About

Welcome to Old School Stitches.

This store belongs to you, the creative stitchers who have found it difficult to source the products and patterns you need for smocking and heirloom sewing in Australia. I want to partner with you to support, and inspire, and keep this art alive.

My own story starts with my Gran and my great grandmothers – clever women with amazing talents in needlework and sewing – whose innovative techniques and styles have inspired my passion for smocking and needlework. My Gran taught me my first bullion rose when I was 13 and from there I explored different forms of embroidery, falling in love with stumpwork and creating a number of pieces I was honored to have featured in Inspirations magazine.

Like many of you I also love the art of smocking. I love how this form of embroidery has been passed on through centuries of creative women, connecting us to the many who came before. I love how this art has endless possibilities – a new technique to learn, another combination of colour, fabric, style, and design to explore. Each garment really is its own masterpiece.

Most of all, I love that in a fast paced throw-away consumer world, these beautiful garments, slowly embroidered and constructed by hand are lovingly worn, treasured, and passed on through generations developing their own stories and history.

I am not the only one who believes these old school stitches deserve to be preserved, taught, shared and revitalized.