WHEN I first met Jo Kanaris, all I could do was turn my sewing machine on.
After a month’s sewing course with this dynamo, I completed a t-shirt quilt, apron, yoga bolster cover and eye pillow, and a towel-bag.
Jo is a full-time machinist at Prea James Bridal making silky garments for that special day, and three nights a week she teaches the Sewing Skills for Everyone course at WEA Illawarra.
I felt like Dale Kerrigan, the youngest son who narrates the classic Australian film The Castle, at my first sewing class.
“Look Jo, I sewed a square,” I said proudly, after she threaded the machine for me.
“That’s good!” Jo said with a smile. She was as stoked for me as Sal and Darryl Kerrigan when their dim-witted son digs a hole.
I can see why Jo’s classes sell out, and why most of the students keep coming back term after term.
No matter how simple or complicated the job, Jo is mad about sewing and super supportive of her students regardless of their level.
“I love it,” she says. “I find it therapeutic, rewarding, fulfilling. It’s not just a job for me, it’s a hobby.”
Some of the students who’ve been with her for years say Jo “knows everything”, and they describe her as “the most experienced sewing teacher in Wollongong”.
Jo’s first sewing memory was as a little girl in her Mum’s sewing room.
“I remember using her scraps and scissors, and cutting holes [in the fabric] for my dolls [arms] before I even got on her machine.”
Mum used to make all of Jo’s outfits.
“We were only allowed to buy one new outfit a year from David Jones, the rest Mum
made.”
Jo’s Mum, Irena Kalvi, is Croatian, and her father, Slobodan Graovac, is Serbian.
They both fled Yugoslavia in 1967 to Paris where they got married the following year.
In 1969 they arrived in Australia by ship. A five-week journey back then.
Jo was born in Wollongong Hospital in 1970.
Her mother recalls the circumstances of Jo’s birth fondly, saying it only cost $1 to taxi from the hospital to their Primbee home (11 km) after Jo was born.
Jo’s Mum is one of her greatest teachers, from whom Jo inherited her sewing talent.
It was at Port Kembla High School that Jo’s sewing genius began to show.
Placing first in Textiles and Design, Jo was the go-to seamstress for her girlfriends.
When they needed to hem their skirts, Jo was the first port of call for alterations which she’d do at school for free.
Paging through Jo’s scrap book of newspaper clippings featuring her clothing and craftwork reveals a colourful life filled with friends, family, fashion and art.
The Family-oriented fabric artist says working a 50-hour week would be impossible without her supportive husband – who was born the day her parents got married in Paris (4/4/1968) – and their two grown-up boys, who are in their 20s.
“If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be able to do so much at night,” Jo says.
“They take the load off at home doing the dishes and cleaning when I do this 6-week [WEA sewing course], and when I have a break, I spoil them.”
WEA Illawarra Sewing Skills For Everyone, Starts this week, 6 sessions for 3 hours, 18:30, $169, WAITING LIST
Photo1: Dawn & Mojo Sew Jo & the t-shirt quilt of awesomeness.
Photo2: Everyone loves Jo: Students Maria, Jo, Tina & Karuna at WEA Illawarra.
Photo3: Jo teaching me how to use an overlocker.
Photo4: Jo & I & my wild yoga bolster cover.
Yoga teacher, skydiver, martial artist and journalist. Yoga keeps her centred and reinforces her core belief that the greatest gift to each of us is ourselves. When Dawn isn’t teaching yoga, she works as a skydive camerawoman, grapples with her mates at Gracie Barra Shellharbour, and does media and promotions for stuff she loves.
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