McClure is a family name.
My great-grandfather came to New Zealand from Ireland in the early 1900s as a preacher. He eventually settled in Australia with my great-grandmother and raised a family, including my Nanny.
My Nanny was strong-willed, fiercely loyal to her family, and the sort of woman who did what needed to be done. She and my Pa raised her family on a farm up North and knew how to make things work with what she had.
Before she died, she gave me her sewing machine - an old 1980s Bernina. It isn't fancy, but it is solid, reliable and still does exactly what it needs to do. It's the machine I used to sew the first McClure pattern.
In a way, that feels like the right place to start.
McClure is about making something good out of what already exists. I don't want to create more textile waste just to make something new. I want to use fabrics that have already had a life - an old wool blanket, a piece of canvas, a worn-in textile that is too good to throw away - and give it another one.
There's a bit of Ireland in the name, a lot of New Zealand in what I make, and a family history of making do, making things last, and making something useful with what you've got.
That's what McClure means to me.