Teddy in tatters? Doll in disarray? Never fear – help is at hand.
Clever seamstress Jess Thompson is the latest volunteer to offer her skills at the Motueka Repair Café, providing fixes for torn teddies and soft toys that have lost eyes or buttons.
“The ‘dog got him’ kind of accidents,” she summarises.
The Motueka local has helping on the front counter for about six months, and when a little girl called in late last year with a torn toy horse, Jess was finally emboldened to put her Toi Whaakari costume design skills into practise.
“So I performed surgery,” she says with a laugh.
After that impromptu repair, her mother Joanne, herself a skilled creative, handed her a set of toy eyes and noses and encouraged her to “get in there” while she was already volunteering.
Jess is now offering up her expertise to help with “any kind of soft toy that needs repair or refurbishment”, she says.
While most comfortable with a needle and thread, she is happy to discuss any sort of repair to see how she might be able to help.
The draw of the repair café is twofold for Jess – being able to give back to the community is part of the appeal, and so is the sharing of skills. “I think that’s huge.”
Having grown up around the corner from a doll hospital and with her grandmother Fay still creating magic in Motueka’s Crafty Tarts, Jess has plenty of examples of what a deft hand with a needle can achieve.
A long-standing Matthews Eyecare employee, Jess will join the other repairers this month, adding her expertise to the line-up which includes knife sharpening, clothing repairs, leatherwork, bike mending and small electrical fixes.
The next repair café will be held at Te Noninga Kumu-Motueka District Library on Saturday, 21 February, 10am-1pm.
