February 2021 Newsletter

40 Coutts Street
Kilbirnie, Wellington 6022
(04) 387 4505
jo@sewingdirect.co.nz 

Happy new year - somewhat belatedly! We hope you had a restful holiday season and managed to enjoy some summer weather - although it’s been a bit scarce here in Wellington.
The summer months are relatively slow in the shop so we’ve been making progress on some big (neverending!) tasks such as adding more items to our website, devising and organising classes and making future stock decisions.

CONTACT US!

If you’re hard pressed to get into the shop, remember you can always phone or email us to arrange to purchase something you need. Also, our website has an extensive selection of our stock for sale - and you can use the contact form there to ask us questions.
If you buy from the website you can choose the courier or pick up option. Both options ask you to enter your address - so don’t let that confuse you if you want to pick up your goods from the shop.

CLASSES

Talking of classes - check out our latest adults’ classes schedule on our website www.sewingdirect.co.nz) or in the shop. It goes as far as April at the moment but more classes, taking us out to June or July, will be added soon. You can enrol on the website or in the shop, provided there are still spaces available in your chosen class at the time. We have a maximum of 6 people per class so that everyone gets lots of personal attention from our expert, friendly and patient tutors.

We’ll be doing CHILDREN’S CLASSES again in the next school holidays, so keep an eye out for those.

If you join our CLASSES EMAIL LIST, we can let you know when those that you’re particularly interested in are coming up. You can join via the i-pad in the shop or you can tell one of us your details and areas of interest and we’ll join you up. We promise not to bombard you with emails. Instead we post news on our Facebook and Instagram pages regularly so you can always follow us there to keep up with what’s happening.

And please do check our website regularly, and the handouts in the shop, to see the new classes that are coming up. 

SEWING MACHINE NEWS

For months now, our sewing machine and overlocker suppliers have had difficulties importing machines due to Covid’s ongoing effects but things are better at the moment than they’ve been for a while. We can’t say the same about machine parts however. There have been considerable delays getting certain parts and accessories from overseas but we’ve been promised that everything will be better soon! 

Babylock Victory

One new addition to our machine shelves is the Babylock Victory air threading overlocker which, at $1799, replaces the very popular Imagine overlocker. Here’s the link to it on our website

https://sewingdirect.co.nz/babylock-victory/

Janome 5300QDC

And even newer (literally, due in the shop by 16 February) is the Janome 5300QDC sewing machine - a close relative of the 4300QDC (one of our fave machines).
For $1599 the 5300QDC has 300 stitches, 6 one-step buttonholes, alphabets, the quilting attachment kit, extension table and hard cover, plus a superior needle threader, knee lifter and optic magnifier set! That’s a lot of features for a very reasonable price. 

EMBROIDERY MACHINE NEWS

Singer EM9305

Singer has released a new embroidery-only machine - the EM9305 - about to land in NZ and we’re expecting Gracie from Singer to bring one to the shop on Tuesday 16 March to show it off! Anyone who’s interested is very welcome to come along! (We’re not yet sure what time Gracie will arrive but ask us nearer the day.) The NZ price of the new machine isn’t available yet but we believe it will be under $2500. 

Janome MC9850

Other brands also have specialised embroidery machines - or combined embroidery/sewing machines - and right now we have the Janome MC9850 - a combined machine - on sale for $2999 ($300 less than Janome’s current special price).

JANOME EDUCATIONAL VIDEOS

Janome Australia is about to make monthly videos available to retailers, aimed at informing consumers about particular machines, features and accessories. We’ll know the subject matter of each video in advance and can use the videos as we like. We plan to post them on our website and let customers know (eg through the newsletter and Facebook) the topics that are covered.

If there’s sufficient interest, we’d be happy to establish a “Janome Club” of customers who would like to receive the videos by email on a regular basis and perhaps get together in our classroom on occasion to practice/discuss particular topics. Let us know if you’re interested in this idea! 

WOOL NEWS

We love our yarns and have a great selection ranging from 2 plys to chunkys, merino, mohair, alpaca, cotton, possum (and more!), from Italy, Turkey, Peru, China, Australia - and of course NZ. At any one time we have at least 10,000 balls of wool in the shop! (Great insulation!)

Among our latest additions are the gorgeous Malabrigo Rios 10 ply, Peruvian kettle-dyed, superwash merino hanks! 192 metres of luxury wool, all for our introductory price of $28.
As for New Zealand 8 ply yarns (support local!), we have:

all colours of the Touch merino,
many of Ashford’s new range (in 40+ colours),
all four Crucci Wanaka Station Naturals,
all the Countrywide Landscapes,
all the Countrywide possum merinos
most of the Naturally Gallipoli range and
all four Naturally Big Naturals.

Other faves of ours are the Touch kid mohair/NZ wool 12 ply hanks, unavailable for several months but now back in new colours. Each luxurious hank has more than 200 metres and makes a generous scarf or cowl. 

PATTERNS

We strive to keep an excellent selection of knitting and crochet patterns in stock - booklets and leaflets. One very good leaflet range from NZ’s Naturally Yarns contains, in each leaflet, multi size (children to adult), male and female, 8 ply and 14 ply patterns for a jumper or cardi. A great deal for $7.90!

DRESSMAKING FABRICS AND PATTERNS

We also love our dressmaking fabrics and regularly add more - both summer and winter weights - mainly natural fibres but with some synthetics ( if they are extra pretty! And we stock a big range of multisize StyleArc patterns (from Australia) as well as a good selection of Sewoverit (UK) Papercut (NZ) and Little Kiwis Closet (NZ) patterns.

Each of the Style Arc patterns covers sizes 4 to 16, or 10 to 22, or 18 to 30 so we recommend tracing off the size you’re making onto interlining which can be drawn on with biro or pencil - and even sewn ( it’s 150cm wide and $3.50 a metre) so that the interlining version becomes your pattern, leaving the multisize paper pattern in perfect condition. 

That’s it for now. See you in the shop  

Best wishes from - Jo, Gemma, Maria, Trish, Robyn, and Toni