My passion for India and fabric

Testimonies


The Eye of a Needle, Sewing Shop Hastings, Fabric Shop, Sewing Supplies
  • March 28, 2017

I was invited last week to speak to a Ladies’ Dinner club about Colours and Styling. The invitation had been pending for about 6 months so it was great to finally set a date and see ticket sales increasing. I ended up with an audience of 60 lovely ladies.

I haven’t done much public speaking in the last little while, so I was wondering what on earth I was going to speak about. I have found though, that for me it’s a bit like everything I do; if I speak about what I am passionate about, the rest will flow from there. I also needed to bear in mind that these ladies had paid good money for a night out, so they were looking for some ‘bang for their buck’.

I felt to talk about 2 things; firstly Colour & Styling as that was the draw card, and secondly my passion for colour stemming from my passion for all things India.

About 10 years ago I realized that I had a real affinity with all the colours and textures of India. I fed my appetite on watching movies like ‘ The Best Marigold Hotel’, ‘Who wants to be a Millionaire?’, and more recently ‘Lion’ as I haven’t been in a position to actually visit the country yet. Each of the movies in their own way illustrates the busy-ness and the colour- full, crazy life that Indian culture is. I have coveted every outfit that Judi Dench has worn in her character of beautiful kaftans and flowing colourful scarves, and have added India to my bucket list of things to do in my very near future.

I have had several friends visit India, with mixed reactions like ‘ You can never prepare enough’ to the wonderment of colours and markets and bazaars amongst filth and poverty that we have no connection with until we have been there.

A couple of years ago I met a lady who was travelling in India as a missionary, and she put out a plea for finances to equip some widows who lived in a particular rural village, with sewing machines and supplies to be able to become self-sufficient. I felt a real call to sow money into these women and I have since had a real desire to visit and teach the widows a few skills that will enable them to create a market for what they make. I believe that when God opens the door for this to happen, opportunities beyond my wildest dreams will begin to take off. But I cannot run ahead of God, and I know that He will open that door of opportunity at exactly the right time.

Isaiah 55:10-11

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,

And do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout,

And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; 

So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth;
It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire,

And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.

 

I have another beautiful friend who spent 3 years as a Missionary wife in Bangalore, who I met while we were on a trip to Israel. My lovely new friend and I sparked instantly, and I was inspired by her love for the orphan boys who lived in a house down the road from where she was living at the time. Her heart was to source fabric and get local women to make scarves, which she would sell through contacts back in New Zealand, with a percentage going back in to the orphanage. Even though my lovely friend has since returned to New Zealand, the dream is still very much alive. She showed me an apron which she frequently wears and I immediately thought of a way we could use some of the unsold excess scarves to make into aprons like hers. I began to cut up some scarves (actually made from second hand saris), and using my passion for colour, put some eclectic mixes together to create what I think, are very funky aprons.

I took 9 aprons with me to the Ladies night, hoping to inspire the ladies and I sold the first one in ten minutes. My desire now is to sow $10 from the sale of each apron into the orphans’ fund, and also $10 from each sale will go into the widows’ fund.

As crazy as it seems, when I ran out of scarves that I had at home, I text my beautiful friend who informed me she still had ‘hundreds more’. I now have a basket in my sewing room with literally two hundred scarves in it, awaiting transformation into an apron of your dreams! If you are interested in ordering or purchasing one of these unique creations, please contact me at the bottom of this page and put in your order including your favourite colour. The aprons cost $45 each, and $20 of that sale will go directly back into people less fortunate than ourselves. I will contact you with payment details. I guarantee that no two aprons will be the same!

My lovely friend and I have now made some plans to visit India later in the year once we have some more ‘witty inventions’ on how to use this beautiful fabric.

Proverbs 8:12 tells us “I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions”. We are praying for wisdom and prudence to help us source some better quality cottons and we are looking at opportunities to equip these widows with something unique to make which we can sell in New Zealand. My dream is finally coming alive. I will share more on this in the next blog, but for now I need to get to my sewing machine to whip up another 12 aprons to sell at the local market in 3 weeks’ time. It looks like whatever I have stepped in to is starting to take some shape.

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