30/05/2021
Our Mum had two passions in life: Fashion and Animal Welfare. In the 70s she sewed outfits to sell to make money to help her and her sister save horses. Mum, a pattern cutter and seamstress, could make a pattern of anything she fancied. Often, she would see something in a shop window and claim she could make it herself, most times she did.
After Mum died from cancer, we had to sort all her stuff. Her sewing room was full of cottons, beads, sequins and half the countries supply of elastic. The room took us a whole afternoon, minus one coffee break, to sort through. Sparkly lacey stuff went to NZ Opera, other stuff went to our local high schools sewing room and the rest to op shops. It gave us plenty to marvel at and laugh over, there were sequins and sparkles everywhere once we had finished.
Our Mum had a huge walk-in wardrobe to herself, our step Dad had been relegated to the wardrobe in the spare room. She had over sixty pairs of shoes and a handbag for every day of the month! Some of her shoes were nearly as old as us, some brand new never worn, some were falling apart and needed to go but the rest we had to figure out what to do with.
So here is our plan: Auction off the best shoes and bags, the fanciest most stunning and prettiest. Give all proceeds to an animal rescue charity HUHA (Helping you help animals). Sleep well knowing our Mum would be smiling in the great beyond.
Twenty-seven pairs of shoes. Seventeen handbags. Two Oroton tops. One punk jacket. One full length coat. One pile of belly dancing jingles. And a vintage Avengers catsuit. 20 hours of organising. All culminating in one amazing fundraiser.
