 Thanks to some hard mahi and some committed folk, our beautiful Matariki Community Quilt has found its new home at New Brighton Library. You can find the display on the first floor of the library, up the stairs and to the left. All our thanks goes to Ron (Maungarongo) Te Kawa, our Stitch-O-Mat Community of creative quilt makers and of course to our sponsors Creative Community and Te puni kōkiri. 
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Stitch-O-Mat’s Conscious Clothing Market was established in 2019 as part of our month long 'Nothing New November' event, encouraging people to think about how their consumption contributed to climate change, pollution and the ethical issues associated with fast fashion. The market focuses on the sale of second hand, upcycled and handmade fashion and anything textile related. The market is is held once a month at Te Kura Tewhito, the old Central New Brighton School site and home to the New Brighton Stitch-O-Mat, although we are looking forward to moving to an inside venue which will mean the market is no longer weather dependent. Anyone can host a stall and stall fees are minimal to keep the project accessible to all. If you are interested in having a stall please contact us either via Facebook or phone.   To celebrate Matariki 2020, Stitch-o-Mat New Brighton, Christchurch’s community sewing project, is honoured to host renowned textile artist Maungarongo (Ron) Te Kawa as Artist in Residence during July. Ron Te Kawa (Ngāti Porou) is an artist, storyteller, quilter and fashion designer. During his time at Stitch-o-Mat, Ron will work on a Community Matariki Quilt. Anyone is welcome to watch and/or participate in this project. He will also deliver workshops to groups of people. These have limited numbers, bookings are essential. The workshops will focus on the development of practical sewing skills and bringing people together. Māori culture will be expressed through the decolonisation of sewing. For more information and bookings, please email: In 2019, Ron delivered Whakapapa Quilt workshops at Stitch-o-Mat. This was a great success and received extremely positive feedback. By hosting him as Artist in Residence, more people will be able to access his art and workshops as many members of the community missed out in 2019. This way, more members of our community will be able to attend his workshops and interact with him while he works on the Community Quilt. The Matariki Community Sewing Project has all been made possible with support from Te Puni Kōkiri and Christchurch's Creative Communities Scheme.
Hello Stitch-O-Mat followers.
Due to the current Level 4 Lockdown, we have needed to close Stitch-O-Mat until further notice. We hope you all stay well and safe during this time and we look forward to getting back into the swing of things once we return to a Level by which we can do this safely. In the meantime, we thought we would update our website while we are away from the physical site, and also move our content to be 100% online. To do this we have started a YOUTUBE channel. You can find us here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB2gcF5ZQWMft_VxL6SRNBA but we will also be uploading these onto our Facebook page. So keep an eye out for our video tutorials. We all here at Stitch-O-Mat look forward to seeing you all again soon. Stitch-O-Mat Team Every year in Christchurch we send almost 13,000 tonnes of textile waste to landfill, it makes up a whooping 6.2% of our total waste. The fashion industry is the worlds second largest greenhouse gas emitter. Millions of people work in conditions that equate to modern day slavery to feed our fast fashion addiction. It's time to make a change. Join our panel of resident experts to see how they and you can be part of a global movement to revolutionise the fashion industry. Follow this up with a Clothing Swap, an in house repair café and a few local up-cyclers sharing their wares. 6.30-10.30pm Wednesday 30th October Level 1, Craft Beer and Coffee Bar 1/217 Marine Pde, New Brighton CLOTHING SWAP Get into those drawers and get out your best but no longer worn quality fashion items. Shoes, belts, bags and hats welcome in the mix. *IMPORTANT! items must be in good condition (No rips, tears, no stains, piling etc) Pass your items on clean and well folded so they look great once hung and on display at the swap market. *You will get tickets of the total number of items you have dropped off. Bring these on the Swap Market night so you can exchange your tickets for the same amount of items. (One ticket per item to exchange on the night for a swap item). Drop off prior to the night - 1/217 Marine Parade LEVEL ONE Craft Beer and Coffee Bar. * Get ready to relax mingle and shop - it's also Open Mic night, the Bar and Cafe are open until late! Nothing New November Itinerary See below for Stitch-O-Mats month of madness. We are excited to see you all throughout the month on November for these fantastic workshops and sewing sessions.  After winter comes spring . During the month of September we will Re store by Elaborate, embroider colour, expand on, exaggerate, dress up, touch up, gild and catastrophize. We want to decorate, adorn, ornament, dress up, furnish, beatuify, enhance, enrich, add grace trim festoon furbelow, bedizen and bejewel. Bring in your mending and use our resources to bring your clothes back to life. Increase your sewing skills while be part of the slow fashion movement. September 2018 marks the 125th anniversary of women's suffrage in New Zealand. On 19 September 1893 the Electoral Act 1893 was passed, giving all women in New Zealand the right to vote. Our White Camellia Workshop, marking felt flowers will be a time of remembrance.  At stitch o mat we wanted to join the movement of plastic free July as a way to support people to rethink the way they use plastics and offer ‘plastic free’ solution. The easiest way to make change is what we use to transport food in. Daily lunch boxes are a great focus. Stitch-o- Mat ran simple workshops on making sandwiches bags and beeswax wraps. This spend into the local school. South New Brighton School term topic was on sustainability, they asked us to run sewing workshops with the students as part of this. We started sewing sandwich bags and making beeswax wraps with 50 students from 7-8 year group. This was then followed by the 3-4 year group sewing for 2 days during the last week of the school term. During the holiday we were touched by kids from South Brighton School bringing their parents into Stitch o mat to make more sandwiches, some sewing sewing at home. 🌻 School hols... asked my boys what they wanted to do. Make sandwich bags was their reply. Fun and sustainable. Proud of them and their drive to use less plastics. 🌻 We were then blown away by a message from Lynley Duffull who works at Morningside Kids care in whangarei. “I would like to thank you for your sandwich bag tutorial. I have now made 97 of these for the kids that attend my Before and After School care programme to celebrate Plastic Free July.” The Tuesday night workshops at Stitch-o- mat have been choker. People travelling from around Christchurch city to make produce bags, sandwich bags and experience the process of making beeswax wrap. We also run electric sewing for the Christchurch City Council Kids Fest. Working in other artist from Te Kura Tawhito, The Old School we participated in the Mata Riki community workshops for the More FM Mata Riki lantern parade. We created Iganga ( whitebait ) inspired wands. Using conductive thread we were able to get the kids to sew a circuit board onto their felt cut-out to the shape of a whitebait. This Conductive thread leads to a LED light. This was a nice thing to share with the kids that they can make and create their own lanterns and not need to buy cheap plastic ones. It was lovely to watch the Iganga take on their own colors schemes and patterns which reflected the child who made them. Home and family August. During August we are paying it forward while will focusing on all things home: interiors. Now is the time to make pillows, hot water -bottle covers, rag rugs, draft blockers. Even better make something for someone who is special to you or sew ones of our projects for the Christchurch City Mission or the Home and Family society. Learn to sew Monday and our drop in sessions at our space at Te Kura Tawhito, The Old School. We can run though the basics of sewing zips and piping while you make a pillow or toiletry bag. Show you how to up -cycle woollen blankets to make a original hot water- bottle cover. Re-cycle old clothes into a rug rag, a great way to preserve the memories of baby clothes or maybe your favorite T shirt that has passed its used by date. We have been getting some wonderful donations to the Stitch-o-mat fabric library. All this is open for public use supported by your Koha (donation) Our machines are increasing and soon will have industrial sewing machine fleet. While doing all this you can still come and sew the classic Stitch-o-mat sandwich bags or market bag. Make a beeswax warp or a fairy tale arpon or mend your clothes.  We have started Fairytale June. It is cold outside, so a perfect time to warm your soul and sew a fairytale-inspired Apron for the Christchurch Hospital Children's Ward. We have changed the design of the costume and styled it into aprons. This is so they are functional with kids having to be in bed and able to be worn regardless of what medical equipment that might be in place such as drips. The aprons are a great way to get creative and have been perfect way to interact with our younger sewers, asking them what they would do and if they can help to make an apron. When planning Fairytale June we did not realise how close to home it was to become. Bridget’s five-year-old nephew was diagnosed with a Wilms tumour in his kidney and we can see first-hand how important it is to encourage and nurture positive imagination. People who come to New Brighton Stitch-o-mat can sew a Fairytale apron at any time of year. |
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