Newsletter from The Eye Of A Needle – pre June 2023

Hello Lovely Ladies
I’m sending out an early ‘June’ email this week to let you know about some exciting developments at The Eye Of A Needle.
For those of you have visited the ‘new’ Hastings shop since we opened in February, and for those who have been attending our Bernina classes, it will be no surprise that we are a little cramped for space around the sewing table and the rooms in our little cottage are a little disjointed. 

We have been offered a wonderful opportunity to upgrade our shop premises, and after a lot of consideration we have decided to take the plunge and move 2 blocks further down Miller St towards Heretaunga St. This is not a decision we have made lightly, especially given our recent moving experiences! It’s a big job! However, David and I have decided this will be a really positive move for our shop – to bigger premises, better light, warmer rooms and more space for classes and displays. There is also plenty of off-street parking.

My initial vision for The Eye Of A Needle included an opportunity to dabble with upcycling furniture, and to develop a community garden. The new property has the potential for both of these, with plenty of outdoor shed space, and a lovely big garden laden with citrus and fruit trees.

The plan will evolve more once we move; we are looking forward to developing one of the rooms in the house into a dressmaking fabric room. We are very aware there isn’t a lot of dressmaking fabric available locally, and many of you want to touch and feel what you are buying rather than purchasing online. We will start to bring in more fabric with dressmaking in mind once we have moved, and our plan will eventually extend to stocking popular sewing patterns as well. We will also stock plenty of sewing accessories to keep all our sewists happy.

The address of the new shop will be 410 Avenue Rd East. Instead of heading NORTH off St Aubyn St into Miller St, you will head 2 blocks SOUTH (still on Miller St). Alternatively you could take a right opposite the Catholic Church as you head into town on Heretaunga Street and drive 2 blocks down Miller Street from that end. The house will be easy to locate with bold and clear BERNINA signage, and our details will be updated in Google and on our website.

We decided that it would be better to move now, when the opportunity arose, rather than get too established where we currently are. Disability ramps and off street parking will be a bonus for us at the new house, which will also have a great kitchen and lunch room and the opportunity to have bigger sewing workshops.

We are very excited! The property has recently been re-piled and re-wired, and is one of the original homesteads in Hastings, so it has lots of character, but it still needs a bit more work and TLC. Painting inside will start next week. We aim to be in the new shop on or before 1st JULY but I will keep you posted on that as we go. With the BERNINA ROADSHOW due to hit Hastings mid July, we hope to be well settled in our new store by then.

There is only one issue we have with this move, and that is that we need to find a new tenant for 500A Miller St. before we vacate the property. We are great believers in word-of-mouth and have personally found a couple of amazing places to rent by putting the word out there via our newsletters. The cottage is zoned light industrial and would suit a small office business, some kind of health service or a consultancy practice. It’s a very cute cottage and we love it, but unfortunately we have already outgrown the space we need here for our business. If you know of anyone who might like to take over our lease, please point them in my direction!

Just a reminder about the annual Bernina Autumn Sale which ends this Sunday 21st May. There are some great discounts on sewing machines and overlockers, as well as 20% off lots of accessories .You still have Friday and Saturday this week to grab a bargain if you’re in the market for a new sewing machine, or if you want to buy any new feet for your BERNINA.