ZIGZAG November 2024, Issue No. 6

UPCYCLED WEDDING GOWN A LABOUR OF LOVE

VOLUNTEER SPOTLIGHT: MEET THE RED ROBINS

WHEN FAST FASHION STARTS TO WEAR THIN, SUSTAINABLE COLLABS STEP UP

January 2023

STITCH TOGETHER COMMUNITY BANK SAMFORD SPONSORSHIP Welcome to our sixth edition of The Nest Community’s newsmagazine.

In our previous editions we’ve retraced our journey from a small hall behind Everton Park Library, to a residential home in Everton Park. In this issue we recount how we then started a humble ‘Habby’ with just two walls.

As I write this, Brisbane has been teeming with rain for almost a week. Had we still been in Everton Park, the shop floor would have been flooded and people would be bogged in our front yard.

We’ve been in Brendale just over 12 months and I’m so thankful that we not only have four walls, we also have a beautiful studio that is about to host our annual Christmas Craft Stall. In this month’s Volunteer Spotlight, you can meet some of the brilliant minds and busy hands behind it.

As demand for our recirculating services increase, we have been looking for ways to share more of The Nest Haberdashery’s magic with the broader community.

You can read about how we donated $4500 worth of resource vouchers to QUT’s exciting Capsule Collective Pop-Up shop, which gave students the opportunity to design garments focusing on repurposing textiles and minimising waste.

Our most exciting announcement is that we secured a $50,000 grant from Community Bank Samford, part of Bendigo Bank, to support our latest program, Stitch Together.

In the last 14 years this amazing bank has distributed more than $2 million into the Samford, Pine Rivers and Narangba regions.

When you choose Community Bank Samford, up to 100% of profits go straight back into the local community through grants, funding events, projects or programs like ours.

Learn more about this exciting program when you read about our first initiative, Turbo Rolling Bees.

Roz Holt THE NEST CEO & CO-FOUNDER

Up until 2019, The Nest Community was truly a grassroots, volunteer-led organisation. With no operational funding and limited revenue apart from workshops and fundraising, the organisation had hit a crossroads.

With a grant from Wesley Mission, cofounder Roz Holt was able to take on a full time role as CEO and develop new strategies to shore up The Nest’s future.

At the time, the terms social enterprise and circular economy were being bandied about and it piqued Roz’s interest. It gave her the inspiration to seek a new revenue stream that was based on volunteer interest.

At the time, The Nest Haberdashery was nothing more than a Facebook page.

The donated textile resources were contained in a few boxes and dress racks.

Stock was wheeled out to the verandah, on a Wednesday and Saturday for limited hours and then packed away.

But the way the volunteers sorted and repacked items, resonated with this idea of a circular economy.

Even in its infancy, Roz saw how women connected over textiles. They shared ideas about what to make with it, dissected a fabric’s suitability for a project and consulted others about which colour to choose.

The Haberdashery had become the heart of the organisation.

Known affectionately as ‘The Habby’, it grew in notoriety and became known as a ‘treasure trove of low-cost resources’.

Demand followed and it became obvious that compared to the workshop and gardening programs, the Habby was the key to The Nest becoming sustainably self-funded and making the biggest social impact.

But the first challenge was to create a secure space where products could be permanently displayed. With limited funds, building a retail space seemed challenging.

But once again the local community offered support to help transform the existing concrete space under the house.

Smartline, Now Networking Group, Black Bear Investments, Alderley Automotive and Road Boss Rally were all local businesses and organisations that contributed to the $5000 budget.

Additionally Mitre 10 Mitchelton donated the building supplies and our thrifty Shopfitters sourced much of the fitout, like the counter, from shops they were renovating. We also sourced second hand display shelves.

The Nest Haberdashery finally had a permanent set up and started trading six days a week in mid 2019.

Longstanding Nest volunteer, Jacqueline, recalls how simple the shop was in those days.

We didn’t have a cash register initially and people mainly paid in cash. I helped Gladys (Roz’s mum) with banking and we used to think we had a huge day if we made $100.

Just as business was starting to build, the COVID-19 pandemic hit Australia in early 2020.

Of course the global pandemic forced all businesses to change the way they operated and The Nest Haberdashery was no different.

Craft supplies were in high demand as people craved for something to do during extended lockdowns. Virtual shopping was trialled but ultimately, people preferred to ‘mask-up’ and shop in-person.

As the pandemic continued, many volunteers like Chris Eaton, took on extra roles. Volunteers would take huge crates of donations home to keep the processing going. They’d bring them back and like magic elves, Chris and her sister restocked the shelves when everyone had gone home.

In the 1989 Kevin Costner movie Field of Dreams, his character famously said “Build it, he will come”.

It leans into the idea that by manifesting something people need, it will attract the right people.

This principle is what led to the huge success of launching The Nest Haberdashery, but due to it’s makeshift infrastructure, it fell victim to overuse.

Once the pandemic subsided, traffic in and out of the residential front yard sometimes got to boiling point as access proved difficult.

When it rained, it was all hands on deck to secure the perimeter and dig trenches to divert water flow.

And then there was the daily battle against dust and possum wee.

Stocking up ‘Habby’ shelves

Eventually we reached another ‘where to from here’ moment when Brisbane City Council advised that we needed zoning permission to continue trading as we were.

Operations had reached a commercial scale and by early 2021, the search began to find a unicorn. A commercial premises with easy access and loads of parking. It needed to retain a feeling of home, preferably have a garden but with the storage capacity of a shed.

Would you believe we found the unicorn and it’s even called The Sheds. It’s been home to The Nest Haberdashery since September 2023.

Vintage Textiles Shapeshifting Into Sustainable Slow Fashion That Tells A Story DOILY DO OR DOILY DON’T? It seems there are always two camps when it comes to these small crocheted placemats. Some don’t understand their outdated purpose and others revere them for the skill and hours required to make them.

How is it that such a small, seemingly superfluous item creates such division?

When they were first introduced in the 16th Century, a doily was basically a fancy napkin, with many sources crediting the name to an actual man - Doiley (or Doyley) a London cloth merchant.

In the Victorian era, openwork crocheted doilies (which we are more familiar with) became hugely popular. With the invention of mercerization, cotton yarn became affordable to most women and during the Irish Famine of 1846, nuns taught women to crochet so they could produce saleable items to feed their families.

In their first wave of popularity, crocheted doilies were disrupting the exclusive and expensive lace industry. Women were able to make their own with easy access to materials and patterns. Doilies and embroidered table linens became part of a well-dressed home.

As the pendulum of taste swayed the other way, doilies became outdated, with public taste yearning for more streamlined, sleek and modern lines. Yet they continued to be produced. Handwork is after all a form of meditation and creativity. A way of mindfully ‘switching off’ at the end of a day’s work.

You might say doilies and embroidery were a symbol of the domestication of women, but during the second-wave of the women’s liberation movement in the 1970s, handwork was also seen as a vehicle for activism. In 1979 in Australia the Women’s Domestic Needlework Group presented an exhibition called The D’oyley Show: An Exhibition of Women’s Domestic Fancywork to highlight ‘women who toil’.

Hastings Handmade

The exhibition included protest posters that spoke about the social and economic isolation of the many women earning a living through hand work. They worked without the protection of Guilds that only allowed men. Did you know, for example, that the ‘useful’ lifespan of a Valencienne’s lace worker was just thirty years old? Due to the fragile nature of the yarn, they had to work in damp, ill-lit cellars which caused health issues like failing eyesight and pulmonary disease.

Another poster illustrates how ‘the artist imprisoned in the housewife’ shows herself in the decorative things she makes at the end of a day doing chores.

At The Nest, we receive countless donations containing outdated but beautiful vintage textiles. Much of it comes from deceased estates, donated almost reluctantly. The custodians are nervous that we won’t appreciate them, but also aware that unless they pass them on, their only alternative is to dump them.

This is where slow fashion is fast becoming a vehicle for vintage textiles to shape-shift from tableware to clothing in a respectful and meaningful way. With renewed purpose, these intricate, colourful and sometimes quirky designs once again become part of daily life.

So, next time you come across a doily, take a moment and imagine what it could tell you about the women who made it.

How can you share her story so that it’s relevant today?

NSW based designer specialising in sustainable practices that repurpose vintage embroidered textiles

Hastings Handmade

Ingrid Vik Lysne Norwegian designer whose journey began with repurposing hand-embroidered tablecloths sourced from local flea markets

UPCYCLED WEDDING GOWN A LABOUR OF LOVE In June 2021 The Nest was invited to participate in an eco-fashion parade at the Salvation Army store in Kedron.

The finale of most parades is the wedding dress and CEO Roz Holt envisioned the concept of a gown made entirely of lace doilies.

Intern Louise Patterson was the chosen model and Nest volunteer Helena Ahrens enlisted her friend Erika Schacht, who was visiting from Tasmania. Erika worked on the construction of the garment and in total 70 doilies and one tablecloth were crocheted together.

TAG US IN YOUR #NESTMADE CREATIONS

VOLUNTEER SPOTLIGHT

THE BUSY HANDS AND BRILLIANT MINDS BEHIND THE NEST’S CRAFT STALLS MEET THE RED ROBINS

Left to right: Tricia Edmonds, Jaqueline Wilson, Maryanne Hambrect, Sue Biggs, Pauline Stockwell, Chris Eaton

The first time I visited The Nest in Everton Park, I was just dropping off some donations.

I met Gladys and came away with my Wednesdays and Saturdays taken care of, volunteering at The Nest Haberdashery - Jacqueline

At the same time we launch this month’s ZIGZAG, we’re also hosting our annual Christmas Craft Stall in the Gladys Mary Studio. So, it seemed fitting to introduce the story and some of the women behind this valuable fundraising tradition at The Nest.

Maryanne Hambrecht, Pauline Stockwell, Trish Edmonds, Chris Eaton, Jacqueline Wilson, Sue Biggs and Lindee Downing are the driving force behind the Nest’s Craft Stall program where as many as 20 other volunteers contribute their making skills.

They’re affectionately known as the Red Robins.

Many of these women have been long term Nest volunteers and have participated (and some still do) in other programs like the Exchange Project mentoring girls or in the Textile Recovery Centre sorting donations.

Many share the same story of having learnt to sew from their mother or Grandmother and most almost seem to be busier in retirement than they were when they worked. As is often the case, many have made contributions to the growth of the organisation beyond their craft skills.

Maryanne started volunteering in 2019 when she retired as CEO of the Queensland Eye Hospital. She is always the first to put up her hand for an extra shift and for a long time coordinated operations in Everton Park. She’s a people person with a knack of bringing people together.

Chris had always sewn for her family and mixed part time work with raising a family and being heavily involved in volunteering at school with tuck shop duties and even running a uniform shop. During COVID, Chris and her sister were like little elves who came in to restock the shelves in the Haberdashery when everyone had gone home.

Jacqueline, who by her own admission, has run out of people she can make quilts for, was literally an Everton Park neighbour. It was almost inevitable that she would volunteer with us. At a time when we had a garden committee, Jacqueline was always ready to feed the chooks when others couldn’t. But she also did banking, kept accounts, purchasing and was our cleaning angel.

Pauline has volunteered with us almost from the beginning. She is someone who loves sharing her skills and has hosted many workshops teaching people to sew. She not only shares her skills with us but also through other sustainable initiatives like Repair Cafe and making Boomerang Bags.

Like so many of our volunteers, Pauline is a good recruiter and has often included her husband.

In fact many husbands put up their hands to support us, repairing or moving things, or digging ditches when it rained and The Nest Haberdashery in Everton Park would regularly flood.

Making the item is just the beginning

It was Pauline who introduced her neighbour Trish. “I knew she was a sewer and I thought she would get a lot out of it”.

Trish is now one of our volunteer mentors, working with vulnerable girls in the Exchange Program. She recently helped one of the girls make her own formal dress.

These women who started in Everton Park fondly remember how Gladys, at the time in her eighties, used her powers of persuasion to get people to sign up to shifts, especially to her beloved Pop-Up Craft Stall.

Roz Holt’s late mother, Gladys Foley was an undeniable force. In the early days, while Roz was working in her full time job, she stepped in to be the backbone of operations. She managed rosters and took care of or delegated daily tasks. The Gladys Mary Studio was named in her honour.

Even though she was heavily involved at The Nest, Gladys was also the president of the Kedron Arts Society. It was here that she gained experience with pop-up stores in Shopping Centres as a means of fundraising for her association. When The Nest was struggling to pay rent, Gladys came up with the idea of volunteers using resources from the Haberdashery to make things for a stall.

It not only brought volunteers together but it gave them a sense of purpose and kudos for their talents. It was empowering.

As a self-funded organisation, Gladys’ PopUp Craft Stalls were an essential part of The Nest’s revenue-raising efforts to meet our overheads. When revenue from The Nest Haberdashery became more established, the Craft Stall remained an important avenue for women to contribute, make a difference and feel empowered that they could do something for others. For this reason, we have retained the Craft Stall as one of our programs today.

Gladys Mary Foley CRAFT STALL FOUNDER

Jacqueline recalls how ‘things for the Craft Stall would just appear’.

Some of our Haberdashery customers no longer had someone to make things for.

So, they’d buy our fabric and the next day come back with a finished item to donate for the stall.

Gladys was very fond of crocheted coat hangers and would often make suggestions to people about what else they could make.

Often there were some surprising favourites such as tea towels with crocheted tops.

They’re one of Maryanne’s specialties and even today they’re one of the hottest items on the stall.

Since moving to Brendale, volunteer Sue Biggs has joined us and been able make an invaluable contribution by developing a catalogue to guide people towards making things that are in demand.

“My mother, sister and I ran a market stall for 25 years where we made everything.

When I retired and gave up the markets, I was looking to get out of the house and find another ‘tribe’. My experience running my own stall means I can provide display advice. I’ve developed the catalogue and stocktake list as well as created labels.”

With an industrial machine at home, Sue also trials new ideas and tries to simplify the construction, always looking for ways to get more out of the resources.

Craft stall set-up in the Gladys Mary Studio

Traditionally, the Pop-Up Craft Stall was held in shopping centres. Now with the Gladys Mary Studio right next door to The Nest Haberdashery, the Craft Stall has a permanent home.

With the Heritage Collection as its backdrop and the Textile Recovery Centre in full swing behind, there’s a wonderful continuity between the textiles being given new life and the history of how women have been making, with purpose for centuries.

Pop-Up Craft Stall Early Days

The Capsule Collective Design Class of 2024 celebrating their achievements.

If you’ve never heard of a circular economy (Hello! Neither had I!) let me introduce you to the concept. A circular economy is ‘a system in which products and materials are kept in circulation through processes like maintenance, reuse, refurbishment, remanufacture, and composting’.

The Nest plays an important role within the circular economy space, with their Textile Recovery Centre helping to recirculate all manner of sewing resources.

Each week, dedicated and craft-loving volunteers sort and repackage donated materials to sell through the The Nest Haberdashery, a beautiful space where volunteers curate the reclaimed resources and share their skills with customers. It is clearly the heart of the organisation.

Recently, I was lucky enough to witness circular economy principles in action when I was asked to write about QUT’s exciting Capsule Collective Pop-Up shop, a project for second-year Fashion Design students.

For the students it’s an immersive experience where they not only need to design and make, but also market,

communicate and display stock in a retail environment. In the last two years the design brief has required students to use 50% reclaimed materials and this year it was increased to 75%.

The Nest was thrilled to sponsor the project and provided the students with $4,500 worth of resource vouchers to spend at The Nest Haberdashery.

The store’s collections were crafted with the intent of repurposing textiles, minimising waste, and showcasing the incredible value inherent in sustainable materials.

Attending the opening night of the store was undoubtedly an inspiring experience.

To witness the craftsmanship of the students and to see first-hand their passion and excitement when describing their sustainable fashion pieces is a testament to The Nest’s partnership with QUT. So too is it a testament to the resourcefulness and ingenuity demonstrated by each student.

‘Gore Whore’ by Nikita After arriving at the event, one of the students, Orla, was kind enough to share her thoughts on the successes and challenges the project presented her with.

“It really forced us to reshape our style and think about who we are.” When I asked whether she found the process of working with sustainable materials at all challenging, she was quick to respond.

I think it can be easier to use sustainable materials when you have a clear vision.

- Orla

Another student, Sam, was inspired to challenge long-held beliefs about marriage, while Patrick’s love for Paris shone through in his chic and athletic collection. Ruby’s favourite colour, pink, informed her standout pieces, while Persephone has always appreciated the little things and sought to reflect this in her brand.

‘Gore Whore’ by Nikita Student Nikita’s brand, ‘Gore Whore’, represented a subversion of Sigmund Freud’s beliefs about women. “Freud believed that women were one of two things – a perfect wife or a whore. I wanted to push back against this, and in particular push back against patriarchal ideas about women,” Nikita told me.

That fashion can be utilised to challenge deeply entrenched beliefs pertaining to the world at large is incredibly inspiring, particularly when it is done in tandem with the use of sustainable materials.

‘Gore Whore’

by Nikita

Rusted Studios

The importance of sustainability and collaboration was undoubtedly present in student Tisha’s pieces. “I called the brand Natalia Moon in honour of my nan and grandma. I still use my nan’s sewing machine, and my grandma taught me how to sew,” she told me with a smile.

Her pieces were gorgeous, and when I asked whether she will be revisiting The Nest, she was quick to nod her assent.

“Oh yes, absolutely. I will definitely be going back.”

‘Ambrosia’ by Marco D’Ambrosio

A warm moment shared between student Ruby Cowan, Kath Horton (Nest Chair), and Roz Holt (Nest CEO)

Speaking at the event’s opening night, The Nest’s CEO, Roz, highlighted the importance of resourcefulness and determination when working with sustainable materials. She also spoke of the powerful and unafraid nature of the women who engage in craft. “When faced with new challenges, embrace your creativity to its fullest, seek out new skills, and take risks. If you venture into the unknown, you can always come back. Each time you come back, your growth will be reflected in your next collection,” she said.

Thanks to the likes of social media and the mass production of clothing worldwide, fast fashion has fast become a devalued and worrying commodity. The Nest’s maternal approach to fostering slow (and beautiful) fashion is helping to pave a new direction forward. Thank goodness for the ladies who work and volunteer at The Nest - we are so very lucky to have them!

Students receiving their vouchers in-store from Nest CEO, Roz Holt

Roz was also quick to highlight the joy that The Nest’s volunteers experienced when meeting with, and chatting to, the students.

By helping them to shop for materials and being kind enough to share their skills, the volunteers were able to foster an incredibly supportive and welcoming environment. For anyone new to sustainable fashion, the volunteers at The Nest will become your new best friends (I promise).

Organisations like The Nest are playing an increasingly important role in advocating for, and helping to create, sustainable pieces of fashion. By partnering with QUT, The Nest was able to facilitate both an educational and inspirational experience for the students, and in turn highlight the power of collaboration and reclaimed materials.

FabuLEOS Dancewear by Kirsty Chan featuring Nest fabrics via voucher

‘Salome’ by Verity King

participation in textile recovery and educate about reclaimed resources. Its aim is to support and encourage students and community groups to get involved through various initiatives.

In the past 12 months, the volume of textile donations we process in our Textile Recovery Centre has almost tripled and demand for our service shows no sign of declining.

There’s no doubt that our success has been largely due to the passion and commitment of our volunteers. But even they can’t match the future demand.

We don’t just need people to lend-a-hand to meet current demand, we also want textile recovery to move beyond our retail space. We want to propagate The Nest Haberdashery magic in the broader community so that it continues to thrive for generations to come and make a greater social impact.

Stitch Together is The Nest Community’s new invigoration program that’s designed to stimulate broad community

Fortunately, Community Bank Samford, part of Bendigo Bank, shared our vision and The Nest secured a $50,000 grant from them to launch Stitch Together.

We were beyond thrilled that our pioneering work tackling textile waste has been recognised in the bank’s inaugural major grant round.

In the last 14 years this amazing bank has distributed more than $2 million into the Samford, Pine Rivers and Narangba regions.

That’s because when you choose Community Bank Samford, up to 100% of profits go straight back into the local community through grants, funding events, projects or programs just like ours. We are extremely proud to partner with them.

The first Stitch Together initiative we’ve launched is our Turbo Rolling Bees where people can come to The Nest and lend-ahand by rolling fabric.

Helping us process textile donations more quickly will mean we can increase the supply of low-cost resources that will help more people make an economical rather than just a sustainable choice to make by hand.

Our Turbo Rolling Bees are a fantastic team-building exercise that gives participants a sense of purpose and an appreciation of what it takes to make discarded resources new again. It’s also the perfect introduction to what it’s like volunteering at The Nest.

The final bonus is that by lending a hand with our resource recovery work, groups are rewarded with a whopping $500 voucher for use in The Nest Haberdashery, which you can imagine goes a long way!

Any group with an interest in our reclaimed materials or charitable mission is invited to participate - be it local organisations, community groups, design students or teachers.The idea is even perfect for corporate volunteering, because the vouchers can be paidforward to other initiatives that they might like to support.

Our first group to jump at the opportunity was from the Samford Valley Steiner School Parents and Friends Association.

By giving their time rolling fabric they were able to source the textiles they needed for their fundraising Twilight Christmas market.

One participant even found it an emotive experience with the smell of the preloved fabric she was rolling sparking fond childhood memories of her Grandmother’s sewing room cupboard.

Ministry of Handmade Team

Through their business, Nest volunteer Julie Hillier and her husband Maurice promoted our Turbo Rolling Bees in their Ministry of Handmade newsletter.

A dozen customers came along and proved to be a powerhouse group producing 13 tubs of small fabric rolls and 40 bolts of fabric by the metre.

The exercise gave Julie’s customers an insight into the volunteer work she does.

Inspired, they paid-it-forward by donating the voucher and splitting it between the Ferny Grove and Kallangur Girl Guides. They also want to come back and do it again.

You might think rolling fabric sounds easy. You would be surprised just how fast our volunteers can work, so for those new to the task be warned. The Turbo Rolling Bees are intensive sessions for people with good mobility. In five hours there is a minimum of one tub of fabric per person with all training provided.

To keep the team fuelled up during the session, we encourage groups to bring nibbles and light drinks. Our wonderful neighbours at Hip Hops Brewers are also offering each participant a free drink when they’re finished.

We believe that Stitch Together will foster multigenerational involvement in textile recovery and foster an informed, connected and resilient community where people and resources are equally valued.

Our Turbo Rolling Bees are just the beginning and the Stitch Together Program will continue to be rolled out in 2025.

APPLY NOW!

CONTACT

ZIGZAG SYMBOLISM

0433 805 987

In sewing, zig zag is used when a straight stitch won’t suffice. It reinforces edges and joins two working pieces together. Being able to step sideways and still move ahead is symbolic of how our organisation has evolved. We’ve side stepped challenges but continued to do the things we love.

info@nestcommunity.org.au

www.nestcommunity.org.au

2A/264 South Pine Road, Brendale, 4500

The zig zag pattern is symbolic of new potential and growth and we’ve always drawn on collective wisdom to create ideas to avoid repeating mistakes, firm in the knowledge that eventually we will be in the right place at the right time to make a positive difference to society.