Goldhawk Road 'n' Golden Girls!

Well this post is a little over a week late in coming LOL! But I really need to document and record all the fun that was had... 2 Saturdays ago on the 20th April Rachel of House of Pinheiro organised a great get together of sewists (do check out her post for a full list of the attendees). We met up at the V & A Museum first for tea and for some great photos that Rachel had arranged for Digpal Singh (a professional photographer) to take. We had non-stop shots of 3/4 people, and then a fab huge group picture too. We were very fortunate to have such a lovely and beautiful backdrop of the 'The John Madejski Garden' with it's lush green grass and beautiful brickwork.

 

Photos by Digpal Singh

          Left:  Massive group photo                                  Right: L-R Camilla, Me & Fiona

I'm wearing a black jersey maxi skirt I finished making on the actual day! I cut down the hem to the right-length 5 minutes before rushing out the door (I'd finished sewing it up a 12.15am in the morning LOL!).

After that we all decamped and made our way across to Goldhawk Road baby!!! 

 

Somehow at South Kensington tube half our group went one route, and the other half (the one I was in with Rachel too) went the other route via the Piccadilly Line. Spookily though, we met up with our other halves on the train we caught at Hammersmith station - and one stop later we had arrived at our destination. 

 

Look at the sun in that sky! There wasn't a cloud in the sky and it was a truly gorgeous, golden day. There were a lot of sunglasses worn fir the first time thus year I'll wager LOL!

 

The plan for the day was to visit the great fabric shops under our own steam in smaller sized groups (the shops aren't huge inside so the 40-50 sewists that Rachel had gathered would certainly not have fitted inside otherwise, hehe!). Then, we all met back up at the Costa Coffee shop next to the station at 2.30pm - where we then trotted off down the road to Cedar Village. Where another kind blogger had booked us the entire place for a fab Lebanese lunch.

Look at the amazing colour on these pickled beetroot pieces (wow!). 

 

Then we descended downstairs to the comfy sofas below to commence the biggest swap I have ever seen! I'd brought only a few bits with me this time, as I was concerned that my infamous pink-trolley might not be permitted inside of the V & A. 

   

We arranged everything we'd brought with us along one side of the room (see video + pics below). Left to right we had fabric + notions + patterns/magazines/books. Here's a video I grabbed below (sorry for the poor quality!)

Then, ladies went up in groups in turns to pick out the items they wanted to take home, and when the dust had cleared everyone had found something new-to-them to take home :)

I know for sure that Miss. Dibs made a bee-line for the striped jersey I brought with me (hehe she sure loves my jersey fabric donations ;) !). 

2 pieces of fabric I brought to the swap, I also brought
a copy of CLOTH Magazine, some buttons, and zips along too.

I reckon that the "patterns" section was the most popular one - with Lizzy from Sew Busy Lizzy bringing a tonne of them with her. Lizzy and Silvia made it an international affair! Plus, check out Karen's funny story about randomly bumping into Silvia (Sewing Princess) and Evie (Pendle Stitches) in Costa Coffee and the 2 ladies then joined us all for lunch.

I brought home these bits some floral cotton fabric (approx. 80cm), a piece of deep-purple silk fabric, a jeans-zip, some buttons and some patterns. Plus, we all got a great goodie-bag from Minerva Crafts. Mine had quilting/patchwork goodies inside. 

 

I picked up a few patterns too... 2 copies of Simplicity 2497 dress. A (Men's ?) Jacket Pattern - Simplicity 2480.

 

Plus, this vintage trouser pattern (Modes des Paris 1282 01) that looks like it's from the 70's. Now either they hadn't discovered Lycra/Elastane as yet - or those trousers look d*mn tight to me (check out the tight wrinkles/lines in the fabric)...

I brought a few wee gifts for our super-hostess as a thank you for organising our brilliant day (pic below): Claire Shaeffer's book: 'The Complete Book of Sewing Shortcuts' (that Rachel had admired from the February 2013 meet-up in Walthamstow), a unused/sealed vintage Dritz Tailor Tacker packet (complete with little replacement chalks), a Magnetic Telescopic Rod (again another item Rachel had admired... don't say I don't ever remember and make a note of these things fold LOL!).

After all the swapping was over we all made our separate ways home - happy, tired and extremely contented. We all made new friends, shopped our little hearts out and spent the day talking sewing-talk with kindred souls :)

As I live in London I decided to quickly sneak into Shepherds Bush Market before it closed for the day as it's opposite Goldhawk Road station. I picked up these few bits below buttons, blue thread (the lightweight denim fabric is 4metres for £6.50/metre that I picked up before lunch at 'A-One Fabrics').

Including my favourite bias binding (which near as darn-it matches my skin-tone) for finishing necklines etc. like on my Scout Woven Tee top. I got 20 metres, which at 30p per metre came only to £6.00 - not too shabby in my book when it costs around £2.45 for 2.5m in John Lewis (eek!), so my bargain market-buy comes in at 70% cheaper than JL LOL!

Plus, look at this cute trolley I spotted on a market stall on my way home... "fabrek" sounds very like "fabric" to me, and the Union Jack flag design made it feel very British 'n' patriotic too... perhaps if my pink one ever gives up the ghost on me I should pop back and buy that one instead eh ;) ?

 

Here's hoping that meet-up in Brighton next month, and Birmingham in June are just as much fun! I've already got some fabric and patterns put a side to bring to the swaps (yay!).

(More photos from this day in my Flickr photostream here.)