Sally reports back from Craft snippets at Upper Riccarton Library which featured guest, scrimshander, Gus Milne on Wednesday 26 March at 6.30pm.
It was a great evening in January hearing Amy Rickman talk about her journey from high school textiles teacher to running her own business, Love in Every Stitch.
From teaching to an old love... sewing
When Amy’s son went to school, she wanted to be more available to him and took a year’s refreshment leave from her busy high school teaching job. During this time, she set up her new business, Love in Every Stitch. After a year she decided to not go back to school and continue with her business and she hasn’t looked back. She can work around her son’s school hours. Amy thought about going back and doing some relief teaching but hasn’t had to as she gets plenty of work.
Like many of us, Amy learnt to sew from her mother. She grew up in the era of make do and mend. Amy loved sewing and always had something she was working on - homework would take a backseat as there would always be a pile of projects on the go. Amy studied fashion design in Dunedin and from there made and sold clothes. Her first clothes were sold through a punk shop.
Amy loves creating and makes a huge variety of different things - anything that involves a sewing machine, she will give it a go. Amy even tried sewing a shoe, once.
The wonderful world of costumes
Amy makes dance costumes and currently has an order on the go for a 24-strong dance troupe. Dance costumes are all about the glitz and take a lot of work. Amy works with the dancers to design the costumes. Sourcing Lycra for the costumes can be expensive but Amy is a dab hand at finding a bargain.
Pro-wrestling gear is another item that Amy makes regularly. A wrestling friend asked if she could make a costume. Always keen to give something a go, Amy was like ‘sure, I’ll try’. The latest wrestling outfit she worked on was for the New Zealand Heavyweight Champion and is pink with rainbows. Amy says it is hilarious and fun making the costumes.
Award-winning race-day fashion
Dressmaking, alterations, and repairs are also on the cards. Most recently one of Amy’s dresses won the best dressed at the Addington races . Amy had a lot of fun sourcing the fabric and lace for this creation. The lace came from Temu* and the flowers were individually cut out and sewn on. Amy is currently working on a similar creation for the Ellerslie races. Amy said it was such a buzz when the dress won.
Upcycling and upholstery and accessible clothing
Another love for Amy is recreating and upcycling. After finding a huge pile of wool blankets from a charity shop, many holey and marked, Amy set about making blanket bags and bears. To the bags she adds pieces of embroidered tablecloths and doilies to create a vintage look. Amy also makes wool blanket capes, using vintage sheets for the lining.
Amy also does upholstery but needs to work on these projects quickly because there is not a lot of room in the house to work on pieces of furniture. Amy doesn’t have a furnishing background, but she enjoys a project and will take the piece apart and see how to put it back together again. She loves to bring a piece of furniture back to life. The fabrics usually come from her stash and foam is the most expensive part of the work. Amy has done a lot of ‘foam research’ to find the cheapest options and recommends Tom’s Emporium or Payless Lifestyle in Tauranga.
Accessible clothing is something else that Amy makes, for example, clothing with hidden zips for insulin pumps or recreating a dress in a plus size. She loves to take an outfit or pattern and recreate it so that it can work better for the wearer.
Teaching sewing is something else Amy is interested in doing but only on a one-to-one basis.
Old clothes and textiles become keepsakes
Memory Bears are one of her most popular selling items and last year she made a total of 110. The bears are made from pieces of fabric that are special to the person. They can be any kinds of fabric, a jersey, pyjamas, man’s shirt, anything. Amy said it is quite emotional at times making bears for people and even made one for herself from her father’s old jersey and shirts. It helped in the grieving process making the bear from her dad’s clothing. Amy plans to make a quilt with her dad’s old t-shirts. The bears are also made for people retiring, businesses, and anniversaries, and some are made from old blankets. They are something you can hold on to.
Sourcing other materials
Amy uses a four-thread overlocker and a domestic machine and does all her work at home. She has found a lot of great places to source what she needs. For example, buying pillows from Briscoes when they are on sale and using them for stuffing. One pillow is enough stuffing for one bear. Amy tried cushions from op shops but some of them weren’t very nice. Warehouse pillows took two to stuff a bear so worked out more expensive. The bear pattern is from Funky Friends Factory. They have lots of different patterns. The instructions are clear and easy and they have video tutorials. Temu* is a great source for eyes and other bits and bobs. Interfacing comes from a wholesaler who does a minimum order of 10 metres. Amy uses a lot of interfacing, backing those hard to sew fabrics. For the bears she is often using special fabrics that need interfacing to give them some stability. Amy confesses she is a fabric hoarder and can be found at the Upper Riccarton Great Stash Swap, which she loves.
Amy sells at markets and that is how many people find out about her and what she does. People chat to her and take a card and get in touch later about a project. Amy is careful about the markets she goes to; some are more successful than others and some charge too much. She doesn’t do a regular market but likes to pop up at different places like the Little River Pumpkin Festival and The Goode Market.
Amy’s business name, Love in Every Stitch and logo was inspired by a cross stitch. From there she went to Etsy where you can create your own logo.
Craft discussions, events, and new titles
After Amy's talk eople talked about some of their favourite places in Christchurch to source craft materials and fabric.
As mentioned before, Tom’s Emporium which has moved to a bigger space in Cranford Street, is a great place for all your craft and sewing needs. Hubbers has also moved and is not stocking as much fabric. Haralds Warehouse Fabrics in Birmingham Drive is worth a look but can be expensive. McDonald & Hartshorne in Tuam Street is a great place for upholstery fabrics. The Sewing Room in Darfield is worth a trip and they have a great $10 per metre shelf.
Roundup of what’s on the crafting calendar
If you haven’t already, please do check out the crocheted Wharenui Harikoa at the CoCa gallery. Made from 5000 balls of yarn and crocheted by hand. It is free exhibition and there are crochet supplies available for you to make something to add to a wall in the gallery. Check out the lovely yarn bombing outside, some of it made by Sally and her school craft club. Tūranga will be screening a unique film featuring the Wharenui in an upcoming exhibition in March.
If paper craft is your thing, save the date for the Christchurch Papercraft Show in April.
For quilters, the Great New Zealand Quilt Show is on at Wigram in May.
The Vintage Market at Avebury House is worth a look.
Latest craft titles
Angela showed us the new crafting books and magazines. Check out our list of what was on display. You can put a hold on any of these items.
Items that we shared at our January gathering.
Our next Craft Snippets event is Scrimshander, Gus Milne is on Wednesday 26 March at 6.30pm. Gus will talk about the ‘whalers art’ of scrimshaw, the decoration of bone and ivory objects, and show his work on re-cycled ivory piano keys and sustainably sourced whale’s teeth and extinct mammoth ivory.
*In 2023 a US government report stated that there was an "extremely high risk of forced labor contamination within Temu's supply chains."
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