Sew Love on TOUR !!

There's some changes happening around these parts! Sew Love the sewing lounge only has a few weeks left in St Kevins Arcade. There's a bunch of redevelopments happening in our hood and ive taken the nudge to grab the next big dream for Sew Love.

and thats taking it COUNTRY-WIDE across NZ!! in the first of its kind....

MOBILE SEWING LOUNGE / TEA HOUSE / OP SHOP LOVING SUPER TRUCK

...but we cant quite stitch a bus together with a whole pile of needles and thread. we need a little help!

I love that every week we have another 5 tote bags walk out the door from a workshop here at Sew Love, but could you imagine 500 or 5000 walking out of supermarkets around the countryside?! thats a lot less plastic bags being used, being discared, and ending up on our beaches or in trees pretending to be flowers. no sir ree - lets get amongst this tote bag revolution!

So NZ, this summer we are coming for you with workshops and seaside pop ups, and not only that, in the spirit of sharing learning and inspiring community folk we will be documenting the journey to tell the awesome story of NZ lands through sewing and sustainability.

hey there NZ folk, sing out if you want the Sew Love truck to visit your town, you could pledge and pre-book a sewcial, wardrobe evaluation or smorey sleepout for when we come to your hood!

and kia ora International folk, if you want to watch a webseries of our beautiful countryside through an op shop loving, sewing, eco-warrior perspective you can pledge too and help us on the road.

Check out the video above to find out more and meet some of the lovely Sew Love community. Please tell your aunties, uncles, neighbours and friends - we want everyone and anyone to be able to have a go on a machine, take time out to be creative, and feel empowered to make, and make a difference to our beautiful planet. 

Pledge and nab yourself some of our sew lovely rewards over HERE

Everybody loves the SUNSHINE + a sewlovely PODCAST

AMAZING Illustration by Emile Holmewood of BloodBros - courtesy of The Wireless NZ and The Watercooler NZ

Hello Sew Lovelies, its been QUIET to say the least around this here blog front, but worthy of a blog note now is HARK! Im taking a wee holiday. I had been hoping to find a time to allow myself this, and trying to justify it in my head, to myself, to you guys. But yes I HAVE been working pretty darn harrrrddd and I am so looking forward to heading over to the Sunshine Coast to spend some time with my sister (and my other sister the sun!). I *might* even not take my social meds devices with me.... just togs in the backpack and my SLR no doubt. So, Sew Love will officially be closed for approx 2 weeks after this Sunday 23rd (scheduled workshops are running as per usual in this time).

AND should you miss the sound of my voice HA HA ....
There's a special podcasty thang over here about loving life here in Sew Love on Kroad. Similarly to The Moth in San Fransisco, Auckland has The Watercooler, an awesome evening of story telling, so follow the link and click around to find more. But seriously people that illustration!?! amazing St Kevins Arcade has become a sewing machine hehe LOVE IT.

See you on the other side beautiful people ~ !
Sarah Sew Love xx

Winter Warm Up in the city

We're really excited to be bringing a whole lot of community and crafty warmth to the city centre this winter. We are kicking off the month long Winter Warm Up pop up on World Wide Knit In Public Day with a YARN BOMBING day, which is essentially snuggly colourful graffiti through knitting and stitching...

YARN BOMBING DAY:
Come join us Saturday 13th 10-4pm I have ordered A TONNnn of cookies from neighbouring Moustache Milk & Cookie Bar and will have all the kettles whirring making you tea. Now, did I mention FREE YARN? Yes you can de-stash all you want, but we want to make this easy for you so we're supplying all the acrylic (best for the outdoors) yarn so all you need to bring is your needles (if you have some already) and a mug for your tea.

You're sew welcome to just rock on up as you please, but RSVP's are great over here, and share with your friends, nanas and knitty neighbours

WORKSHOPS:
Following this day we have a programme of free evening workshops 6-8pm for the 4 thursdays of the pop up...
Thursday 18th June: Mending with Sarah (BYO rips and together we can handstitch them better)
Thursday 25th June: Darning with Sarah (BYO holey socks and jerseys and learn the art of darning)
Thursday 2nd July: Knitting with Frankie (BYO knitting project, & beginners welcome of course)
Thursday 9th July: Knitting with Frankie (BYO knitting project, & beginners welcome of course)

LUNCHTIME CRAFT:
Every lunchtime 12-2pm monday - friday we will line up a rainbow of comfy cushions and thermoses of tea, can someone teach me how to shuffle cards? and i'll teach you a stitch or two... If you work in the city or are passing through, come and join us for a lunch break amongst the rainbows.

We are grateful for the support and ideas of Auckland Council - BIG thanks to them for helping make our city more liveable and loveable.

So here's a wee square for you to screenshot and share about. Remember to #whatwarmsmywinter

Super Crafters of the Week: Gabby & Sahar!

This weeks superstars are in fact crafty cats who instead of sewing just simply knotted their fabric together to make their amazing masterpiece. Gabby & Sahar two friends who came into Sew Love late one evening (we are open till 6 for anyone seeking an afterwork craft). The premise: Making an amazing photobooth for a 30th birthday! Such a clever idea!

Name: Gabby & Sahar

Project: Framing the Mighty Waitemata Harbour for a 30th 

Materials sourced from: Gabby’s folding clothes rack (spray painted a thematic sea foam green) and scraps from Sew Love 

How long have you been crafting for: G: Crafty for a wee while now - I try to have a solid Halloween and Splore costume every year.  I have sewn once in my life and am hoping to remedy that. S: I am not very crafty (with fabric I mean) but I appreciate the sentiment of the whole thing.  I have always wanted to learn growing up as I watched my gran pull tricks on her industrial machine. 

What do you enjoy most about crafting: G: Repetition and Meditation!  also gossip with Sahar. S:Seeing the finished product.

Did you learn anything extra at Sew Love?  G: No waste ethos - I would have ordinarily thrown all those scraps away but now my furniture and bike are better off for them. S: About a women’s circle someone was rushing off to. I heard Maya Angelou talk about one she’s part of and am pleased to hear they exist. Girl power!

and here it is sitting darn pretty at the birthday soiree!

nb: ...30 turns to 31 with one quick little breath of air.

Join us for a GOOD breakfast!

Open Streets Pop Up

Sunday was an epic fun day down on the waterfront of Auckland. We took oodles of fabric scraps and teamed up with our ol' neighbours and eco-warrior friends Gen Zero to host the bike decorating workshop space... Sew Love Your Bike!  It was sew lovely to see friends, kiddies, families all getting together to pimp their bikes, scooters and even a dog leash! We also were spreading the word about the Bike Rave coming up in May. A giant group night ride from Mission Bay to Silo Park with lights lights lights and brights. And music. Its gonna be fun!

 Thanks to all who came by and got creative in our space it was overwhelmingly awesome to see so many people wheeling and walking around in that space. How great would it be if that strip was a shared zone all the time! Looking forward to more scraptastic pop ups. #sewlove #zerowaste #bikeraveAKL #openstreets 

GREY DAYS Jumper Makeover