Perth event photography – sewing for injured wildlife

It is hard to ignore the fact that Australia is on fire. It is also hard not to feel overwhelmed by the enormity of the crisis that faces our country as well as feeling helpless. There are always options to donate money (which we have done) but with donations comes the question of whether the money actually makes it to those in need or does it get caught up in loop holes and red tape?

There is a lovely saying ‘when women circle, great things happen’ and, at the risk of sounding like something from the 1950s, on the weekend of the 10th and 11th of January women around Australia (and probably some men too) came together to make great things happen.

Fall out from the fires

With fires comes loss of life, loss of property and injury to our native Australian animals. While our Country Fire Associations and our Volunteer Fire Brigades are out there battling the flames, the rest of Australia (and the world) is awash with the sound of sewing machines and knitting needles! Crafters around the world have come together to create animal pouches and nests to send to animal welfare groups who are caring for injured animals.

Bernina Sewing Days

There are crafting groups, CWAs and friendship groups running sewing days as well as individuals answering the call for help. Some of us though needed something a little more structured. Bernina offered their WA Cannington Store and Head Office in Wangara for a sew-a-thon on the 10th and 11th of January. Bernina would supply everything, fabric, machines, scissors, the only thing they needed were people!

My eldest daughter (14) and I answered the call Bernina put out for volunteers to come in and sew on the Saturday at the Cannington store and it was lucky we got in early. The response from WA crafters who wanted to help was overwhelming and some people were turned away as there wasn’t space for everyone.

What was sewn and created

Firstly I will say that attendees didn’t need to be able to sew! There was space for knitting, crochet or sewing but if you didn’t have skills in those areas there was cutting to be done or ironing. Really, if you had time there was a job for you!

All of the items that were created were going to the Animal Rescue Craft Guild who have been coordinating the needs of the different wildlife groups around Australia. They update regularly on what is needed. Based on the update we knew that there was a high need for Joey pouches and with each outer pouch needing between 3 and 5 inner pouches we were put to work creating the liners.

The sewing

There were a few ladies who were dedicating their time to cutting out the patterns so those of us who were sewing could just concentrate on sewing and boy did it need concentration. The pattern itself was not complex, it was literally a sack. What kept messing with out head was that everything was backwards, instead of starting with right sides together we started with right sides on the outside and we had to turn all of our hems so that the hems were all on the outside! This was so that when the inner pouches are placed inside the outer pouches the little joeys get to see the pretty part of the fabric which makes sense but tripped up more than a few of us.

Attendees

The ladies working at Bernina on the Saturday estimated that more than 100 volunteers came through over the two days of the sew-a-thon. The days ran from 10-2 and attendees could stay for as long or as little as we wished. My daughter and I stayed for a little over two hours and my daughter and I only managed to sew a dozen pouches between us in that time. I was a little disappointed and thought ’12, that isn’t going to be much help is it?’ Then I realised that while we could only sew 12, if we averaged that to 6 each and there were 100 people attending, that was 600 pouch linings that were potentially created over the 2 sessions. A valuable reminder of the power of working as a collective!

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Final Thoughts

It was fantastic to be a part of this event. I am always so very inspired when I see total strangers coming together to make the world a better place. There were mothers and daughters there, friends, people who had come alone but who you came with wasn’t important. It was 30ish women in a room all working towards a common goal. While the pouches did get sewn (and one lady worked on crocheting a nest) the chatter never stopped. Sadly, (as a totally unsolicited plug) the Bernina machine I was sewing on was absolutely beautiful and a dream to sew with! On the plus side, looking at some of the photos I captured of the day it looks as though it was one of the less expensive models so who knows, Christmas is only 11 and a half months away!