In the past couple of years, home sewing has enjoyed a resurgence. Jude Hathaway talks to those involved in this age-old skill.
Back in the late 1980s, a Dunedin family moved house to St Clair and in readiness for life in the beach suburb the clever mother of two boys and a girl decided to make their transition to primary school more enjoyable by sewing them new clothes.
She had done her homework and longer surfie-style shorts in splashy summer colours were the coming look. So she sewed a pair each for the two boys. While the older son refused point-blank to go near them, his younger brother pulled his on and headed out the gate.
Janet Willis will not forget the boys' arrival home that day.
"Their new friends wondered if I could make them shorts too," she recalls with a laugh. And from then on older son Tom, who went on to play for the All Blacks, followed his brother Joe's cue and added the fashion-forward shorts to his wardrobe.
Janet, a former long-serving manager of Otago netball teams, is one of the countless home sewers whose love of making clothes is mixed with an intuitive fashion nous.
This was shaped early when she sat alongside her mother in the early 1960s watching her sew in their Alexandra home.
"There were five of us. Mum began teaching me when I was about 7. She also sewed a lot in those days for other people and was fussy about the details, which rubbed off on me."
Those were the pre-chain-store days when New Zealand women sewed for their families to save money as much as to have an attractive wardrobe spiked with individual flair.
By her teens, Janet was an accomplished seamstress, an interest that has endured through careers as a business banker and latterly as a beauty therapist. In the early days of marriage when her children, who include daughter Jemma, were small, she sewed to save money. Today, Janet still makes clothes for herself and the family - mainly the two grandchildren - but it's for sheer pleasure.
While fashion is a catalyst, her inspiration often comes from a fabric picked up here or there on her travels overseas.
Fabrics have also driven Anne Lewis' love of sewing - so much so she now owns a fabric store with husband, Ron. She opened Anne's Sewing Room in Filleul St in 1996, before shifting it to Harvest Court Mall in 2001.
Like Janet, Anne gleaned her sewing knowledge from her mother, on the family farm at Pukerau.
"I used to hold Mum's pins for her and at about 5 years of age in the early 1950s I started sewing dolls clothes because Mum, with a family of six, didn't have time.
"I got really got cross about it and decided I'd make them myself!"
She has sewn consistently since, through school, a career as a nurse and midwife and as a wife and mother of daughters Megan, Bronwyn and Kathryn.
Bronwyn, who followed a career in fashion and fabric retail, has joined her parents in the business.
Anne continues to head home from the shop to sew through the evenings in a workroom crammed with the paraphernalia of her craft, including Burda pattern books collected over four decades.
"I still get excited about fabrics. Today, it's good to see their move into sustainability with the use of fibres made from metal, bamboo, plastic bottles and wood pulp from tree bark and the growth in New Zealand fine-wool knits and wovens."
"Although business," Anne points out, "has always been steady, the chain stores and their cheap clothing had an impact.
"But today, there is such a great choice in fabrics, [and] the patterns such as Vogue with its designer sections that include New York's Michael Kors and Donna Karan providing edgy styles that Dunedin enjoys."
She has also watched the renewed interest in home sewing.
"It's from all age groups, the young right through to grans, and we have at least one inquiry about sewing classes a week. We point them to the night classes operating twice a week at Logan Park High School and can often help out with advice at the shop."
Another Dunedin fabric store, Global Fabrics, in Lower Stuart St, also sees strong interest from two main groups. General manager Jasmine Cucksey, of Auckland, says one is the 55-plus age group who have sewn in younger days and are now inspired to return to their machines to get better-fitting garments in fabrics of their choice, have grandchildren to sew for and extra time in their retirement.
"The other group," says Jasmine, "is the 25- to 35-year-olds who until now have only sewn a pillowcase at school and now want to sew the merino wool jersey products for an anticipated newborn or want something unique to them that they may have seen online.
"The internet, the fashion blogs, new tablet and phone technology has also had a massive influence on DIY fashion projects through the tutorials on just about anything, and the inspiration at everybody's fingertips."
Awareness of the importance of sustainability is another contributing factor.
"Knowledge of the impact that 'one-wash-wear' garments have on the environment has really spiked home-sewing interest, which is a way of sourcing ethical fabrics," she says.
For many of us, sewing can be a battle, prompting exhilaration and frustration. It can also spawn an addiction resulting from those little triumphs when a garment works out exactly as it should.
A call for help
The New Zealand Fashion Museum is calling on the help of fashionistas who are, or have been, home sewers for its upcoming exhibition "Home Sewn", which opens in September.
It is a look at the evolution of home sewing in New Zealand with a focus on fashion garments, the machines, the technology, plus illustrations, photographs, newspaper and magazine features.
"Way back when availability and choice were marginal, necessity harboured a home-sewing industry," museum director Doris de Pont said.
"Today, there is a resurgence for different reasons. Self-expression, individuality, the need for novelty are nurturing a new-found interest in creating your own clothes. And the skills required by such a craft are suddenly being recognised as an art form rather than simply 'home sewing'.""Home Sewn" will mine this rich history and resurgence of appeal. To do so, it is seeking material and stories from private collections. This means examples of home-sewn fashion garments, the paper patterns or the illustrations that inspired them and the tales behind their creation.
• For further information, contact Doris de Pont on email at doris@fashionmuseum.co.nz or phone 021 680-860.
