The K.stitch Story
As a young girl, remember going down the corridor to my Granny’s room to help her thread her needle or learn how to knit. We’d listen to stories on the radio and I would look around her room at all the haberdashery bits. I was especially fascinated by her cabinet with 17 felt-lined drawers, each containing something intriguing - bobbins, clasps, buttons….. Granny would make me dresses with ornate smocking or crochet details, often too fancy for a life of running around barefoot and climbing trees on a farm in South Africa.
Then my family immigrated to the UK and Granny moved to a residential home. I never saw her again, but I have her cabinet, handmade by my grandfather.
Peats Ridge Festival
I remember my first sewing machine, pink and white. I must have been about 8 years old. I started with simple drawstrings bags and graduated to altering my own clothes, as I seemed to have stopped growing by age 15! I have remained a petite person ever since. Trousers are always too long and dresses are generally catered for the bustier woman. The more clothes I altered, the more I was fascinated by the tailoring and construction of a garment.
I later moved to Australia and bought the most expensive Pfaff sewing machine in the shop (totally won over by a test drive), and set up as a market stall holder. I called my business “ghurkin” based on a nickname I received at art college as people seemed to think I was often eating pickles….. Back then, I thought this would be a unique and funky name for unique and funky clothing. This would be my vocation spanning over 5 years.
I have sold at various market stalls and festivals in Australia, London and Devon. These include Fremantle, Glebe and Bondi markets in Australia, and Spittalfields and Greenwich markets in London. I had stalls at various music festivals in Western Australia (Peats Ridge), Victoria (Rainbow Serpent) and New South Wales (Bridgetown Blues Festival). My first music festival was in South West Australia and I literally sold every item on my stall and was left with a list of commissions. I had never earned so much money in 2 days and I was on a high.
The cost of being a stallholder in the UK became unrealistic and perhaps my wares were too bright for British climes, my ethics of keeping it handmade a little altruistic for business….? Or perhaps I just didn’t see that I had to change the style from Southern Hemisphere vibrancy to Northern Hemisphere sophistication? Nonetheless, I stopped selling and started to make clothes focused on my ideas rather than marketability and production. The designs became more bespoke and better tailored. I felt amazing wearing my new creations. During the lockdown pandemic, I started an instagram account, designing, making, modelling and photographing my creations alone at home. I called myself K.stich. I wanted to be recognised. Ghurkin became a previous chapter.
My Pfaff has stood the test of time and still runs like a dream 18 years later. Duly knighted, Sir Pfaff has witnessed several chapters of my creative evolution.
My first festival stall - sold out!
Greenwich Market - London
My current chapter is African fabrics because I find them extremely beautiful, vibrant and bold. I look at the motif and I can “see” their potential transformation. My head contains a catalogue of yet to be made ideas. The time I spend transforming these ideas into reality is my happy space, my quiet space, my excited space, and my deep meditation space. It is my authenticity.
I still live in the UK, but I wear African fabrics. Perhaps their colours are in my heart from my upbringing and they certainly combat a grey day any day. Those 17 felt lined drawers lay testimony to humble beginnings as Granny’s needle threader.
Glebe Markets - Sydney
The Chapters of K.stitch
2004 - 2024
