A fabric-lovers weekend in Palmerston North
Fabric-a-brac is now a great excuse to get out of town. Grab some girlfriends, raid your coin jar and head on up/down/across to Palmerston North to grab some fabric bargains, clean out the local op shops and have a great catch up over some yummy food and coffee.
A couple of highlights if you are coming for the weekend – Friday 18 August there is a night craft market at our lovely museum and on Sunday our little village of Hokowhitu hosts a small but yummy Farmer’s Market.
Op shops and sewing shops
Palmy has a disproportionate amount of second-hand and charity shops where you can pick up some real gems. Arohanui Hospice, St Vincent de Paul (Rangitikei St), Red Cross, Salvation Army, Goodwill shop, Women’s Refuge shop and a huge SaveMart – they’re all here. Check out this blog piece for more – with a full list at the end.
Recycle Boutique on Cuba St sells second-hand designer and vintage clothing. Lovely staff and a buyer with a sense of discretion mean I rarely leave this shop without having bought something.
There’s a big Bernina shop too which sells lots of cotton, sewing machine accessories and parts and do sewing machine maintenance. There’s a 15% discount here on the day if you mention you are here for Fabric-a-brac.
George St and Coleman Mall are great streets for cafes and clothing are George St and Coleman Mall – all wrought iron detail and tucked-away little boutiques. It has a lovely little bookshop – Bruce MacKenzie – and some great clothes stores including Kilt.
Keep your eye out for yarn bombing – an active group in Palmerston North Yarn Bomb statues and all sorts.
Get creative
Splatter is a ceramics studio in town – they take walk-ins, so just pop in and have a look – and paint your own ceramics. A fun thing to do with a group.
If you’re not feeling creative but would like to look at the work of people who were – head to one of our galleries.
Yes, you can get a GREAT coffee
When your poor tired feet need a break from all that shopping, there are a lot of good cafes in Palmy. We recommend a couple:
Munch – entirely gluten-free! And yummy to boot! Heaps of gluten-free, dairy-free, vegetarian and vegan food. Comes highly-recommended from my celiac friends.
Boho – gorgeous counter food, to-die-for donuts and a cute vibe.
Esplanade Cafe and of course my favourite local hangout Joseph St Kitchen.
The Herb Farm café is a wonderful spot about ten minutes out of town. They have an awesome range of beauty products made right there out of all natural ingredients and the café is set in lovely gardens. If you’ve got a group of people you can book a therapeutic body product workshop.
Te Manawa museum and gallery has a brilliant kids area too and you could go to New Zealand’s national Rugby Museum right next door if you are so inclined.
In the evening
Palmerston North’s Centrepoint Theatre is actually the only professional theatre in New Zealand to operate outside the four main centres of Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.
Focal Point Cinema – boutique cinema with a good cafe and evening meal menu
Silky Otter – another boutique cinema! Yes we have two!
More?
Find out more about what there is to do in Palmy on the Manawatu website
Fabric-a-brac 