Fabric-a-bracs are go!

It’s been a bit of a wobbly start to 2021, with Alert Levels up and down like a yo-yo. But we are being ever the optimists, forging ahead with planning for two Fabric-a-bracs: Wellington and a new event in Marlborough!

Wellington is coming up on 20 March. So get your stash-filling momentum ready and book it in the diary!

The Marlborough event is the FIRST-EVER in the South Island. There are a few more details to confirm, but you can book a stall now.

These are both dependant on being at Alert Level One, but we are ever-hopeful and we can’t wait!

Find out more

• Wellington: Saturday 20 March
• Marlborough (Blenheim): Saturday 21 August

FIRST FBB FOR 2021!

We are excited to announce that there will be a Fabric-a-brac in January!

Diary January 23rd, at the Greytown Town Hall (Library). We’re there from 10am-2pm selling the usual lovely selection of vintage and modern patterns, fabric and haberdashery.

There are still a few tables left – if you’d like one email: wai.fabricabrac@gmail.com

Fabric-a-brac Wairarapa

10am-2pm Saturday January 23, 2021

We’ve been doing really well in New Zealand, so we are hoping to run a few more Fabric-a-bracs this year, but of course they’ll be dependant on our COVID level. Hope you guys are all having a safe, fun summer and see you soon!

Some photos of previous events to remind you what to look forward to – oooooh!!

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Squeezing in a Fabric-a-brac

You don’t need us to tell you – it’s been a tough old year. The only upside for some of us was that we managed to get lots of crafting, sewing and projects done during lockdown!

But we’ve missed not being able to bring you our beloved Fabric-a-brac events.

So we are delighted we’re managing to brighten up the second half of 2020 and get a Fabric-a-brac in before the year is out.

Fabric-a-brac Wellington will be on the 31 October at St Anne’s hall in Newtown.

Because of the difficulties of negotiating social distancing and other restrictions – it will only take place if we are at COVID Alert Level 1. So keep your fingers crossed!

Find out more

Greytown latest Fabric-a-brac

At the end of March we will hold our first-ever Fabric-a-brac in Greytown, in the Wairarapa region of New Zealand.

Raising money for Hospice

We are really excited about raising money for Hospice in this region, and about seeing the stashes that are coming out of local cupboards to be repurposed by you – lovely people!

Like to have a stall?

If you’d like to have a stall, fill out the form – otherwise we can’t wait to see you there.

• Fabric-a-brac Greytown
• Greytown Town Centre, 89 Main St
• 10am-1pm Saturday 28 March 2020

More Fabric-a-brac dates to be announced soon!

Wellington arrives!

Fabric-a-brac – join us for our last ten year event this November

Get your last Fabric-a-brac fix of the year in Wellington in November!

The date for our last 10th anniversary fabric sale will be on November 9th. Same place – St Anne’s Hall in Newtown. Same time – 10am-2pm.

The May event was a great fundraiser for Mary Potter Hospice with $3,300 raised. We are hoping we can up the stakes for this one! Come along, get a fabric bargain and help Hospice at the same time.

We can’t wait to see you there!

Auckland is nearly here!

This Saturday we are filling the streets of Ponsonby with fabric!

Well not literally – but the St Columba Centre is going to be chocka with amazing fabric bargains. Make your way down there from 9am to pick up haberdashery, patterns and some amazing fabric – we can’t wait!

Auckland Fabric-a-brac

• Saturday 21 September
• 9am – 12.30pm

Feeling the Fabric Love

Wow we had an awesome day at the Palmerston North Fabric-a-brac yesterday. A steady and large crowd made their way around the fantastic stallholders, then into the ‘Hospice Hall’ – all those huge rolls of fabric donated by Caroline’s Creative Interiors – over 100 of them – were snapped up by eager buyers.

Thanks to the Hospice team of staff and volunteers – what a lot of lugging about you had to do! And to all those who measured and priced beforehand. And thanks to the stallholders and Hospice peeps who stayed behind to help clean up 🙂

Thanks to Anne, a genuine Southlander, for taking charge of the Authentic Southland Cheese Rolls. Often they were snapped up before I made it from the kitchen to the tea and coffee stall!

But today, I wanted to do a special shout out to the mums who helped on the day. Here’s Lois and Sharon, Tina and Steph’s mum respectively. They were AMAZING troopers, who stayed the whole day behind the tea and coffee. Sewing is a shared love across the generations, and the enthusiasm and hard work shown by these ladies, as volunteers, blew me away.

Thank you! Feeling the fabric love today!

 

2019 Fabric-a-brac Palmerston North

Josie from Fabricabrac and Julie from Arohanui Hospice. Cake by Jo Heaton!

Josie from Fabricabrac and Julie from Arohanui Hospice. Cake by Jo Heaton!

Cheese rolls

YUMMO!

All those rolls of fabric!

Fabric-love coming your way

The Palmerston North event is but a heartbeat away! 7 September is the date to get some amaaazing fabric bargains. We have heaps of stallholders and some fantastic donations to the Hospice table/s, including 50 ROLLS of fabric from one company, a spinning wheel and a number of vintage sewing machines.

You won’t want to miss this – one of the biggest Fabric-a-bracs we’ve ever had in Palmy!

If you can help out with any baking for the Hospice stall that would be really great. Just bring it on the day. We’d love to see you there 🙂

Find out more

A very Grand Total

Fabric-a-brac 10 year anniversary cake

In June we had the pleasure of depositing $3,300 into the Mary Potter Hospice (MPH) account as a result of the lovely Fabric-a-brac event held in Wellington on Saturday 22nd of June.

We would like to thank the committee, our volunteers, the stallholders, and of course the shoppers for making this possible!

In the 10 years that Fabric-a-brac Wellington has been going it has made just on $40k MPH and Fabric-a-brac New Zealand-wide has made just over $80k of donations in total. What an awesome effort and what a delight it has been to meet all you lovely people!

Fabric-a-brac and volunteering

We love that Fabric-a-brac has made such a substantial contribution over time to the amazing cause that is Hospice. Stuff recently published an article on volunteering, using Fabric-a-brac as an example.

Read stuff article

Events coming up

Dates for the Wairarapa and the next Wellington event are yet to be settled, but we will let you know asap.

Confirmed are

• 7th of Sept – Palmerston North
• 21st of Sept – Auckland

Until then – thanks and happy sewing!

Remembering our mums

My mum was the one that inspired my love of sewing. Growing up she always had a project on the go – whether it was fixing some of our clothes, making us or herself something there was always material in some state of being made into something hanging around her machine.

My most cringeworthy moment as about a four year old, destroying a purple pinafore she was making me. I loved purple, and I loved the idea of the pinafore. But it had really long straps – it was pretty much a skirt with braces in a very Seventies fashion. There was something about those straps that really bugged me and while she was out of the room, I snipped them right off. I just couldn’t help myself.

She was so mad, and I remember being mad at myself. Why did I do it? Again, in Seventies fashion, I got a right old hiding.

This isn’t a happy story 😉 but it got better from there on in, I promise! I stopped cutting things things up that weren’t meant to be cut and grew to love the creative process of making my own clothes. And that’s all down to my mum’s patience.

We’d love to know – who inspired you to sew and how? So we’re putting together a Zine for FBB’s tenth anniversary. We’d love to hear your stories. ❤️🧡💜💙 If you have a memory, story or poem connected with the person that taught you to sew and you’d like it to be considered for inclusion in this publication, we’d love to hear from you.

– Submit through this  FORM
– Deadline 7 June 2019.
– Word limit: up to 200 words
– Photos welcome.

Love to you all and we hope to hear your stories soon.

Message us if you have any questions.

Josie (Fabric-a-brac)