update the title TEST 3 modern ways from grandmas day

The recession kicked it off and social media gave it momentum: the Great Granny Skills Revival. Mass job losses and wage freezes following the global financial crisis forced us to find a way of enjoying living on less. Dubbed “austerity chic” or the “new frugality”, suddenly thrift was cool. More and more people began making, mending, growing, swapping and building things for themselves.

Realising that it was fun and rewarding – as well as more sustainable – they started blogs and Facebook groups and Pinterest boards and dragged mates to workshops on knitting, cheese-making and toy-making. New kinds of stores opened, as much places to socialise and learn as to buy craft and culinary supplies.

Green values and the Kiwi DIY tradition have driven an edible gardening comeback, while a craft-
art subculture has re-cast knitting
and needlework as fresh and edgy (check out www.felt.co.nz or
www.etsy.com). A yearly festival in Wellington, Handmade, celebrates the trend. Yup, the young ’uns are updating Granny’s ways with today’s technology, styles and eco-consciousness – meaning less resource use, and much more fun.

Sew much love

Sarah Lancaster wants everyone to conquer their fear of sewing machines and get mending and upcycling; old blankets into fingerless gloves, tablecloths into cushion covers, three dollar op-shop finds into on-trend outfits. “It’s not just recycling things, it’s celebrating things with a story,” she says. “People are more likely to hold on to things if they have
a story, a meaning to them.”

Since June, the bubbly 27-year-old has run a sewing lounge in central Auckland where you can rent sewing machines by the hour, use Sarah’s tools and advice, attend sewing classes or hire the place as a party venue. The gorgeous fabric, patterns and “refashioning bar” supplies (buttons, studs etc) are all second-hand. “It’s about providing resources and assistance for people to be creative in a sustainable way,” she explains. And sewing gives people an alternative to fast-fashion consumerism (the endless flow of cheap “latest looks”) with its environmental and social toll.

Most of her customers are women, but “I’ve had a surprising amount of guys interested in making their own shirts because they can’t get ones to fit them. I’m going to do a crotch class because every guy I talk to about my sewing thing says, ‘can you fix this?’
– and shows their ripped crotch!”

A magazine article gave her the idea of creating a values-based business. She did night classes in small business management, went to fashion school where she converted her classmates
to op-shopping, and launched Sew, Love, Tea, Do – short for “learn to sew, love the Earth, over a cup of tea we can do good”. Before the lounge pop-up, she ran a mobile sewing school from Rolly, her Toyota Corolla hatch, setting up in community halls, festivals and markets. She’s hoping sewing will take off here like it has in the UK, following a hit BBC TV show called The Great British Sewing Bee.

Knitted graffiti?

Even the most grandmotherly of handicrafts, knitting, is cool again, with websites like www.knitty.com (for free patterns) www.ravelry.com, and Canadian blog the Yarn Harlot attracting big followings. It’s even got political, with the advent of yarn-bombing, also known as knit graffiti: beautifying and “reclaiming” public spaces by decorating them with knitted and crocheted yarn.

Wellingtonian Tash Barneveld, 30, has yarn-bombed a few spots, but now her two yarn stores, Holland Road Yarn Company, absorb her. Crafty types flock for hand-dyed wool, couches, cuppas, creative inspiration and company. “There’s a big element of conscious consumerism,” says Tash. “People are a bit jaded by going into a shop and buying something from someone nameless and not knowing where it came from or who made it.”

Christchurch couple Justin and Kirsty Hosking tapped into an appetite for crafts with their wool and sewing shop the Make Company. They’ve recently moved to a new site that allows them to run simultaneous classes, and their Facebook page has over 6000 likes. Targeting people aged 20-45, they run courses in various textile, paper and culinary crafts, decoupage
and lampshade-making. They
also run courses for kids, and
are in talks about teaching craft in
a male prison. Says Justin: “People are using craft as a means to socialise. It’s creating bonds
within communities.”

Taking old skills
into the future

Perhaps the most contemporary twist is happening in the new field of eTextiles, or electronic textiles: fabrics embedded with electronic or digital components, including tiny computers (also known as wearable computing). It’s one strand of digital fabrication, whose practitioners call themselves “makers”. Christchurch-based maker, Bridget McKendry, 44, produces maker kits, teaches courses and makes her own creations, such as a fox scarf whose eyes light up when it “bites” its tail (she got some funny looks wearing that one round town). Lately she’s been experimenting
with sewing into garments sensors that respond to light, sound, temperature changes or movement
– for instance a coat with a collar
that lights up when she reaches
a pre-programmed destination.

“I’ve taught a lot of people who didn’t think they were techie, couldn’t programme,” she says. “I’ve taught old ladies who are excellent embroiderers how to design a circuit and when it lit up the looks on their faces was amazing.”

Break out
the Edmonds Cookbook…

Growing your own vegetables, cooking from scratch and using all parts of food was the norm in our grandparents’ time. Then came the age of convenience foods, lower real incomes and working mums – and the more time-consuming culinary skills fell by the wayside. Today, however, there’s a quiet resurgence in edible gardens and old-fashioned kitchen arts like preserving, pickling, jam-making, cheese-making and bread-making, often with a whole-foods, ancient grains twist. Homebrewing is also hot (well, ideally cold). And even offal has made a comeback of sorts – see Auckland-based The Offal Club’s Facebook page.

Sales of vegetable seeds have risen; 20- and 30-somethings are getting into organic gardening and permaculture, growing herbs
in pallets or hanging planters,
and joining community gardens.

Christchurch woman Sharyn Barclay not only makes her own bread, she grinds her own wheat. She also brews an old- world probiotic drink called kombucha every week, and is experimenting with making butter
and sourdough. She says she’s motivated by sustainability, and self-pride in mastering new skills. “As the Googlite generation, we can access tips and recipes from the internet – something our Grandparents couldn’t.”

Recipes like the ones on Kelly Gibney’s food blog www.bonniedelicious.com. Kelly, 33, is a food writer and stylist who lives in Auckland with her partner and two-year-old (Bonnie). Five years ago, she was buying salad dressing. Now she makes her own yoghurt, kefir (cultured milk), sauerkraut, kimchi and clarified butter. It sounds intimidating, but she says she slowly taught herself, one skill
at a time. “People are realising that things that seemed out of reach actually aren’t and there’s a real beauty to it – homemade vege soup can be a revelation when
your stock doesn’t come from a cube.

“It’s definitely worth doing it moneywise – you make a roast
chicken then you make a stock.”

She feeds her family for around
$160 a week.

Fix it, make it, swap it

The basic mechanical and carpentry skills our grandparents knew are also making a return. Community bike workshops such as Tumeke, in Auckland, and Wellington’s Mechanical Tempest, teach cyclists how to maintain and repair their bikes. Explains Tumeke’s Claire Dann, “It’s very economical, but more than that it’s empowering: people are more likely to ride their bike to work if they know they can fix a puncture; if they know how their brakes work they’ll go down those hills without being freaked out.”

And community courses in woodwork and furniture restoration, and the social carpentry event Ales and Nails (see page 20), are tapping
a renewed appreciation for wood.

Meanwhile, back on the home-front the tradition of wearing hand-me-downs – which was standard, at least for children, in our grandparents’ times – is making a comeback with a modern spin. At gatherings known as schwopping
or swishing events, groups of people young and old bring stuff they don’t want anymore - clothes, DVDs, books, cosmetics - and exchange it for other people’s stuff that they want. Some swaps are highly organised, with a strict system for assigning value; others are more relaxed, held at people’s homes. Swap Fashion Auckland attracted 120 swappers
to its most recent event.

As Sarah Lancaster points out, the eco and community values that run through these revivals are the ones our Grandma taught us. “Be nice to mother earth, share sugar with your neighbours, and be grateful for what you have.”