July 2021 Newsletter

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

It’s definitely winter and the extreme weather on Saturday 17 July caused high drama here. The drains on Coutts Street and Onepu Road had so much rubbish in them they couldn’t cope with the downpour so water gushed over the footpath and into the shop! At the same time the ceiling over the front window and above one side wall sprang leaks - pretty impressive (not) for a downstairs shop. Luckily the floodwaters only got 3 feet into the shop, nowhere near the carpet, before local heroes unclogged the drain outside. We saved almost everything from damage but don’t want that much excitement ever again. Funnily enough, for the last 2 hours of the day, when we had fabric piled all over the counter and the button shelves and machine demo table half blocking the thoroughfares, quite a few customers came in and shopped as if nothing was amiss!

Changes in our team

Maria French, who was a part-time employee working in the shop and teaching classes, will still be teaching adults’ and children’s classes from now on but no longer working in the shop. The extra time away from us will allow Maria to develop her own clothing design business and run private lessons in advanced sewing techniques.

We’re sad to lose Maria from the shop but extremely happy to retain her as part of our wider team. She is a very popular tutor and makes what she does seem easy when in fact it requires excellent brainpower and skills.

The photo shows Maria with recent graduates of one of her kids’ sewing classes.

As Maria left, Jess Robbie arrived! Jess is from Whakatane and a recent graduate of the Toi Whakaari (NZ Drama school) Diploma in Costume Construction. She has a particular interest in Victorian clothing and created the three detailed calico dresses in Te Papa’s current display of Victorian clothing accessories. We already knew Jess as a customer, and she was a Toi Whakaari classmate of Annie McGee (who works here on a casual basis), so we were delighted that Jess was available to join us for 3 days a week at the very time we needed her.

For several weeks recently, while we were short-staffed for various good reasons, Cheryl Crooks stepped in to help us out, and we’re very grateful to her for that.

Our staff situation is now pretty settled (hooray!) but we have 2 gaps. (Jo has put ads on Neighbourly for these 2 positions if anyone knows suitable candidates).

• we would love to hire a cleaning person for up to 2 hours on a Monday morning (or Tuesdaywhen Monday is a public holiday),

• and we would like to have another skilled sewist/knitter/people-person available on a very casual basis to cover when staff are unwell or on leave.

Lots more adult classes

The next round of adult classes has just started. Check out the schedule online or collect a brochure from the shop.

We are offering 22 classes between now and October, in crochet, knitting, machine sewing and overlocking (all at different levels from beginner onward) embroidery, learning to drive your computerised machine and more. Join a small class (maximum 6 people) extend your skills and have fun! You can enrol online or in the shop.

Kids' classes

We’ve just finished the latest round of school holiday classes and will be offering more in the October holidays. If you have children aged 9 or more who are beginner or better machine sewists, or aged 8+ and keen to do handcrafts, keep an eye out for the October schedule. And please enrol early as, at most, we have 6 in a class

These photos are from 2 classes run by Toni Stout these holidays: machine sew a tote bag for beginners and machine sew a messenger bag for those with sewing experience. Pretty impressive huh?

News from the shop shelves

We’re still experiencing delays getting certain stock from overseas and the increased cost of freight is being felt now in wholesalers’ increased prices to retailers and manufacturers’ increased recommended retail prices.

While the absence of some overseas stock has left gaps on our shelves, it’s given us space to look for new stock and we’re now supporting two more NZ businesses. From Wild Earth Yarns in Christchurch, we’re selling a range of Natural 8 plys and their gorgeous chunky Snuggly wool in huge 90 gram “balls” - the size of an adult’s head. In two easy evenings of knitting on 15 mm needles, Jo made a 90 cm x 90cm blanket from one ball of the Snuggly. In the photo, Trish is modelling it,wearing her own natural wool jumper in the same 4 colours as the Snuggly!

And from The Sheep’s Back in Southland, we have 3 children’s activity kits - a science and craft experiment kit, a learn to knit kit and a natural dyeing kit. These are excellent aids for teaching kids about the amazing properties and uses of New Zealand wool.

We also have a selection of Auckland-based The Stitchsmith’s impressive needlework cushion kits and smaller embroidery design packs. Our embroidery class includes your choice of one of The Stitchsmith’s smaller packs and you learn the various stitches in class so you can complete the piece at home.

We’ve also brought in new lines from some of our bigger suppliers. These include

• the wondrously soft Crucci Luxury Merino Crepe DK, which is getting rave reviews from customers who’ve tried it
• the luxurious Chaska Muhu Alpaca 8 ply from Naturally yarns, and
• Touch Yarns top quality 4 ply merino.

And we’ve increased our stock of specialty yarns. We love all these!

• the kettle dyed Malabrigo Rios 10 ply (photo below ) and there’s now a pattern book and leaflets,

• Touch Yarns Merino Mohair 12 ply,

• Indiecita Baby Brush Alpaca 14 ply

• Rowan Felted Tweed DK and

• Sesia Arboris wool/linen.

We constantly update our huge selection of knitting patterns, in both leaflets and booklets, and can advise on equivalent yarns and likely quantities if the pattern you love isn’t written for the yarn you love!

As for dress fabrics, our latest additions include beautiful Belgian linens and soft 50/50wool/polyester coat fabric in rich single colours.

We regularly refresh our stock of rayons, viscoses, linens, wools, merinos, silks, cottons and other quality dress fabrics. And of course we have all the notions, linings and equipment needed to complete most home sewing projects.

And remember we have a good stock of sewing patterns - from Style Arc, Papercut, Sewoverit and Little Kiwis Closet.

Macine Service and Repair

We have a one to two week turnaround time these days on machine repairs and servicing. We can take all brands and models of domestic sewing machines and overlockers and the average cost for a full service is $120.

We're a Crafty Volunteers drop-off point

Remember, if you want to donate new handmade woollens (baby or children’s clothes, blankets,peggy square, or even just wool in new condition for others to knit up …) we are a collection point for Crafty Volunteers who make and distribute items to homes that need them. The beautiful and plentiful items that come in here each week prove how generous and skilful our customers are. A huge thankyou from us on behalf of Crafty Volunteers and the families they support. Keep bringing in lovely goodies!

Here’s our fave photo of Janice with just one of her regular knitathon drop offs!

Website blogs

We’ve posted a couple of blogs on our website lately about practical subjects we think are useful or interesting to our customers. Check out the one on sewing machine needles and threads - basic information that could save you snarl-ups and frustration. And there’s one about Jo’s latest challenging knit, proving it’s possible for an old dog to learn new tricks.

If you have topics you want us to cover in a blog, or if you have content you think we should publish, let Jo know!

That’s it from us for now. Keep warm and keep doing what you love.

Jo, Gemma, Robyn, Jess, Annie, Toni and Trish