Knitting & Stitching Show - Spring 2014 at Olympia

Well if you follow me on Twitter or Instagram you will have seen that last Saturday I had myself a lovely time at the Spring 2014 Knitting & Stitching Show.

"Have Trolley = WILL shop!!"

The Spring venue is at Olympia, a mere hour journey time from my East London abode - so how could I resist. I attended last year (not blogged - opps!) and thoroughly enjoyed myself, so I pre-booked my tickets online for this year's soiree too.

Unfortunately, I missed out on booking the Collar-making workshop. But, I might attend the Autumn 2014 show in Alexandra Place and attend it then instead.

I took my trusty trolley with me (as I had a sneaky suspicion that I'd come home laden down with wares)... it's never hardly-ever let me down. And, I did indeed manage to fill 'er up :)

I also managed to catch up with Roisin of Dolly Clackett and her lovely friend Lauren (Third Row Centre). Roisin even managed to find the perfect fabric for her wedding-dress (and it's beautiful!).

I entirely missed Stevie from Beebee's Vintage Dress though... :( !

But, I did see the very delightful Claire-Louise from The Thrifty Stitcher (I do hope that your back gets better soon CL!!). And, sewing is a small world - as we both know Melissa from FehrTrade, and Melissa is a tutor of the Breton Tee, Leggings and Posh Pants classes at The Thrifty Stitcher studio :)

So, what did I buy... here's the pics!!

And, I got to meet Charlotte & Victoria from By Hand London too (note to self - should've got them to autograph my pattern - doh!).

Cottage Patchwork 
2m of Cream & Polka Dot/Spots (£10/m)
½m of Blue & Polka Dot/Spots (£10/m)
FQ (Fat Quarter) of Cream & Anchors (£2.50)
FQ of Blue Floral & Cherries (£2.50)
3 of Wooden Letters S-E-W (£0.80 each)

Favourite Fabrics 
1.5m each of 3 colours: Cream, Blue, Pink - Sewing Machine/Tools/Notions Print (£6.99/m)

Fabrics Galore
1.5m of Grey/Wine-Red Striped Jersey (£4/m)
2m of Dark Blue Chambray (£7/m)
1.5m of Light Sea-Green Blue Polka Dots/Spots (£6/m)
1.5m of Multi-Striped Jersey (£4/m)

Manor House Magazines
6 copies of Australian Stitches Magazine (I think I wiped out their stocks of that title for Saturday LOL!).

They are the only place I've ever found in the UK that stocks this magazine (yay!). They also seem to have a bunch of other crafting titles too.

I bought these issues:
Vol 21: No 7, No 8 & No 9.
Vol 22: No 3, No 4 & No 5.

Coleshill Accessories
2 of Leather Small Scissor Cover/Case (£1.50 each)
Purple Thread Cutter (to hang around your neck) (£3.99 - I think, can't remember!)
Small Scissors (£3.95)

By Hand London
Georgia Dress - Pattern (£14.00)
It includes a very cute little fabric-label that you can include with your me-made dress!

Phew! That's my NOT so little lot of shopping :)

P.S. In other news.... I DID finish my little grey top in time (took me until 2.30am in the morning - due to some silly user errors... but more on that when I blog about it soon) :)

   

Please ignore the "weird" bumps at my waist in the photo on the right-hand side! That's from my chucky leather belt holding up my me-made (unblogged) skirt underneath LOL!! ;)

Mini Dress Form... Decorative (Not Functional!)

Plastic Mini-Dressform

I bought this dinky plastic mini-dress form for a couple of quid from eBay, and it arrive this week in the post. From top of shoulders to bottom of body (hem-level I guess?) she's approx. 11cm (4¼") tall.

But check out the serious sway-back (Lordosis) on her (see pic on the top left) !!

Image Source: http://yisforyogini.com/baby-got-sway-back/

Luckily she's only an ornamental addition to decorate the shelves in my sewing room, so her postural problems aren't an issue (LOL!).

I'm thinking about making her a little cover out of Calico or maybe cream-coloured twill, along with some black design-lines to mimic professional dress forms. Perhaps to emulate the effect of an Alvanon form? Or a PGM one?

Image Source: PGM

The style/design-lines on the dress form in the photo below would be very useful on a me-sized dressform (and look cute on my mini-one too methinks).

Image Source: ThreadsMagazine.com

Goldhawk Road Meet-Up: Saturday 3rd August 2013

One of the name-badges I printed off for us :)!

Well, what a wonderful, friendly and happy bunch of people everybody was today! I think it was more than simply the lovely sunshine we've been blessed with recently in the UK that made us all smile. And, perhaps it was the allure of the fabric lovelieness to be had in the stores of Goldhawk Road, but the meet-up that I'd originally announced back in April was a definite success. And, it's all down to you guys who attended and made it such a fun day to be on. I always hold fast that it is the people that make the meet-up, and I loved meeting everyone today (I hope that you did too?) :).

Sewing fans gathering outside of Goldhawk tube station

Here's the list of our splendid attendees... we had 37 folks in total - including a lovely young lady (a Niece joining her Auntie) who picked up some goodies to enjoy her new sewing skills on. We also had x1 bloke... who I have now officially changed his moniker to "Roisin's Boyfriend" (aka the artist formerly known as "Nic"). Plus, some visitors from abroad... we had Wendy who came over from Luxembourg just for this meet-up, and Rachel from Australia who's been over in the UK for several weeks. Special thanks to Kat for being Vice-President in charge of issuing the name-stickers :) 

Alison – Another Little Crafty Creation	Ally – London Calling	Amy – Almond Rock
Carys	Charlie – This Blog Is Not For You	Daniela – Ela Sews and Doesn't Sleep
Diane – Marguerite Designs	Dibs – Dibs and the Machine	Emma – My Oh Sew Vintage Life
Iris	Jamila	Jenny
Jo - Sew Much Choice	Kat – KraftyKat	Kat – Chasing Wool
Katy – Sleek Silhouette	Katy – I, of the needle	Lorna
Melissa – Fehr Trade	Mellie – Mellie's Workroom	Penelope – GreenPea
Rachel – My Messings	Rachel – A Study In Stitching	Roisin But it can't be from Dolly Clackett. She gave me an Easter egg!
So-Ha – unlabelled clothes	Susan – starryfishathome	Thread Carefully (2-ladies – a joint blog: Aileen & Louise)
Tania - Feel the fear… and sew it anyway	Tanya	Thea – Thea's adventures in Sewingland
Vicki - Vicki Kate Makes	Wendy	Zora - Seeds, seams and upcycling

In fact another special thanks goes out to Wendy - for bringing this cute little gift of some very yummy looking Petit Fours by Oberweis all the way from Luxembourg just for little 'ol me! (I was under strict instructions not to open it until I got home hehe! They're now chilling in my fridge waiting for me to enjoy tomorrow - thank you so much Wendy!!!)

  

We started off by meeting up at the tube station just before mid-day, we then headed off for around and hour's worth of fabric-hunting in the shops before reconvening to head down the road for lunch.

Lunch... is another story LOL! When I'd selected the 3rd August for the meet-up date, it was to coincide with Rachel's travel dates. However, as the football fixture dates had not as yet been announced I was blissfully unware that QPR (the local football team for the Shepherd's Bush area) were holding their 1st major home game of the season on the same date (epp!). I'd visited the area in person earlier this week on Wednesday to scout out potential lunch venues... but I was having no luck (what with everywhere expecting to be overrun with beer-swilling football-mad blokes LOL!). The last place I tried was the LIZ CAFE (at 7 Goldhawk Road, Shepherd's Bush, London W12 8QQ), it was last on my list as it was a brand-new place and I've never visited there before. I spoke with the nice young man behind the counter and left my details. They were very diligent and called me back the same day. Thursday I popped back-in to meet the lady Manageress to discus the details... and bingo - our lunch venue was reserved & sorted (yes - I'd stressed myself a bit over that one ;)!!).

LIZ CAFE (at 7 Goldhawk Road, Shepherd's Bush, London W12 8QQ

Summer dresses galore!  From: Thread Carefully, and VickiKateMakes

Well, we all had a really great lunch at LIZ CAFE today. They were brilliantly helpful and accommodating to our happy (but noisy) gathering of friends (which is great when you consider that I'd only made the reservation for our large group at such short-notice 2 days beforehand). We were all very happy with the food (excellent), and the family team made us very welcome indeed. I for one will definitely be back for more, and I can see it as a great place for future sewing meet-ups (or meet-ups of any kind). In fact I'd 100% recommend them to anyone visiting the fabric shops in Goldhawk Road; or for anyone in the Shepherd's Bush area. The warm atmosphere, and great experience would make you believe that this little gem has been here forever, but it has only been open less than 2 months - the fact that they have built such a great cafe and lovely service in that short time-period shows that hard work and customer-service is paramount to the family at Liz Cafe. (This may sound like a sugar-coated review to some - but I genuinely think that they are great, and a fab alternative to all the "big-chain" coffee/food places out there... so I say visit them if you can if you're in the area.)

After we'd munched down on out tasty treats, it was time to clear the tables - and get out the goodies we're brought along to swap with everyone else. With 37 people, that a helluva lotta stuff (LOL!). So, as per the previously established process back in April and June - we laid out all of our swap items out on the tables. 1 for fabric, 1 for patterns, and 1 for notions/wool/etc.

Then on the count-down of 3-2-1, everyone gets to mingle freely and take home some lovely new-to-them items (yay - what's not to love!!?). 

The fabric swapping table!

Melissa brought a HUGE box of patterns with her to giveaway (see the 1st photo in her post here). I had 7 pieces of fabric with me, some Machine Embroidery thread spools and one solitary little dress pattern. One piece of mine was 9+ metres of chocolate brown Viscose jersey which got divided up into 4 pieces for different ladies to enjoy ;)!

The pattern & notions swapping table!

The only rules for the swapping (apart from no-elbowing allowed hehe!) were that at the end of le-grande swap that anything we'd personally brought along with us that was not claimed by a new owner either got taken home by the bring-ee, or it got donated to the charity shop. In this case the nearby FARA Charity Shop on Uxbridge Road in Shepherd's Bush (my thanks to Jenny and Zora for their help in carrying the donations over to FARA with me).

I picked up 2 pieces of cotton fabric at the swap: some red with multi-coloured polka dots, and some navy blue with large white stars.

And this morning I made another Pressing Ham (can you tell... I've not finished sewing my label on LOL!), plus an extra-large one I'd made a few weeks back - so show 'n' share with a few ladies :). I wanted to get some opinions on the size and shape from my fellow sewists.

More homemade Pressing Hams :)

I felt positively virtuous purchase-wise, as below are the only bits I actually paid for today: some white 100% cotton with black polka-dots, that I plan to re-make my top with, a bunch of zips (from 30p - 50p each), and some yellow polycotton bias-binding for 50p/metre.

My only bought items: Zips, Polka Dot Cotton Fabric, Bias Binding

Saving Goldhawk Road...

Whilst today our merry band has enjoyed the fabric-fruits of the stores on Goldhawk Road - this pleasure may not last very much longer. Half the shops are under threat from developers - see the campaign against this at their Facebook page 'SAVE 30-52 GOLDHAWK ROAD FROM DEMOLITION', plus this article in the Fulham & Chronicle - 'Inquiry to scrutinise compulsory purchase of Shepherd's Bush Market' (and also Melissa's great post here).

NEW BOOK! Couture Sewing - The Couture Cardigan Jacket, Claire B. Shaeffer

Image Source: Amazon

Eeek, I've done it again! I've just pre-emptively added to my ever burgeoning sewing-book library AGAIN!

The reknowned Ms. Shaeffer has added a new title to her Couture Sewing series of books... this time it's a tome about that timeless classic The Chanel Cardigan Jacket called:

Couture Sewing - The Couture Cardigan Jacket,

by Claire B. Shaeffer
ISBN ISBN-10: 1600859550

ISBN-13: 978-1600859557

To quote the description from Amazon:

Quote: "If you want to make a jacket with the impeccable look of Chanel, this is the book to have. The Couture Cardigan Jacket presents sewing methods Claire Shaeffer developed based on her knowledge of haute couture construction and meticulous research studying original Chanels in museum archives and her own collection.  Via the DVD, Shaeffer instructs readers in essential techniques such as cutting and shaping the jacket sections, princess seaming, quilting, making the 3-piece sleeve, adding the chain weight, creating the double buttonhole, and more. Where there is a trick or shortcut for an operation (without lowering the quality) Shaeffer demonstrates it, along with a host of sewing methods discovered via careful and meticulous study of Chanel originals. The package is a perfect mix of instruction and insight into the complex design-details that make a Chanel a Chanel." Unquote.

The publication date is November 2013 in the UK, and October 2013 in the US.

Other Books by Claire
Claire Shaeffer has written many other books, much beloved by the sewing community, for instance the Claire Shaeffer's Fabric Sewing Guide, and the Couture Sewing Techniques, Revised & Updated.

I'm particularly fond of the now OOP (out-of-print) Complete Book of Sewing Short Cuts - which I feel is like an earlier predecessor to the popular modern book PatternReview.com: 1000 Clever Sewing Shortcuts and Tips

The Complete Book of Sewing Shortcuts - One of my favourite books!

Couture Sewing Patterns
Plus, Gertie (and other sewists / bloggers) rave about the excellent details given in her range of commercial sewing patterns with Vogue too. Some people like Julie even collect all the patterns she's ever produced too. 

In fact, I wonder if the publication of her new book this Autumn will coincide with the release of a new french-cardigan style jacket pattern à la Chanel? Or, if this new book will demonstrate the couture-style technqiues using her currently in print pattern no. V8804, it'll be an interesting read either way I'm sure?

Vogue Pattern: V8804
Image Source: Amazon

Thoughts On Classes...
The new book will come with a DVD too - which is great, as some techniques are so much better seen "live". I'm guessing that this will be the next-best-thing verses a real-life class on making this kind of jacket - which is what Amy at Almond Rock did earlier this year. Or, it'd make a great accompaniment to anyone attending a class too (or is it too early to say a great Christmas present????...... LOL!). Marina at Frabjous Couture had a series of posts detailing her couture jacket course with Susan Khalje which make for an interesting read. And, BurdaStyle have a great blog post where Marina summarizes her course experience too.

Birmingham Meet-Up: Saturday 15th June 2013

Please forgive my tardiness in posting this write-up!
It's nearly 2 weeks since the lovely day happened, and time just flew away with me (bad, bad Claire!!!)

One of the entrances to Birmingham's Rag Market

Well now, what can I say that hasn't already been said better by my 2 comrades in arms Kat 'n' Marie? Not much I'll warrant LOL!

We came, we met, we wore cute brooches (especially made by Kat and Marie), we swapped, shopped, the sunshine was gorgeous and we ate made baked goodies! What's not to love? :)

Below are a few photos I remembered to snatch during a busy 'n' fun-filled day, plus a few borrowed from other bloggers too (all duly credited to the original sources). For a great run-down of folks see the huge list below :) - where possible the links will go straight to their own blog-post about the meet-up day in Birmingham.

Alana - Lazy Stitching	Deborah - DFabrication	Louise - Thread Carefully
Amy - Almond Rock	Emma - My Oh Sew Vintage Life	Mellie - Mellie's workroom
Anna - Get Crafty	Erica	Rachel - A Study in Stitching - &  mum Liz
Caroline Bones - Cotton Heiress	Hannah - Hugs and Kisses	Rachel - Layer, Stitch, Repeat and The Hollywood Sew
Caroline B. & her daughter Phoebe	Helen - Helen Made	Rose - Strange Notions
Caroline N.	Jo - The Amazing Adventures of Taracat	Sabs - Tybalt: king of cats
Carys	Julia - The secret life of seams	Sarah - Not Found
Claire - I want to be a turtle	Karen	Tanya
Charlotte - English Girl At Home	Lara - Dreaming of Avonlea	Zora - Read all about it
Charlie - Charlie Says Sew

The day was very well structured - thanks to the organisation set in place by Kat , Marie, (& yours truly LOL!). Folks met up at Birmingham New Street station in the morning, then the sewing-troops decamped to Barry's Fabrics. There, we enjoyed browsing and shopping the huge warehouse of great fabrics (sorry they don't sell online peops). Here I was clearly seduced by the super 10% off they'd offered to our merry band as a fair few metres of fabric made their way home with me.

Inside of Barry's Fabrics  - this is only part of the store - it's huge!

Fabrics bought at Barry's where starting middle-left working around clockwise:

Floral 100% cotton, Polyester-Viscose Mustard Yellow Twill, 100% White Cotton (Medium Weight), 100% Cotton Polka Dot, 100% Cotton White/Blue Checked, and 100% White Cotton Lawn. (The floral fabric reminded my of the first ever dress I made from a Prima Magazine pattern when I was 15 or 16 years old - I may even try to reproduce it LOL!)

Items bought at Barry's Fabrics

Close-up pic of the floral cotton & the mustard twill

I also picked up 4 spools of polyester Gutermann 'Sew All' thread in subtly different shades of cream / off-white, as I don't know about you but I never seem to have just the right shade of cream thread when I need it. So, they'll be a handy addition to my thread stash.

After eating our yummy lunches at 'Cafe Soya', we cleared the decks on 2 large tables in preparation for Le grande Swap. We had one whole table dedicated just to fabric, and another for patterns, and yet a third table for notions, magazines & other sundry crafting bits 'n' bobs.

Unlike, previous smaller meet-up gatherings where everyone takes individual turns to pick out "new-to-them" goodies from the vast array; here there was plenty of room for everybody to dive in at the same time :)

   
Pics of all the fabric that I donated to the swap-pile!

Counting down 3-2-1 still the start of the grand-swap!
Photo originally from: Emma at My Oh Sew Vintage Life

Fabric table - ready to swap
Photo originally from: Louise at Thread Carefully

Table full of patterns!Photo originally from: Charlotte at English Girl At Home

I picked up some nice deep pink cotton fabric and a length of red grosgrain ^*ribbon (*which I shall be using to experiment with covering and making my own pattern weights!).

My intension for the swap was not to return home with anything that I'd brought me. And, thanks to Anna who mid-swap volunteered to take home with her unclaimed items, no had to reclaim any unloved swap items. Anna very kindly took the things home to be donated to New Life charity.

We then traipsed around the Rag Market, where I picked up some large cones of overlocker thread, buttons, and some Singer-branded hand sewing needles too (which are for my Mum - who's a bit funny about buying only "Singer" made stuff LOL!) other bits from one of the indoor stalls.

Thread, buttons & needles

Those red button above I thought were bright pillar-box red, but they're more of a lurid flourescent orange red... oh well! That's what you get for examining colours indoors under artifical lighting LOL!

At the outdoor fabric stalls I picked up 2 metres of a lovely soft drapery petrol-petrol-blue fabric with dark-cream polka dots (a few other ladies we're taken with it's charms, and also bought it too).

Mmmmmm.... polka-dots!

We then reconvened at 4pm outside one of the doorways to the indoor market, we made our goodbyes to some ladies who headed off home on their trains (not before sharing out the cookies and chocolate brownies that I'd baked for the occasion). If anyone wants the recipes - let me know ;) !

Then we headed off to our last stop of the day... the Fancy Silk Store! 4 floors of fabric heaven :) I managed to finally locate a plain non-stretch denim to match up with some beautiful printed denim I received from Karen at the Walthamstow swap in February earlier this year. (I plan to use the printed fabric for back of the pockets, waistband and hem-band on the 'Moss' skirt pattern by Grainline Studio.)

The (new) plain denim matches the patterned denim really well - yay!

I picked up some strong 100% white cotton too (for making more Pressing Hams!).

100% White Cotton, Plain denim & notebook  - from the Fancy Silk Store

And, I was given this natty little notebook and pen too :)

Then, all to quickly for my liking the day was over. Much hugging and fond farewells and bunch of happy tired sewists said goodbye to sunny Birmingham.

I had a lovely long chat on the train home with Julia and Helen. And, it was lovely to meet up with so many friendly and familiar faces again, and to make new friends too.

I can definitely see a return visit to the West Midlands in my future!

If you fancy visiting Birmingham for a sewing/fabric shop yourself - here's a Google Map I put together that may help you :) :-

Fabric & Sewing Shops - Birmingham
A few fabric stores & sewing resources in Birmingham City Centre.
I have listed the following onto this map - you can save the link on your Smartphone to view on the go if you fancy :)! :-

Birmingham New Street - Train Station,

Barry's Fabrics,

Cafe Soya,

Bullring Indoor Market (Rag Market),

and the Fancy Silk Store Ltd.

View Fabric & Sewing Shops - Birmingham in a larger map