Pay it forward

It's both a sad and happy day for me. Sad because my Mum's old machine, the Elna Contessa, is on its last legs and totally let me down when I needed her most (week leading up to a market stall - grrr). So after trying to find someone to service it in a hurry (no luck), I have finally conceded that I may as well put that $100 towards a new machine...and it arrived today!

But that's not the only happy news. I can't just throw Contessa away and selling her seems wrong. So the other happy news is I think I found someone to take Contessa and give her some more love than I have the patience for.

I happened upon a woman on Gumtree who put the callout to anyone wanting to donate machines to her as she is going to teach teenagers in her area (Canungra) how to sew and then give them the machine that they learnt on at the end of the course! What a brilliant idea! She doesn't have a blog or website and is just wanting to help out the teenagers in her area. I'm hoping she can get to Brisbane to pick up Contessa and get it serviced cheaply. I'd love to have a photo of her new owner and the things they have made with her.

If anyone has an old machine that they don't know what to do with and would like to also donate it to a worthy cause, you can drop me a line and I will give you the details.

Where do you get your fix? - Alternatives

So, to date, we've been walking through the crafting/fabric options in the inner city of Brisbane and in previous postings have had a look at multinational companies and independent stores, now we're onto alternative finds.

Op Shops/Thrift Stores/Garage Sales:

These places are a golden opportunity to find something unique to reuse, recycle, repurpose...for the good of the planet and your soul...also your wallet - second hand things are cheap! I usually look for nice cotton print dresses that might not be to my styling or a few sizes too big and use the fabric for handmade goodness.  It's a pity Brisbane doesn't have much of a winter as we don't really ever see second hand cashmere jumpers (sweaters) in these parts - which is a shame. Most of the remnants in Op Shops are old curtains or horrible, horrible home furnishings - but I did happen upon a great hand printed piece of linen once which I thought was a score! These places are also great for finding an assortment of buttons and knitting needles, which for some reason are always lurking in a glass jar on top of a shelf - mostly tiny, tiny gauge needles though - must have been alot of baby knitting going on at some point!

Secret sell offs:

Thomas Dixon Ballet Centre - this is the Queensland Ballet school which is situated in West End (on Montague Rd) and used to be a shoe factory which was built in 1827! Anyhoo - apparently every now and again they sell off costumes, embellishments, left over fabrics etc from their productions. Has anyone ever been to one of these?

Reverse Garbage (Montague Rd, West End):

OK, now this one is not a secret but is a great find and I may have to swear you to secrecy after reading this. Reverse Garbage was set up to take unwanted surplus, waste or remnant supplies etc from businesses and sell them to the public for very, very cheap prices. This place is awesome for artists and weekend DIYers as it has anything and everything and it's random, changes daily and is lots of fun! I saw a basket of plaster cast feet once (from a podiatists) and picked one up to have a better look - it had my family name written on the bottom - SPOOKY! I bought it and put it in the garden as some weird outdoor art sculpture. Of relevance to us, they also get fabric remnants/scraps from local designers and manufacturers (Sacha Drake to name one) - sometimes you get heaps of black lycra...but sometimes you get some amazing linen, or lovely pieces of knitted cotton...as I said, it's random. There are also Reverse Garbage places in other Australian states - does this happen in the USA, Canada or Europe?

Where do you get your fix? - Independants

Peppermint Stitches:

This little shop opened about a year ago and I only found out about it at the Stitches and Craft show earlier in the year. It is situated on Sylvan Road in Toowong and is run by a mother and daughter (I believe). Now this store has wall to wall fabrics - literally - they are everywhere you turn, and not horrible rolls of it either, but the neatly packed rectangles that quilting fabrics come in. Most of the fabrics look to be fairly contemporary quilting patterns with Amy Butler, Heather Bailey etc getting a good showing. They are priced between $22-26 (AUD) per metre and you can purchase as little as 20cm widths (great for crafters). Also they have a billion fat quarters. To be honest my main criticism is that there is so much that it's overwhelming and the fabrics looked to be grouped by designer, not colourway. This is great if you know what you're after - but having things in colour groups can be visually easier to navigate  - but that's just my preference (I'm old and get confused easily). Peppermint Stitches main focus looks to be quilting and cross stitching/embroidery. There are a few patterns for bags, some craft books, and some classes on quilting and cross stitching. All in all - the service was very friendly and I'll definitely be crossing the river often to wade through the huge range of fabulous fabrics.

Gardams:

I remember when Ewan Gardams was on the Queen Street Mall (I told you I've been around a while). It was on several levels and was an Aladdin's cave of fabrics, apparently it's been in operation for over 70 years (no, I'm not that old)! They then moved to Adelaide Street, and for the most part was OK - over the years I have picked up some great fabrics, but things started to slow down, the 50% off sign annoyed the hell out of me and only ever applied to a small section of fabrics - which I think actually never sold so were in fact the same fabrics on sale for the past 5 years. Anyway, I digress, Gardams stocks mainly higher end fine fabrics and recently moved to Indooroopilly (down the road from Spotlight). Staff are always friendly and helpful and will cut small slithers of fabric off rolls, staple them to a card and write the details down for you! Splendid!

Sckafs Fabrics:

Inside Indooroopilly shopping town - bottom floor - Myers end. This place has been around forever it seems. It sells dress making fabrics on rolls, buttons etc, etc, etc. Fondest memory was being taken by a friend (you know who you are) to a special sponsored night that promised secret techniques and unusual stylings, but basically involved showing a lovely group of seated ladies how to embellish a plain T-shirt - by bedazzling the bejesus out of it with rhinestones, lace, sequence etc. We then got to eat cubed cheese and drink weak cordial - awesome. I did manage to buy some lovely cotton fabrics though.

Others that I know of but have not visited:

Patches (Indooroopilly)

Tangled Yarns (Newstead) - wool/knitting

Funky Fabrix (Mitchelton)

plus  heaps of quilting stores that seem to be tucked away in the outer suburbs.