Sewn Souvenirs

With vibrant fabrics like these available it's hard not to want to take some home. The fabric.

 "Oh, mum! Do we have space?”I heard it over and over. In every market. In every country.

Sailing to new and distant shores is one of those things we want to hold with us. Not just by memories and photographs (though those are #1 and 2) but having tactile things—a hair stick carved in the Marquesas to wind my hair up out of the humidity, serving dishes from Mexico for fresh salsa—keep the memories that much closer.

But we don’t have the money, the space, the need (you name it) for so many of the beautiful things we see. So we search out small things—a hand woven basket to replace a plastic crate, a mask to add to our wee collection. But mostly we admired the pretty things and move on. Fabric though—fabric we can use. Or so I thought as we loaded up on gorgeous South Pacific prints.

We have a big beastly sailrite, but when it came time to make the little girl dresses I used to love to sew (or teach the little girl to make them) the sailrite was a bit cranky. A lot cranky. So recently we bought a cheap light weight machine, called it Maia’s and let her pull out some of her lovely Fiji fabrics and start learning to sew.

Fiji fabric gets a new look

 I can almost smell the frangipani.