About

Hi there, welcome to my little corner of the internet 😊

The short version

My name is Hinerangi (hear that and read about my ancestor). I was born and raised in Aotearoa (“New Zealand”), live in France, and am obsessed with learning and making everything I can.

Currently (re)learning to mend, sew and knit my wardrobe. (Also piano! Rollerkating! Aquascaping! Korean cooking!)

This is some sort of public notebook for documenting stuff I’m learning – because I forget everything I don’t write down, and maybe someone else might find the information interesting.

If you like being social, I sometimes post the things I make on Instagram. I also have a cute dog if you like that kind of thing.

The longer version

I’ve been making things since forever. When I was a kid I’d spend hours drawing or reading, and every birthday or Christmas I was always lucky to receive arty or crafty gifts. I loved school and learning, but not the other kids (severe bullying). I drowned myself in art and thought I’d grow up to be an artist, but ended up becoming a web developer because real life. 🤷‍♀️

No more fast fashion

I stopped buying ready-to-wear clothing in 2014, when I watched China Blue, a documentary about the human cost of fast fashion. It felt very much like a personal failure and I didn’t want to be a part of that.

At the time I mostly only wore dresses, because that’s what fitted me the least worst without expensive alterations – but I had collected so many dresses over the years that my closet was literally bulging (it was one of those fabric-covered bamboo things). It was embarrassing and I knew I had enough clothes to last me for years.

I gave away most of my excellent-condition dresses until I was down to a capsule wardrobe that I wore intensively. Turns out no one actually cares what other people wear, you can repeat the exact same outfit every week and literally no one notices you’ve already worn that 34 times this year.

Learning to sew

I started sewing my own clothes in 2020. It was a distraction from grieving on the wrong side of the planet, and felt like a return to the creative endevours I left behind when I moved to France.

I opened an Instagram account after having made a couple of garments, as a way of documenting my learning and progress in the open. I thought I’d be speaking to the wind, but it quickly became more than that because I met so many lovely people on there.

I learned a lot in a really short time: I started with a t-shirt, then a long-sleeved top, then pants, then a knitted jumper, then socks. It felt awesome to be wearing a whole me-made outfit after only a month or so! Until my husband mentioned that I was almost wearing all me-made: I was still wearing ready-to-wear shoes and underwear… 😝 Challenge accepted! I bought kits to make sneakers (including a pair for him!), and also learned to sew undies and bras.

A new me?

It was exciting to be learning in the open, and I got a lot of help from friends on Instagram. Something completely unexpected to me was that making my own clothes to fit the body I have has completely changed my self perception: I felt great wearing clothes that actually fit me, and I could wear whatever I want! I didn’t have to stick to dresses that were fitted at the bust, cinched at the waist, and flared at the hips.

I gave away my remaining RTW dresses and coat, and only kept activewear and motorcycle clothing (it’s safety gear). I no longer hate my physical appearance (the rest is still a work in progress).

Slowing down

I live in a small apartment, where space is really at a premium – so I still keep a small wardrobe. That meant that I slowed down my sewing projects once I had filled most of my needs. I moved on to slower, more difficult projects like shirts, jeans, and zero waste patterns, and dabbled in other crafty hobbies like punch needle, fabric dyeing and block printing.

My weight started fluctuating and I had to recycle or donate some of my earlier projects, because they no longer fit. And now I’m having to recycle some of the later projects for the same reason! 🤦‍♀️

I took an unexpected break for health reasons and forgot a lot of what I learned. So now I’m back trying to re-learn the things, document properly for future me, and remind myself I’m not as terrible as I think.