She Wears Shwe shwe

Ginger Cat

One of my favourite items for gifting at the end of last year was an apron from a Women's empwoerment sewing project called Ginger Cat.

They had a range of applique aprons but this one had my two favourite things on it - Shwe shwe and tea cups.

I liked it so much I bought one as a gift to myself, one for my mom , my sister-in-law and a good friend.

  I love that the intricate patterns of the blue shwe shwe look like spode, or other blue and white traditioanl patterns ceramics. The detail on these cups is also equisite.

Ginger Cat don't have a website yet, but you can reach them on their email contact for now.

Patchwork Flowers

I had some t-shirts left over from the ones I bought to make shwe shwe soccer ball shirts from and decided that I needed to make  something more girly with them, so yesterday  I cut out flowers and petals from my lovely stack of shwe shwe.  ( I was a bit surprised to find how high my stack was when I put it all together - normally I am only working with one colour, or two for a specific thing, so to have them all piled up high was quite impressive)

I have sewn the flowers onto the left over t-shrts and will take them to the Brixton Handmade Market on Saturday.

Josephina's bags

Jospehina did not sew, her mom is a great sewer, but the bug had yet to bite Josephina. I had even offered to sign her up for a sewing class on the weekends last year when she was new to the suburb, because I thought it would be a good place for her to meet some people.

Until a few weeks ago Jospehina didnot sew, her mom is a great sewer, but the bug had yet to bite Josephina. I had even offered to sign her up for a sewing class on the weekends last year when she was new to the suburb, because I thought it would be a good place for her to meet some people.

;All that has changed in the last few weeks and Josephina  has become an overnight sewing sensation. My great MIL went on a course with some friends of hers to learn how to sew a patchwork bag, and Jospehina learnt from watching the ladies put theirs together over tea a few mornings a week.  She came home and asked me for some odd pieces of material  - but wouldnt tell me what for.  A few days later she produced an awesome bag made with the oddest off cuts from my sewing box. She had sewn the bag ALL BY HAND and was raring to do her next one. I offered her some shwe shwe bits - as my sewing box overflows with shwe shwe, and she was thrilled.

This is the result of the second bag - her first shwe shwe one. I think its absolutely marvelous, and so to did friends of my MIL, and they have placed orders for their own shwe shwe ones.  The bag has pockets inside and batting between the layers to make it sturdier.

I am now going to looking round for a simple second hand sewing machine for her and perhaps introduce her to Etsy. I know he will find it all excitingly marvelous .

For more South African bag loveliness have a look at the Babazeka blog this week that has a great round up post of some fabulous bags.

She wears shwe shwe shoes

  The gorgeous shwe shwe sandals that I ordered from shweshwe.co.za have arrived and  I am thrilled with them. The women at the post office who handed me the parcel saw  the company name on the package and wanted to know what was inside.  When I told her she insisted  I open them right then and there and then she took them round to all the other counters to show the ladies there ( Luckily Brixton  has a small post office, so that was only  two other ladies who had to ooh and aah over the shoes before I could get them back).

They normally only do bulk orders and so I was very chuffed that they had a pair I could buy on a single order.

 As soon as the weather gets a bit warmer I am going to be stepping out in style in these fun shoes. 

Then last week I discovered more shwe shwe shoe goodness from Bokkie Shoes who make baby doll shoes  and boots out of shwe shwe. 

They sell them online both locally and internationally on etsy and you will soon be able to buy them from The Space stores around South Africa

 

The baby doll shoes are also available as  ' best friends' , a concept similar to the  Campers Twins shoes. 

Each shoe is made with a different pattern of shwe shwe in the same colour  - with alternating patterns on the strap. 

Must haves

I found this amazing site yesterday, www.shweshwe.co.za. Based in George on the Garden Route this online store sells only items made out of shwe shwe. They have ladies fashions, cool clothes for babies and kids and home accessories. 

But the coolest things in their store, that  I absolutely have to get myself a pair of, are the shwe shwe sandals they make. 

They also have an interesting link to some of the Xhosa names for some of the popular patterns used and what they mean. Now I know that the fabric I recently purchased that made me think of spiragraphs, is a pattern called Abantu - which means people. 

Joburg Fashion Kapitol

I read this morning on the Joburg website that the Fashion Kapitol is almost complete.

This has been a long term project as part of the rejuvenation of the inner city, and I am very excited that it is near completion. I think I was last there two or three years ago when then the project was still getting the momentum it needed.

I was happy to read that Bongiwe Walaza has taken space there, as she has done some wonderful things with Shwe shwe, and will soon be making a trip down town to visit this new fashion hub.

In South Africa at the moment there is quite a bit of doom and gloom, but projects like this , that are so clearly invested in the future really brighten my day.

You can read up more about this exciting precinct here - Fashion Kapitol Almost Complete

Rhodes

I have just come back from a wonderful weeks holiday in the little village of Rhodes in the Eastern Cape with some fabulous friends.

I saw quite a bit of shwe shwe wearing in the village, but only managed to get some photos of the ladies at a community enhancement felting and sewing project called 'The Red Barn'.

Two of the women sewing lovely woolen scarves outside the barn in the sun had red shwe shwe skirts on. The scarves were being constructed with such lovely local wool, I almost expected to see some of the sheep in in the fields in town at the end of their balls of wool.

Outside of Rhodes is another sewing project that several women within the area contribute to. They had several quilts (that would be better suited to outdoor picnic blankets I think), one of them had many red shwe shwe inserts.

Fly Away Shwe Shwe Birds

The Wren - whose gorgeous shwe shwe bags I have mentioned before has made the lovliest little bird pouches made from remnant shwe shwe and other fabrics.

They are so lovely thought, that the moment she puts them up on her esty shop they fly away as fast as their wings can carry them to other peoples homes.

I have heard that there are more on the way, so I will keep my beady birds eye on The Wrens blog and the etsy page and see if I can make one of them mine.

(hopefully before then I can remember the number for my Internet Banking log in - a silly sequence of numbers I can type without thinking, but stopped to think while typeing it yesterday and now like the Wrens lovely birds, that number has flown away from my grasp. Even my sub conscious mind tried to capture it, as I dreamt about it several times last night. When I remember it I can transfer some funds to my credit card for happily well deserved shwe shwe bird purchases )

Spirals and Stripes

I bought some great new shwe shwe at my favourite store Arthur Bales in Linden last week.

I love the spirals because they remind me of the spirograph I used to love playing with as a child. My nephew and niece recently got one too, and I got to relive some of the fun while showing them how to use it.

The stripes are quite unusual for a shwe shwe pattern, so I had to get them too.

I think  I might cover the cushions of the morris chair on my front veranda with these two fabrics . I had originally thought I would use the fabric to make reusable gift bags, but when they started measuring it out I succumbed and asked for two more meters of each for possible cushion covers.

Madiba Shwe shwe Aprons

Two of my neighbours kids had their birthdays recently.  Birthdays for some of these kids are very different from the  birthdays of  my nephew and niece (In scenario one my niece  got to choose to a nother real live pony as a present  as well as a smothering of gifts and a very inappropriate amount of money in each card  at her birthday party that all the screaming girls counted up at the end.   In scenario two, Clinton who who is of the same age  got a school jersey for winter as his gift, which was a bit of a luxury as he goes to high school next year, and so needs whole new school uniform next year anyway)

When I asked one set of neighbours what I could contribute to a birthday they asked if it was possible to get a cake ( One, small cake - as his only treat)

I normally bake with these children  from time to time anyway so I invited both of them and their siblings to come and bake and decorate their own cakes on Saturday.

Here in this picture are Nandio, Fiona and Lebsie  wearing  some of my collection of Shwe shwe Madiba aprons. They were for sale at most Pick and Pay stores a while ago and I bought one in every colour and pattern. Even though you can only wear one apron at a time, I often have several bodies in my kitchen helping out, and they made lovely gifts, so I could justify buying one of each.