quite unsettled me. We chatted for about an hour about all sorts of things. Then she hauled a tablecloth out of her bag of donated goods and said, "This is not for the market. This is for you. Never save things for best dear, because best might never come." It was a tablecloth she had made and embroidered in the 1940s before she was married. She had "saved it for best" but had never used it.

Well today best came. That tablecloth (and two others!) is on my Christmas dinner table because I can't imagine it gets better than this. Merry Christmas.

Chez Golden Hands

2009-12-20T22:44:00.000-08:00

Last weekend my family went away for a little holiday. We had things that needed to be done (Dolphin watch cruise voucher with looming expiry date) and big things to discuss. What better place than Akaroa.

Ken Oath! booked the holiday home via the amazing McCrosties website based on his criteria of availability, number of beds (sleeps four plus an emergency snoring bed), proximity to the action so that Corolla (or is it a Corona, who cares, obviously not me!) could have a holiday too, and of course, price.

But when we got there we found that his chosen house was accidentally an extra special treat for me. It was a shrine to 1970s handicrafts! I immediately dubbed it Chez Golden Hands! All the things in this house had been made with care and great skill and no doubt told the history of the family who owned the house. A huge effort had been put in to decorate and furnish this house in the 1970s, then it had been perfectly preserved as if in a time capsule. Even the piles of magazines contained nothing later than 1988. Given that that was the year I started fashion school, I had a kind of morbid fascination with the hideousness of them.

It made me think about home decor fashion, which of the currently "in" items will give sniggery joy to people in thirty years time, and about the macrame owl that proudly perched in my family's holiday bach for decades.

The owl-making sister recently gave me a bound four volume set of Golden Hands magazines from the 1970s. Since then I've had many happy hours reading them. No matter how hard I try, I can't resist renaming the various regular chapters. So I end up with Clothes for the Wannabe Eternal Virgin, Man-Repelling Home Decor and Torture Your Children in Style (the numerous all-in-one scratchy wool knitted outfits and all those high-necked tops edged with nylon lace. In white. Handwash only. For wee boys!) My favourite chapter though is the one Golden Hands calls "Collectibles". These are elaborate and extremely time-consuming "textile art" projects, usually in natural colours, quite big, sometimes incorporating found materials such as bark, driftwood and feathers. Hmmmm, tasty. If you can't quite visualise what I mean just go to any op-shop and you'll find a whole pile of these beauties. Maybe I should rename this chapter Future Op-Shop classics or Your family won't fight over these in your will.

So what did my family decide. Our knitting is well and truly back on our needles. We have plans! Ken Oath! is working his magic again, making the world a more interesting place for those who appreciate the performing arts - though not in Christchurch, now or possibly ever again.

TheShortFolk and I are going to stay in Christchurch long enough to run Stash reHash at least one more time. I need to have a chat to the nice old bloke who hires out the hall but I'm hoping for early May. I'll send out a message to previous stall-holders and the mailing list as soon as I have a date sorted. Soon after I'll put information up here.

All the pictures above (OK, except for the dolls) are from Chez Golden Hands. The dolls are from the real Golden Hands and they and their whanau live again on gorgeous greeting cards at the fabulous Pug Design Store.

Admirable qualities, or, why I love linen

2009-12-10T16:34:00.000-08:00

I know someone who has recently been subjected to some very rough and unpleasant treatment. I'll call him TheFallGuy. The way he has behaved throughout and changed as a result of this treatment reminds me of a textile experiment I once did.

In this experiment we subjected a variety of fabric samples to an extremely long, hot and rough machine wash then we hung the samples out to dry. Later we carefully examined them and compared them to control samples to identify how they had coped with our mistreatment.

Many fabrics came through seriously worse for wear: some completely disintegrated; some were shrunken and misshapen; others were frayed, threadbare or holey; some had bled angry blotches of colour or shed fluff; a few pilled unattractively; others were faded or greyed; many emerged from the machine twisted and knotted like rope.

In contrast, the pure linen sample coped superbly with our nasty treatment. This amazing fabric is incredibly strong, durable and resilient; linen emerges from a tough day in the laundry softer and more absorbent, so when used for tea towels, it becomes even more useful than before. Linen ages beautifully and is amazingly long-lasting. It does not pill or shed lint. In hot climates linen clothing it is valued for its exceptional coolness.

So while just observing TheFallGuy's mistreatment has left me ragged and twisted, remarkably he has come though it like the best quality pure linen tea towel: even more fit for purpose and ready to put in many more years of excellent service.

Plenty of other fabrics are more prestigious, expensive, fashionable or outwardly impressive, but I for one recognise and value the admirable qualities of linen (and TheFallGuy).

TheFallGuy needs to live where quality goods made from honest, hard-working and rare stuff are valued and treated with respect. Any ideas where that might be?

The money or the bag?

2009-12-06T00:01:00.000-08:00

Up until last week, I've been in a frenzy of making stuff for sale. Given that Christmas gift-buying madness is still upon the world, it would make economic sense for me to continue down this path for at least a few more weeks.

However I've decided to temporarily retire from making stuff for sale. I'll stock-up my Felt shop then leave it to slowly deflate. The making won't stop, but I'm just getting back into making for other reasons for a while.

Ken Oath! desperately needs new loud shirts. I need some practical clothes. I'm starting a new job soon out in Realworldland and, given that my wardrobe mostly contains fancy party clothes, mental retro dresses, gardening clothes and clothes suitable for wearing while doing my Interwebland job,(OK, that's my pyjamas) I really do have nothing to wear there.

But the thing I'm going to enjoy making the most is a bag. On hearing that I was starting a new job soon, my daughter said she was keen to spend some time with me, just us two doing something together. Great, I said, and asked what she would like to do. "Make something together" she replied. Many times I've tried to suck her into my orbit of makingness but with limited success, so this was music to my ears.

So while I got all excited and sent her off to look through my stash to select the fabric, she had quite a different approach. It seems the practicalities are far more important than the look, so first we wrote up a design brief!

Apparently the perfect bag for a non-girly-girl must:

have lots of pockets and compartments for compass, fossil-digging tools, library books, wallet and high-bounce ball,
have secret hidey-holes for squirreling away Miscellaneous Useful Things found in ditches (springs, ball bearings, screws, shoeless high heels etc),
open the correct way for a left-hander,
have a comfortable padded shoulder strap,
be adjustable so that she can use it "forever",
have pockets and compartments that close securely so that precious goods do not fall out when the wearer is running, pogo-sticking or dangling upside down in a tree,
hold its shape when empty,
not be too heavy,
be robust so that getting it dirty and cleaning it again is not a drama.

Who knew!

My son came by, saw what we were up to, said "Cool!" and now we are probably making two bags.

We are currently making the pattern. I'm trying to behave myself and teach her how to do a fabric lay so we know exactly how much fabric we'll need, when really I can't wait for the bit when I say "Let's go stash-diving!" or better still, "Let's go fabric shopping!"

So this week my choice was "The money or the bag?" Bag wins. An economist would probably call me crazy, but to me, making something with my daughter is worth more than any amount of money I can think of.

The bag pictured above is from the Miscellaneous Mental Things section of my wardrobe. Yup, those are shells, rhinestones and poodles. I wonder if I can squeeze "Must make me laugh every time I use it" on my daughter's design brief!

Governors Bay Garage Sale Trail - But will there be fabric??

2009-12-04T13:27:00.000-08:00

The Governors Bay Garage Sale Trail will be held on Sunday December 6th from 8.30 am to 12.30pm. Yes, tomorrow!

This very special event gives you the opportunity to stroll around this lovely community, browse and shop in the garages of many participating families and in the community hall.

This list and map shows all houses with a garage sale together with sales categories and special items for sale. So my obvious and immediate question is, could the categories "Hotchpotch" and "Other Hobby Items" potentially mean fabric, yarn, haberdashery, possibly a wheelbarrow full of vintage buttons???? I am so not cured... Further copies of this list are available at the She Cafe / Community Centre corner on the day.

Given that this event is a fundraiser event for The Clown Doctors New Zealand Trust, is being held in one of my favourite places, enables me to indulge in one of my favourite past-times for a good cause and then hopefully still have enough cash left over for the most delicious hot chocolate ever at She Cafe, then I'll be there with bells on. Just don't get between me and the fabric OK?

Florence Broadhurst Pop up store

2009-12-02T00:01:00.000-08:00

I know I've banged on about Florence Broadhurst before. I own books about her, have watched movies about her, have cyberstalked Signature Prints' website and have excitedly collected wee morsels of her prints.

And if you know me in Realworldland you'll have also heard me banging on about how I love the whole pop-up shop concept.

Well now lucky Auckland people can go to the Florence Broadhurst Pop up store and, for a short time only, roll around in a whole shop full of fabulousness! December 5th - 13th, weekdays 10am - 6.30pm, weekends 9am - 4pm at 1:4 Axis building, 91 Lower St Georges Bay Rd, Parnell, Auckland.

Go on, go mad, then tell me all about it (while I'm stuck here in the frozen south dressed head to toe in merino) and make me green with envy.

The Night Market, Thursday 3rd December

2009-11-29T23:45:00.000-08:00

Busy, busy, busy this week in preparation for The Night Market. This Thursday night, from 6pm-10pm you'll find a cosy Christmassy craft affair at Our City O-Tautahi (corner of Oxford Terrace and Worcester St, yes right by the bridge, yes opposite Rydges Hotel, yes, in that cute building on the poster!).

Mine will be one of 20 boutique stalls and between us we'll be selling jewellery, homewares, accessories, candles, books, children’s clothing, aprons, handbags, toys and more, and ... bunting! So if you love beautifully handmade contemporary goods then come and do your Christmas shopping in style.

And yes, even though it will be officially summer by then, I'll have hottie covers for sale. This morning my daughter set off to school camp all dressed up like an eskimo after hearing our freezing weather report. Children dressed in shorts and T-shirts were trying to buy her Sir Ed-style fur-lined hat off her. By 10.30am, when all my extremities were numb and I was eyeing up the cognac as a means of warming up, I gave in and lit the fire instead. On 30th November. Sigh. Christchurch's summer seems to be turning into that old Scottish joke, "Ah, we had a lovely summer this year. It was on a Tuesday."

So I hope to see you on Thursday night. Who knows, it might even be a cosy, white, Christmassy craft affair.

Bunting is the new black

2009-11-23T15:09:00.000-08:00

I'm a bit in love with bunting at the moment. Ever since I stitched the bunting onto the Stash reHash poster, I planned to make some of the real thing to hang outside the market. Of course it ended up being made late the night before the market after several glasses of Riesling and ended up looking like a blind person made it with their feet. Because I used upholstery fabric, it weighed a ton and nearly pulled over the Edgeware Rd bus shelter and was so stiff that it could have taken out someone's eye. Looked quite festive though I thought.

See that is the thing with bunting. It can make any occasion feel festive. Think I'll hang some up next time I have to clean the loo.

So this week while Ken Oath! (partner) is in Straya, the house looks like someone put a bomb under my stash. There is fabric from one end of the house to the other as I mix'n'match, pink and sew up several parties full of bunting. I have kept off the Riesling and taken my time and this batch is not at all huckery (if I say so myself). Come and snap some up at the Christmas Chic Market.

Otherwise check out my all-time favourite bunting here. Honestly, if I went to a do and that "Don't feel obliged to stay" bunting ("ideal for dinner parties or to hang above the bed") was up, I'd be tempted to just move in. Actually wouldn't that be a great slogan for a town! I'm off to suggest it to the CCC.

This week I have been mostly...

2009-11-19T00:01:00.000-08:00

This week I have been mostly doing a lot of the same thing. I really admire people who can do the same thing day in, day out without going barking mad because I am not usually one of those people.

Whenever I am in this situation I am reminded of one of my favourite series of skits from one of my favourite ever comedy shows. Does anyone else remember disgusting Jesse from The Fast Show regularly emerging from an outhouse to shout about what he has mostly been doing (usually eating) that week?

This week however I have managed it and I don't think I have gone mad. Whenever I was thinking, "Boring...", my partner would emerge from his office and say "Fancy a coffee and a stroll around the garden?" The correct answer is always "Yes".

See this week I have been mostly making aprons. Lots and lots of nice generous, down past your knees, right round to your back, fully lined, crisp, clean, fresh, bright, useful aprons. Not at all suitable for Jesse! Which is nice.

Memorable fabric

2009-11-17T00:01:00.000-08:00

I suspect that the way my memory works is not quite normal. I know smells can trigger memories but mine are often triggered by fabrics, prints and patterns.

So while I often have great difficulty remembering the name of the cool woman I chatted to last week at Whatshername's party who turned out to be Thingame's sister, I can easily remember where I bought every ancient bit of fabric in my stash. Perhaps stranger still, my memories of key events in my life also include details of exactly what I was wearing at the time.

This week I'm making lots of things for a couple of markets I'm having stalls at over the next few weeks. For every piece of fabric I haul out of my stash, I slip through trapdoors in my memory to places and events I thought I'd forgotten about.

So for example, when I hauled a piece of the fabric pictured above out of my stash to make an apron, I remembered that it arrived ten years ago along with several kilos more of beautiful retro fabric courtesy of North Island friends. They were on a road-trip down the country, were op-shopping along the way and (correctly) guessed I'd love this. (Come back any time.)

I also remembered a grand day out in Raglan one New Years Eve that turned into a not so grand day in Waikato Hospital emergency department (small boy + peanut = bad scene). I was wearing damp halterneck Tango togs under a T-shirt from the Christchurch Art Gallery Shop and a skirt made out of that fabric.

Surely my brain-power and memory could be put to better use than this!

Dying for decent dye

2009-11-12T17:37:00.000-08:00

Is anyone else mourning the loss of their favourite little round regular pharmacy purchase? Dylon hot water dyes in the wee round tins are gone! I've been in love with those things for years and my line of reclaimed jersey felt flower brooches relies upon them.

Since their disappearance I've been struggling to find a decent, non-blotchy, affordable, non-messy alternative that I can preferably buy within walking or retro-Raleighing distance of my home. After discussions with other stall-holders at Stash reHash I know I am not alone in this quest.

Today in Christchurch it is a "holiday". (Does anyone else think there is a word missing from the English language, i.e. a word for a "holiday" when you have children, are are self-employed and work from home? Such "holidays" are simply days when no work gets done and sometimes get referred to around here as "hellidays" or "horrordays". There is certainly no resting, relaxation or real holidaying involved!) So today I decided that I shouldn't judge a dye by its packet - or price, as the replacement product is twice the price - and tried Dylon's new product. I fed the children an enormous lunch, set them up playing a three-hour board game (Settlers of Catan), put on one of my 16 pairs of gardening pants and set to.

The first issue is that Dylon must have its product design team housed on planet Lotsoftime as the new dyes require 15 minutes of constant stirring then 45 minutes of occasional stirring. The second issue is that if a dye-bath is any less than scalding temperature I just can't resist ditching my trusty dye-stick and sticking my hands in. The third issue is the sad result. One hour and $7.99 later I am the proud owner of a garment (op-shop purchase, great style, excellent fit, colour a wee bit dodgy...) so blotchy and streaky that only a tragic old hippy would wear it. Sigh.

Tomorrow night I am wearing my other new find-of-the-century op-shop purchase (perfect style and fit and thankfully also perfect colour) to a posh do. If you see me there please do not comment on the fact that my hands are now the same colour as those toes on the cigarette packets and instead skip straight to the bit where you give me your best fabric dye tips. Please? I'll pay you!

Fabric-a-brac, Sat 14th Nov, 12-3, Wellington

2009-11-11T21:44:00.000-08:00

Yet more action this weekend for fabric lovers. This weekend Wellington is the lucky town.

Fabric-a-brac returns this Saturday 14th November, 12 noon - 3pm at the Brooklyn Community Centre at 18 Harrison St, Brooklyn. Fabric-a-brac wants fabric out of the closet and in your hot little hands. Pick up fabulous vintage, unusual and modern fabric at bargain prices and help someone else clear out their sewing cupboard.

Sounds far too good to resist! Enjoy.

One off (print) or repeating pattern?

2009-11-10T16:15:00.000-08:00

When I first planned and wrote about Stash reHash, I said it would be a "one off event". Immediately people said "NOOOOO. Do it again. Do it again."

Now that it is over, I'm receiving emails and phonecalls from people expecting and assuming that Stash reHash will become a regular thing. I can't say YES yet as I don't know where I'll be living or what I'll be doing in a few months time (I'm open to offers of dreamjob where I get to work and deal with fab people like those on Sunday and have as much fun as I did organising Stash reHash...) I'd love to run it again and if I can't I'll boss, boss and boss someone else into running it, and give them a comprehensive "How To" guide of course.

So if you want to know whether/when it is happening again, and would like to be added to either of my mailing lists - potential stall-holders or eager shoppers - then please just email me at stashrehash@clear.net.nz. Otherwise just keep an eye on this blog.

And no I'm not over fabric. Pictured above is a stunning piece of Alexander Henry fabric called Skullduggery I bought from Bolt of Cloth yesterday. See, repeating pattern! It is a sign! That shop is every bit as gorgeous as everyone had told me. If you haven't been in and you love contemporary interiors fabrics then you just must. See, I am pretty bossy!

Top quality goods

2009-11-08T13:00:00.000-08:00

I had a wonderful time on Sunday at the first ever Stash reHash market and I hope you did too. Today I am feeling a bit shell-shocked but happy.

Thank you to:

my wonderful stall-holders for taking a punt on this event,
all the generous people who donated goods for the Arthritis NZ stall,
the people at Arthritis NZ for always being such a pleasure to deal with especially when it became evident that we had created a gorgeous but gigantic monster,
the great new people I met along the way who came and helped at the working bee,
all the supportive people who spread the word about the event to their readers, customers, friends, sisters, daughters and Mums and meant that we got an astonishing turnout on a publicity budget equivalent to my household's monthly Weetbix spend,
all the patient shoppers who waited understandlingly or came back later when it became evident that the hall was not capable of safely holding another person,
the enthusiastic people who have have asked when it is happening again, how they can help or how to book a stall.

Thanks to all the lovely, creative people who sought me out to say hello, compliment me on this blog, tell me stories from their stashes and about their lives as makers. You have inspired me to get my making-mojo back.

Thanks too to the many positive people who have given feedback on how to improve the event for next time.

But mostly thanks to my fabulous friends. I already knew that my friends - old and new, vintage and contemporary, kitsch and classy, shabby chic and designer - were all top quality goods. They are the sort of people who tell you when you have lipstick on your teeth, kidnap your children when they realise you are doing it solo with a rotten cold, open the door and say "Want a cup of coffee?" when you spring a visit on them at a bad time and can turn your day from bad to fab with a quick conversation.

Since I first planned this event, a lot has happened in my household. Our knitting fell off our needles somewhat. What I had thought would be a peaceful and ideal time in which to plan and run such an event has turned out to be anything but.

So while I may have run this event for the same hourly rate as a worker in a Chinese jean factory, my friends rallied around and worked on it for free. They realised that my LoneWolf act just wasn't going to cut it this time. These gracious ladies gave me pep-talks and sound advice when I needed it ("Nah, stink idea"), wrestled with the mountain of donated goods at the working bee, left their sleeping children at dawn on Sunday morning to help me set up, worked all day on the Arthritis NZ stall then helped me pack up and clean up after the market.

Then my friends thanked me for a great day and encouraged me to continue working on the other event I've been cooking up. Talk about quality goods!

They all assure me that they are still my friends. That is a relief because I want them around whether I'm on top of the world and off to a party or have just returned from the Ladies' Room with my frock tucked into my undies.

Above are some photos from the day. The bright, in-focus ones are courtesy of the very talented Mel from Black Swan Designs (thank you). The blurry, spookily-lit ones are by me.

I'm off now to take up my very wise sister's suggestion of a very large cup of tea and a lie down.

Let's keep it seemly ladies

2009-11-06T13:30:00.000-08:00

While out distributing posters and flyers for Stash reHash, someone told me about a great T-shirt they had seen an elderly woman wearing. It said "The winner is the one with the most fabric when she dies".

I love it, but I also love spreading the joy. Why just have one winner when we can all be winners I say! We'll have enough fabric (and yarn, buttons, patterns, zips, braid etc) for sale tomorrow at Stash reHash to make winners of all of us and hopefully we'll all behave ourselves so that there are no actual deaths on the day!

Arthritis NZ have so much amazing donated stuff that they will just keep replenishing their stall throughout the duration of the market. Some of my fabrics I've had for decades making me feel guilty about not getting to them, so if they are still in my face at 1pm they'll be seriously discounted. I know of at least one stall-holder who "just wants it gone!" as she is leaving town and planning new adventures.

So while it is exciting to get in at the beginning, I have a feeling that some of the best bargains will be had later in the day. So let's keep it seemly ladies. No craft terrorists please!

I just love the artwork pictured above. This "CRAFT TERRORIST LEATHER VEST + UTILITY BELT" was made by Wellington-based textile designer-maker, craft enthusiast and educator Genevieve Packer and was part of the Postmark exhibition at the Hirschfeld Gallery, City Gallery Wellington, 2005.

See you tomorrow.

Meet the stall-holders - Ange from Pandamonium

2009-11-06T00:01:00.000-08:00

Ange says:

"Pandamonium productions NZ is a blend of costumes, designer clothing, multi-media, performance art and lots of colour!...from gothic to punk, hippy to pin-up.. and everything else outside the square..

I am winding down my designer clothing side of things to focus on my new troupe "Ayla's Angels Burlesque Circus". Currently now only taking personal orders, specialising in circus & performance costumes and therefore have a huge amount of fabric and notions to clear out.. from rolls at discount prices to bags of notions at bulk rates... Its a spring clear out!**Also a "heap" of unfinished clothing will be available to be rescued and finished and put to good use..

However be warned - Pandamonium is not for the faint-hearted and is often aimed at the extrovert in all of us!!"

Meet the stall-holders - Fiona

2009-11-05T03:00:00.000-08:00

Visit Fiona for lovely buttons, wool coat lengths, linen/cotton lengths, patterns, curtains, zips, tapes and notions. Fiona has been ruthless in her sorting and clearing but is finding the process very liberating and has no regrets.

Felt...like telling you about Felt

2009-11-04T01:00:00.000-08:00

Many people have emailed to ask me if finished goods will be for sale at Stash reHash.

The answer is no. Stash reHash is just for buying and selling old and new fabric, yarn, haberdashery, patterns, craft supplies, tools and materials. Stash reHash is not a contemporary craft fair, though judging by the number of queries I've had, I'd say lots of people in Christchurch are keen to shop at one.

If what you are really looking for are beautifully designed and made finished products, then I suggest you head over to Felt, your online outlet dedicated to all things handmade. There you will find a huge range of superb goods such as the items pictured above. The belt is by Tutus2, the oven mitt is by Julihunter, and the tiki cushion is by Nicolajade.

And if you are looking to actually go to a contemporary craft fair in Realworldland, and you live in Christchurch or Wellington, then keep the evening of Thursday 3rd December free and keep an eye on the Felt blog and the Craft2.0 blog for more exciting information.

Meet the Stall-holders - Linda from Fabric Palace

2009-11-03T17:38:00.000-08:00

Linda says:

"I’m Linda of Fabric Palace. I have a love of colour and pattern and that’s why I love fabric so much.

I stock contemporary designer fabrics. They are all 100% cotton and suitable for fashion, crafting, quilting and home décor items. I’m really excited to have fabrics from designers like Paula Prass, Anna Maria Horner, Amy Butler, Joel Dewberry, Studio e, Laura Gunn & Tina Givens, to name a few.

I usually sell on TradeMe so I'm looking forward to seeing some of my existing clients (and new ones) face to face - rather than email to email.

At Stash reHash, as well as the new fabrics I'll have for sale, I'll also have items I've cleared out of my stash. I have an eclectic assortment in my stash. Some of it I've had for quite a while. I had the best intentions of turning it into something fabulous, but it hasn't happend so far. So time to let it go. One woman's stash trash - is another woman's treasure!"

Meet the stall-holders - Barbara

2009-11-02T13:00:00.000-08:00

Barbara will be selling lots of fabric, some from the 50's, oldish lace and some not so old. As a self-confessed hoarder, she is concerned that she'll come home from Stash reHash with more stuff than she arrived with.

Barbara has a small business making miniature dolls, dollhouses, roomboxes and other miniature related goodies. You can visit Barbara's online Felt shop - called Treasures - and see her beautifully made miniature items at http://www.treasures.felt.co.nz/ .

Nice mail today - Selvedge magazine

2009-11-02T01:00:00.000-08:00

In my opinion, the best, the most beautiful, the most inspiring textiles publication ever, is Selvedge magazine. I was immediately hooked after being given the first two issues.

Today my phone is off the hook and my "To do - urgent!" list is being ignored because Issue 30 just arrived in my letterbox.

If you don't know Selvedge, get down to the library and check it out. Yes, Christchurch City Libraries subscribe to it. Dare you not to get utterly, hopelessly, wonderfully addicted.

Menswear

2009-11-01T01:00:00.000-07:00

I greatly enjoyed reading Douglas Lloyd Jenkins' piece in the Listener recently titled A guy thing – or a gay thing? about New Zealand men's terrible dress sense.

Over the past couple of decades I have spent many, many hours making and acquiring clothes for a man who most certainly does "enjoy an engagement with clothes" but has had enormous difficulty finding any in New Zealand he wants to wear let alone shell out money for. For many years the only styley menswear options generally available here have been dark, deconstructed Belgian-inspired clothes.

Well, like me, the bloke who puts out the rubbish in my house loves colour and pattern. He is not the slightest bit scared of "looking like a poof" (cue knowing laugh from the sister who engineered our meeting...). Admittedly his style is unusual - and possibly to many it is appalling - but it is his own unique style and I greatly admire that.

So I have revived vintage safari suits for him and sewn him new suits from checked seersucker tablecloths and candlewick bedspreads. I've hunted for 1970s frill-fronted evening shirts and when they've expired I've made replicas of them. We've spent holidays abroad tracking down a pre-prepared list of dishy menswear labels not available in New Zealand, well at least not in Christchurch. I've mail ordered him briefcase alternatives , swimming trunks and shoes.

And I've made more loud, printed shirts from op-shop fabrics than I've kept count of. Pictured above are the fabrics of some of these shirts still in active service in his wardrobe including the fabric I bought at that London fabric market many years ago. Remnants from many of these will be for sale on my stall at Stash reHash.

These days he can actually go to a local shop and find an interesting shirt to buy. But I still enjoy the fabric hunt so much that I hope he'll keep my wardrobe assistant services on for the foreseeable future.

Meet the Stall-holders - Fabrication

2009-10-30T15:56:00.001-07:00

Another stall-holder selling fabulous new goods at Stash reHash is Annie from Fabrication.

Fabrication is an online shop dedicated to bringing you gorgeous, fun, fresh and funky craft fabrics at great prices. They stock 100% cotton fabrics from leading international designers, including Amy Butler, Tania Wheelan, Joel Dewberry, David Walker, Free Spirit, Rowan, and Art Gallery Quilts along with speciality fabrics, such as the environmentally friendly hand screen-printed fabrics from Ink and Spindle, Melbourne.

With Christmas fast approaching now is the perfect time to start making those gifts for your family and friends. And, with everything (yes, that's right, everything!) on sale at Fabrication there's no excuse not to get creative this festive season. With up to 30% off fabrics and 20% off everything else, now is the perfect time to bag yourself a bargain! But hurry, this sale is for 2 weeks only, from Sunday the 1st to Saturday the 14th of November, and stock is limited so you'd better be in quick.

So if you can't wait to see Annie from Fabrication's beautiful range of fabrics at Stash reHash, then head on over to Fabrication's online shop at fabrication.co.nz.

Shabby Chic Market Day

2009-10-29T00:01:00.000-07:00

One of my favourite haunts in Christchurch for finding vintage fabrics and haberdashery was the lovely shop Forget-me-not. I first discovered it in High St, then visited regularly when it moved to Ferry Road.

Did you know that Helen from Forget-me-not now has a new treasure trove shop in Rochester Villa in Connal St?

This Saturday, 31st October, from 11am - 4pm, Rochester Villa will also be hosting a Shabby Chic Market Day. Stalls of beautiful vintage items, linens, clothes, collectables, retro items, kitsch and kitchen, antiques, furniture, restored, revamped and recycled items and beautiful things. Books, toys, bric a brac, Devonshire teas, cup cakes and coffee. Outside and inside the Rochester Villa on Connal St Woolston. Look for the signs off Ferry Rd. Rain or shine. Sounds like a perfect day out for ladies!

Fingers crossed it will be shine as, if after that you haven't had your fill of rummaging and fossicking, come and visit me on the White Elephant stall at the St Albans School Monster Fair, Sheppard Place, St Albans from 4-7pm. I can't promise that the goods I'll be selling will be as lovely as those at the Shabby Chic Market Day, but I can promise bargains, fun for all the family (smash-a-car, haunted house, fairy house plus more other exciting things than you can poke a stick at) and yes, even some fabric for sale.

Meet the stall-holders - Tommi

2009-10-28T12:29:00.000-07:00

Tommi will be selling goods from a three-generational stash. This includes many craft supplies, and goods from an unmanageable fabric and haberdashery stash. Much of the stuff is from the 70s, including some fairly far-out partly made clothes with patterns.

Oh, I can think of at least one other stall-holder who is going to want to go shopping at Tommi's stall!

Meet the stall-holders - Needle Food

2009-10-27T01:16:00.000-07:00

In addition to all the vintage and donated goods you will find for sale at Stash reHash, several stall-holders will be selling beautiful new goods. One such stall-holder is Michelle from Needle Food.

Michelle says:

Needle Food offers hand dyed yarn, most of which is made and dyed in Canterbury. We’ll have a good selection of sock yarns available at Stash Re-Hash along with free sock knitting patterns and needles, so we can construct you a sock knitting kit on the spot!

Needle Food is run by Michelle Tom – I’m a stay at home mum of four with a love of intense, unapologetic colour! And of course I love to knit, so when I discovered sock knitting and couldn’t find any reasonably priced, vibrant yarns locally, I set about making some for myself. With the encouragement of knitting friends and family, Needle Food was born.

Our website is here – www.needlefood.co.nz and my blog is here – www.needlefood.wordpress.com

We hope you can join us at Stash Re-Hash – yarn fondling will be free!

GST procrastination

2009-10-26T03:11:00.000-07:00

I wonder if anyone else loathes doing their GST as much as I do. Mine must be done tonight and given that a) it is 11.13pm and I'm just about to start and b) I love doing it as much as I love cleaning the toilet or doing personality tests, I need to cheer myself up a bit first.

So firstly I cruise TradeMe and save mental properties to my watchlist and imagine my new exciting life in my very own bowling club, members grandstand or event centre. Sigh.

Secondly I list all my dream fabrics and imagine the joy if some turn up for sale at Stash reHash. (See, those properties may be cool, but with most it would be a case of "Either those curtains go or I do".) Sigh.

One such dream fabric is pictured above. London Toile by Timorous Beasties is a contemporary Toile de Jouy style design representing dodgy London scenes. What would a Christchurch Toile look like? Oh, I'd better not go there.

Ok, enough muckinaround. Get to work. Then go to bed. And dream fabricy dreams.

Meet the stall-holders - Briar from Rethreads

2009-10-22T01:00:00.000-07:00

Briar says:

For rethreads, this is a great opportunity to focus on the future of the business and sort out anything that doesn't fit. I've been finding all sorts of tools and materials in nooks and crannies of the studio, items connected to ideas long since discarded, or given to me with the best of intentions.

This stuff needs to go! I'll have a basket marked 'free' for the duration of Stash rehash, and will be replenishing it as the afternoon wears on. I'm really looking forward to finding homes for some of my formerly treasured little notions, some picured here. Wooden spools, feathers (including three rooser 'bibs'), ethnic embroidery and weaving, iron on patches, decorative elastic, lace, and a selection of little tools no longer needed.

Find Briar's label rethreads on Felt.

If you need some inspiration for how to use those feathers, then look at what just turned up on Etsy Stalker: Feathers from head to toe!

Frocks on Bikes

2009-10-21T00:39:00.000-07:00

I'm sure that many of you, like me, are excited about the Frocks on Bikes events happening in Christchurch this coming Saturday (October 24th, 2-5pm, Victoria Square). I'm sure you have already lined up a lovely frock to wear, polished your saddlebags and dusted your basket in anticipation. That just leaves one aesthetically displeasing aspect of the whole affair to be dealing with: the helmet.

I have no objection to wearing a helmet apart from the fact that all the ones I've ever seen for sale are so jolly ugly. They look sporty and I don't tend to like the look of sporty things.

So imagine my delight when I happened upon this photo by Mel Clark of the thing of beauty pictured above. I smiled, I coveted and I was inspired to knit when I saw this picture of Xanthe Harrison in her stunning Pony Club Helmet. Xanthe's idea was brought to fruition with yarn and pattern from South Seas Knitting. You can read the original post on the Slip Slip knit blog here. Xanthe won the best dressed in show award at the Ponsonby Frocks on Bikes parade in Auckland.

So quick, get knitting and hopefully we'll see something as gorgeous as this on Saturday. Given my knitting skills, mine should be just about finished in time for next year's events.

I'm cured! Oh no I'm not....

2009-10-19T16:04:00.000-07:00

Only this morning while out in Realworldland distributing Stash reHash flyers and collecting donations, I was merrily boasting about how this whole process has cured me of my fabric addiction.

And then the unthinkable happened. Well actually it is thinkable because this is what I constantly hope/dream/pray will happen and fantasise about when I can't get to sleep at night. Today I collected a box of donations and it includes fabric by one of my all-time favourite designers.

The Australian designer Florence Broadhurst was by all accounts as mad as a meat axe. Good-mad though, not bad-mad. She was primarily a wallpaper designer, though whether she actually did any designing herself is unclear. Regardless of whether she did or not, she was still one styley chick, led an incredible life and her company produced beautiful work. Recently her designs have been reprinted from the original screens onto fabrics, wallpaper and a great range of products by Signature Prints in Australia.

If you don't know her work and would like to find out more, Christchurch City Libraries hold two biographies of her, including the one pictured above. Christchurch's very own wonderful Alice in Videoland also holds a great documentary about her life called Unfolding Florence: The many lives of Florence Broadhurst.

Now I'm off to put my hoping/dreaming/praying powers to work on a rather more pressing matter in this household.... Hopefully that will be just as successful.

Lace, lace and more lace

2009-10-17T16:15:00.000-07:00

Today I received several bag loads of donated lace offcuts from a bridalwear manufacturer. Some are just tiny pieces and some lengths are garment, or at least bodice, sized.

A few of these gorgeous little morsels still have their original price-tags attached. They originally cost more per metre than I would get if I sold my family's car! They'll set you back somewhat less at Stash reHash.

Women are always right

2009-10-15T19:55:00.000-07:00

Many years ago, when I was having trouble remembering which side the buttonholes went on women's clothing, I was taught to simply remember that "Women are always right".

If you need some gorgeous buttons to poke through your buttonholes, then look at what I have just been sorting out for the Arthritis NZ stall. The other day a lovely woman donated a huge, mixed-up bag of vintage buttons. With the wonders of a teacher-only day and child slave-labour they are now all sorted and carded and ready for you to snap them up.

I suspect they'll go like hot-cakes. Am I right or am I right?

A most exciting garage sale. Don’t keep it a secret!

2009-10-13T03:15:00.000-07:00

Emma who ran the fabulous Everything Vintage Market is having a Huge Vintage Garage Sale. Emma has gorgeous things and tons of dishy fabrics. If you can't wait for Stash reHash or can't make it, then I suggest you head to:

26 Retreat Road, Avonside, Christchurch,
from 8am Saturday 17th October,

for:
Vintage Fabric
Heaps of Craft Items
Lampshades, Frames, etc
Vintage & Retro Homewares
Retro Clothes

Super cheap… must go! Moving back to Australia sale of the century…

All the items pictured above are things Emma has sold recently. Oh la la!

Arthritis New Zealand donations - Wow!

2009-10-11T13:00:00.000-07:00

Some of you may have seen this photo of Stash reHash stall-holder Prue in The Mail recently sorting through her fabrics. It accompanied an article about Stash reHash asking for donations of fabrics, notions, yarn, haberdashery etc for Arthritis New Zealand's stall.

The response has been amazing so a huge thanks to everyone who has donated goods. Many of the people who have donated goods are themselves affected by arthritis and have benefitted from the excellent services provided by Arthritis New Zealand.

If you would like more information about Arthritis New Zealand, please see their website. There is even a support group for parents of children affected by arthritis.

One of my favourite movie lines is in Jaws where the chap deadpans, "I think we're going to need a bigger boat". Well judging from the volume of donations we've received for Stash reHash, "I think we're going to need a bigger table if not a bigger hall!"

Interiors fabric sale at Decorum in Lyttelton

2009-10-06T10:58:00.000-07:00

If you are after dishy interiors fabrics at amazing prices and can't wait to see what turns up at Stash reHash, then I suggest you head to Decorum at 5A Oxford Street in Lyttelton. Decorum is a gorgeous wee shop selling antiques and textiles and they are currently having a fabric sale. They are open Thur-Sun, 10-5 or by appointment. The sale ends on Sunday 11th October.

While I was there I also spied readymade cushions in my favourite textile design to come out of New Zealand in the past couple of years. The design pictured above is part of Sheree Davis' "Urban Intrusion" series and it depicts houses peeking out through the bush-clad hills of Wellington's urban landscape.

I love this design because it is so obviously a New Zealand image but it is in no way kitschy or kiwianaish. It is cool and contemporary and depicts a place I love probably more than is healthy for someone who lives in Christchurch. Ah Wellington, where you can get your recommended number of daily steps just getting from your house to your letterbox. Where if you don't sweep your patio for a fortnight it will regenerate into native bush. Where it rains horizontally, where your frock's hem will spend lots of time flapping about your ears and where my hair immediately pings into a curly do to rival Susan Boyle's.

So happy shopping at Decorum but please leave a couple of those cushions for me.

One person's annoying unfinished project is another person's treasure

2009-10-05T20:23:00.000-07:00

Lots of Stash reHash stall-holders have mentioned they'll be selling unfinished projects: either their own or ones they have inherited from other people. Some of these date back decades and include half-finished tapestries, half-knitted jerseys, patchwork projects and cut-out garments complete with pattern. Hopefully we'll find them new homes at the market and they'll be completed and loved as much as my best-ever unfinished project purchase.

I bought the coat pictured above for a couple of dollars in an op-shop in Lower Hutt nearly fifteen years ago. It was only partially made and pinned to the front of it was a large plastic bag containing a homemade paper pattern, all the required extra fabric pieces and instructions handwritten in very shaky handwriting. I tried the coat on and instantly fell in love. It reminded me of a Romeo Gigli coat I'd recently tried on in London and loved but been unable to afford. My smartypants friend/shopping companion was not impressed. She kept humming the Dr Who theme tune and quoting Julian Clary ("True or False: Corduroy is a mistake?") but I was undeterred. I bought it, finished it and have loved wearing it ever since.

Now a spooky thing happened when I was just out in the garden photographing this coat. A Yellow Admiral butterfly landed on it! I was so pleased and surprised that I fell over backwards, missed the photo opportunity and nearly squashed all the freshly planted Bok Choy. I'm not one for "signs" but if you read what I wrote for the Featured Seller spot on Felt this week, you'll understand why I was so excited. Rightio, I'm off outside to plant nettles.

Fashion

2009-09-28T01:00:00.000-07:00

Do you like fashion? We have "fashion designers", "clothing designers", "dressmakers" and "tailors" selling fabrics at Stash reHash .

Once upon a time I liked fashion so so much I went and studied it. I had a very elegant older tutor who often stressed that fashion and looking good were not the same thing, and that fashion and style were not the same thing. She believed you often had to choose whether you wanted to look fashionable or whether you wanted to look good as sometimes these were mutually exclusive. At the time I was young, pert, skinny and in love with fashion and had no clue what she was talking about. I probably just thought the 80s equivalent of "whatever".

Twenty years of gravitational assault and two children later and with multiple competing priorities for my cash, I am now acutely aware of what my fashion tutor meant. I realise that what I actually like is not fashion at all. What I do like is our ability to use clothes, shoes, accessories etc to say who we are and how we are feeling.

So these days when I see fashion week on the telly or I go to designer boutiques I have quite different thoughts from in the past.

Firstly, I think "I could get all four downpipes fixed for the price of that jacket"/"I could get my son new orthotics for the price of that top"/"I could get my daughter's teeth straightened for the price of that coat".

Secondly, I think that to buy new stuff I'd have to biff some perfectly serviceable thing out and the waste aspect of this perpetual consumerism irks me.

Thirdly, I think how most of the super fashionable clothes look, well, kind of silly anyway. Exact replicas of the clothes my fellow students and I made decades ago are now back on the runways and in the shops making the next generation of skinny girls' bottoms look enormous and their arms look like salamis.

So I have a wee trundle around in Interwebland and a snigger at Fugly, go back to mending or altering some old vintage thing and again think about the differences between looking fashionable, looking good and looking stylish.

And if I get tempted and buy some fabric at Stash reHash and make myself a shiny shoulder-padded, pirate-pant jumpsuit, please chase me and set fire to it.

The handbag above is by Enid Collins. Sometimes her bags are in fashion and sometimes they are so out of fashion that they end up in op-shops, but I will always love them.

Stall-holders be strong. Shoppers go mad.

2009-09-23T13:00:00.000-07:00

Here is a great jumble of quotes from stall-holders about the goods they'll have for sale at Stash reHash on Sunday 8th November, 11am-2pm at the Scottish Society Hall in St Albans, Christchurch:

latest release designer fabrics for fashion, craft & quilting; vintage bag handles; handmade angora rabbit felt; vintage braids, trims and beads; fashion fabrics bought in Paris decades ago and never used; vintage Japanese silks and quilting cotton, Obi, Kimono, origami paper; vintage buttons and buckles; 100% cotton fabrics from leading international designers, including Amy Butler, Tania Wheelan, and David Walker; teddy bear fur, eyes and noses; merino sock yarn; yarn seconds; 80's clothing; disembowelled soft toys; home textiles; lots of fabric, some from the 50's; lace old and new; coffee sacks; environmentally friendly hand screen-printed Ink and Spindle fabrics; old sewing projects dating back to the 70's; lots of real bargains and give-aways. I just want it gone!; 100% NZ grown, spun and hand-dyed "worsted" weight single ply yarn; lots of embroidery thread (DMC); embroidery kits; I'll never use up this many retro and vintage tablecloths; new, gorgeous, fun, fresh and funky craft fabrics at great prices; vintage linens; funky fabric; my Nana was a shocking hoarder!

Phew! Ooohhh, the point of Stash reHash was for me to end up with less stuff but I think I'm going to find that very difficult. I need to be strong.

The gorgeous image above is a work by artist, blogger and Etsy seller, Joetta Maue.

Stalls all sold

2009-09-20T19:05:00.001-07:00

Thanks to all the people who enquired about having a stall at Stash reHash. Very, very big thanks to all the people who have booked stalls. All stalls are now sold. We are a wonderfully eclectic bunch! Happy sorting!

Material Pleasures fabric fair in Marton Sat 19th

2009-09-17T13:00:00.000-07:00

Yet more action this weekend for fabric lovers. This weekend Marton is the lucky town.

“Material Pleasures” is a fundraiser for the Marton and District Historical Society. This fabric/sewing and accessory fair will be held on Saturday, September 19th at Marton's Memorial Hall from 11am to 3pm. Free entry.

If you are in Marton this Saturday, and this event looks like your cup of tea, then go! Then, you know the story; email me, tell me how amazing is was, send me photos of your beautiful purchases, and make me cry with envy.

Why do we make things?

2009-09-15T13:00:00.000-07:00

In the process of taking stall bookings for Stash reHash and collecting donations of goods for Arthritis NZ's stall, I've heard many stories about people, what they make, made and once hoped or planned to make. Most stories fall into two main camps.

The first group of people are in love with making things and enabling others to make things. Some have recognised business opportunities in the "handmade revolution" and are supplying beautiful new materials and goods. Others are so enamoured with making things themselves that they have overdone the supplies shopping and need to rationalise.

Others have stopped making things. Their stories are about what happened to them along the way to mean that their supplies will now be for sale to others. Some have simply fallen out of love with making things and are moving on. Some have new responsibilities or interests taking their time. But many, young and old, have stopped making due to failing eyesight, health issues or death.

The picture above is of a name badge I found in a beautiful box of needlework supplies I bought at an op shop. I often wonder about Edith Brand who cross-stitched herself a name badge, where she wore it, what else she made and why.

For me, it started with wanting to relieve my mother of one of her most hated chores: mending. I found I loved sewing and then later also woodwork, and have been making things ever since. Over the years I have made things for many reasons including: to get something I wanted but couldn't find; to get something I couldn't afford; because I had an idea and just couldn't help myself; to provide for my family; to give handmade gifts; to express myself; to look fashionable; to look different; to save money; to make money; for stress relief; for relaxation; for fun; for a challenge; for a sense of achievement; to prove to myself I could; to prove to others I could; to teach myself; to teach others; to collaborate with others; to use precious materials; to use discarded materials; as a reaction to mass-production; to create something that will last; to save a loved thing; and very often to save my sanity.

I know that life would be simpler and certainly much tidier if I just stopped making things, but it isn't going to happen quite yet.

What do you make? Why do you make?

Pink

2009-09-14T01:00:00.000-07:00

There will be lots of pink fabric for sale on my stall at Stash reHash. I don't quite understand how it all ended up in my stash but it isn't going to get used in my household so out it goes.

As any parent knows, with children you don't always get what you think you are going to get. When I heard "It's a girl!" I thought, rightio, I used to be a girl, I've got four sisters, lots of my friends have girls, I know about girls. Well my girl is not like most girls.

For the first five years of her life when her friends were dressing up as fairies, she dressed like a cowboy. Then when they were dressing as princesses she dressed as an astronaut. Now that they are horse mad and dress in shiny bright mini-fashion clothes, my gorgeous, wonderful daughter dissects small animals at her after school science class and dresses like a famous chap who loved crocodiles and died young.

Pink does not feature in her wardrobe and I doubt it ever will.

My son and partner are also not fans of pink. Sometimes, when we are out and about, my partner will point excitedly and say "Look at that! A grown woman wearing pink! What is that all about!". Sometimes he does this even while I'm wearing my favourite 1950s floral frock which is, well, quite pink.

So out all the pink fabric goes to people who will actually appreciate it. Come and get it!

The Auckland Vintage Textile Fair

2009-09-11T10:00:00.000-07:00

If you are in Auckland this Sunday, and this event looks like your cup of tea, then go! Then email me, tell me how amazing is was, send me photos of your beautiful purchases, and make me cry with envy.

The Auckland Vintage Textile Fair

Sunday 13th September 2009, 10am-5pm

Admission $5

Alexandra Park Raceway, Epsom, Auckland

Need inspiration?

2009-09-10T01:00:00.000-07:00

I love books. Yes, I look at blogs but for me, nothing beats a book. This is one shelf above my workdesk. There are books on Marimekko, Florence Broadhurst, Lucienne Day, art deco textiles, Frank Carpay, textile history, textile science, contemporary NZ textile artists, embroidery and handicraft techniques and much more. I share my home with three other avid readers so we have a lot of books. But even then I'm not satisfied.

I have a page in my notebook and a document on my computer listing books I want to track down and read. Some I look for in bookshops, some I stalk on TradeMe, some I drop hints about until they turn up as birthday presents, but many, many others I find at my local library. How great is that! And then next to them on the shelf I find other books, just as good, that I'd never heard of.

Here in Christchurch we are incredibly lucky to have a superb network of council run public libraries. Now I know that within every library there are people who carefully decide how the collection (books, magazines, CDs, DVDs, databases etc) budget gets spent. Once upon a time, in a library far, far away, I was one of those people.

In my opinion, the people at Christchurch City Libraries making the buying decisions in the areas of craft, textiles, fibre arts and contemporary textile design are doing an astonishingly good job.

So if you are having trouble deciding on a project to use up a treasured piece of fabric in your stash, or if you leave Stash reHash with a big pile of fabric, yarn and craft supplies and need inspiration for how to use it, head to the library.

A story from the stash - Part 4

2009-09-08T16:21:00.000-07:00

The final piece of that blue fabric came out of my stash a few weeks ago when I stitched the poster for Stash reHash.

For the past few years I've been participating in Christchurch's local version of the worldwide movement dubbed "the handmade movement". Like thousands of other makers around the world, I've been handmaking goods for sale and selling them on Etsy, Felt and at contemporary craft markets such as Craft2.0.

I've snooped around in the enormous and incredibly prolific Interwebland craft and design community. Much as I love dipping in to various blogs and getting a cheap (free) fix of eye candy, I'm often heard shrieking "Who has the time to photograph and write all this stuff!" I've also bemusedly followed the mainstream media's take on the movement. I'm not one for violence but if I read another lazy, old, old news article about how "nana crafts" are cool again I'll take to someone with my knitting needles!

I've also met a wonderful community of makers in Realworldland. I've met makers at Craft2.0 and Crafty Business meetings and worked with them on Slip. We've shared tips, advice and contacts.

We've also shared loot from our stashes. We've informally gifted, pooled, donated, swapped and sold goods to each other, but felt the time had come to do something more. We've discussed how picked over the op-shops are and how divine various fabric markets we've been to around the world were, including the legendary Salvation Army fabric fair in the States now in its 21st year. We've watched as fabric/textile markets/fairs have sprung up recently throughout New Zealand from Nelson to Waiheke, Marton to Auckland.

So I felt it was time to have our very own divine, irresistibly fabulous fabric and craft supplies market in Christchurch. I could be wrong, it has happened before. But I hope not.

A story from the stash - Part 3

2009-09-07T15:37:00.000-07:00

A year ago I fished a remnant of that blue fabric out again. This one is a little trickier one to explain. Yup, I made a doll.

My one brother is lucky enough to have five older sisters. We don't usually buy each other birthday presents but we make an exception for ages with zeros. Four of us have leapt the latest zero hurdle and all the other siblings have chipped in to buy us a beautiful necklace from a contemporary jewellery shop.

The last time we were organising this, my brother must have started to get worried. He let us know that when his turn came he didn't want a necklace. He wanted a Nudie Suit.

Well that is an excellent idea and he would look mighty fine in one. The problem is getting hold of one. The few that aren't already owned by Chris Isaak go at auction for more than the average annual NZ wage. So I decided that for a joke I'd whip up a wee miniature Nudie suit to be going on with until a real one came into his life.

Then I heard that The NewDowse gallery in Lower Hutt wanted members of the public to make party guests for a doll called Huttette's 21st birthday party. Huttette is the youngest member of late textile artist Malcolm Harrison's "The Family". I'd first seen and loved that exhibition when studying fashion and textiles in Wellington decades earlier. I'm not a doll person but I thought I'd kill two birds with one stone and I made Mr Grifta, pictured above.

So back into the stash I went. For his suit I used that old blue fabric.

Mr Grifta was originally supposed to be the sort of guest you dread having at your party. He's Huttette's naughty friend who she has loads of fun with but hasn't introduced to anyone. He tends to go too far. I'd intended that he'd have fake sick all down his front, nasty stains down his suit legs and that he'd be displayed in the gallery lying in the recovery position. But somehow after sewing on all those beads and sequins, I just couldn't deface him. According to my partner that means "He isn't art. He is just a doll".

His bio was: "Huttette met Mr Grifta on a bus. He made her laugh. She lent him $20. She calls him "The Nine Stone Cowboy". He calls her ATM."

Mr Grifta now lives at my brother's house, probably in the sandpit. I hope a real Nudie Suit turns up soon because I couldn't face making him a life-sized one.

A story from the stash - Part 2

2009-09-06T15:18:00.000-07:00

The late 1990s saw me fishing that blue fabric from the London fabric market out of the stash for the first time.

The lining on a favourite 1960s satin coat had disintegrated and needed to be replaced to make the coat wearable. I'd always enjoyed restoring or remodelling vintage clothes, but this time it was purely out of necessity. I had one young child and was pregnant with my second. This coat was one of the few garments to still fit me. I had little money to buy new clothes and a ridiculous number of posh dos to attend, so I carefully unpicked the old lining, made a pattern from it and went stash-diving for suitable fabrics. I kept bypassing this one as, well, it is upholstery fabric. I was big but I wasn't ready to be upholstered.

Finally it won, the job was done and the coat was put back into service. I probably looked like a very shiny Fiat Bambina but I was happy. Every now and then this coat goes on holiday to my daughter's dress-up box but it always makes it back into my wardrobe eventually.

A story from the stash - Part 1

2009-09-05T20:35:00.000-07:00

In the mid 1990s I was living in London and working at my dream job. One day while having lunch with a workmate I mentioned that I hadn't had much joy buying useable fabrics while living there.

I'd been to stunning antique fairs, shops and markets and seen beautiful, museum-quality vintage textiles. I'd been to the fabric departments of high end department stores and seen designer fabrics costing more per metre than I earned in a day. I'd been to numerous charity shops and found plenty of treasures but minimal fabric yardage. The few everyday dress-making fabric stores I'd found sold twee or tacky fabric yet charged five times what I had been used to paying in New Zealand.

My workmate was a curator with a special interest in textiles. She was also a sewer. On hearing this she grabbed my arm, got a huntress look in her eyes and said "You are coming with me next weekend!"

So I did. First we went to the V&A and ogled the costumes. Then she took me to what I think heaven looks like. It was a fabric market run by some of her friends. It was a jumble sale in an old hall filled to overflowing with fabrics, textiles, haberdashery, yarn and tools. From the overwhelming assortment of old and new I bought several metres of a clothing designer's surplus hand-printed cotton (since made into a shirt for my partner), some retro printed barkcloth (since made into a skirt for me), several bakelite buckles, some buttons the size of biscuits and some sequins the size of coins. I bought a battered piece of textile jewellery like the ones I'd just seen at the V&A.

And I bought the blue fabric pictured above. It is upholstery fabric and not what I usually buy but somehow I couldn't resist. I have carted it around the world and brought it out of my stash and chipped away at it several times. In the next few posts I'll tell you about some of them. I only have a wee scrap of that fabric left.

If Stash ReHash is only a quarter as wonderful as that market in London I'll be very happy, and my wallet will probably end up considerably lighter.

Donations for Arthritis New Zealand stall please

2009-09-02T16:35:00.000-07:00

If spring springing and the thought of Stash reHash has got you motivated to clean out your fabric stash but you don’t want to have a stall yourself, then I have a great option for you. Arthritis New Zealand are having a stall at Stash reHash and they welcome your donations of good quality fabric, haberdashery and craft supplies to sell on their stall.

All proceeds will go towards their excellent work providing an extensive information and education service for people affected by arthritis. From personal experience I can tell you they do a superb job. To find out more, visit the Arthritis New Zealand website.

Donations can be left at:
Arthritis NZ Southern Regional Office & Service Centre,
Level 1, 15 Washington Way, Christchurch,
during Office Hours, Monday – Friday, 9:00am - 4:00pm.

If you’d love to donate goods but are unable to drop them off yourself, please email stashrehash@clear.net.nz and we’ll make other arrangements to collect your goods.

Thanks so much.