The Night Market, Thursday 3rd December

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.

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

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.

The Auckland Vintage Textile Fair

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

A story from the stash - Part 4

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 1

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.