A step-by-step guide to making your own hot water bottle cover using wool fabric scraps or an old blanket. A much better solution than the synthetic options found in mega stores! We used offcuts from our Staple Blankets.

We use deadstock fabric for our Staple Blankets and some came from fabric that was a different dimension to our other colourways. This meant there was a leftover strip of fabric from each roll. Naturally, we didn’t want this to go to waste, so we’ve kept it aside and are now making plans…

Manaaki Kapiti was formed by Atiawa ki Whakarongotai iwi in December 2021, and is an inspiring example of a group of people getting stuck in and doing the mahi that needs to be done to support communities. We were lucky enough to be introduced to Manaaki Kapiti when they ordered 60 medium staple blankets through the Sustainability Trust Ecoshop in July.

When we started shaping together what CommonKind could be, we spoke to people who work with vulnerable children in our community. We chatted with Grace about her experience as a children’s nurse and how vulnerable under six-year-olds specifically are to the cold.

The Nest Collective started in February 2021 with one common vision - to see all New Zealand babies given a great start in life. We spoke to Natalia from The Nest Collective about what they do and why they do it!

The first community organisation sharing our blankets with Kiwi families is Wesley Community Action based in Porirua. We had WCA in mind for our first organisation well before we had any blankets to give - which is why it feels so exciting to have handed over 20 blankets to them last week!

We’ve got notes from some of our first conversations about what would one day become CommonKind and despite so much changing, the key to our ‘why’ remains the same - warmth should be accessible to everyone. We’re starting with one hundred blankets.