My Haul - Walthamstow, Saturday 3rd October 2015

I had the pleasure of visiting the bargain fabric-centre that is Walthamstow last Saturday in a great meet-up organised by the lovely Marilla.

Needless to say I was helpless to resist the wares and came away with quite a few purchases :-)!

There was a fair sized group of ladies in attendance - including Rachel & Kate from the new sewing community site thefoldline.com! If you haven't checked it out yet, then please do.

Here's my haul from the day -->

Saeed's Fabrics: Grey Rib-Knit 1.5m (£6.00/m).

Fabric Store (No. 80 High Street): Dark-Grey Cotton/Lycra Jersey 1.5m (£2.00/m), 3m each of Moss-Green and Navy light-weight woven cotton 3m (£1.00/m), and Navy & White Striped Ponte 1.5m (£2.00/m).

Market Stall: 4x Standard Zips (Blue, Green & Yellow, £1 for 4), and 1x Coral Thread spool (40p).

Beads & Buttons (No. 138): 4x 10" Beige Standard Zips (4 for £1), 3x 14" Beige Standard Zips (3 for £1), and Coral Thread spool 50p.

Fabric Market (shop at No. 134): Medium-weight, dark stretch Denim 6m (£5.00/m).

 

The Textile Centre (No. 223-225): 
Lots of light-weight printed Viscose's, all £2.20/m - 1.5m each of: Blue & Hearts, Black & Birds, Blue & Birds and *Aqua Blue Cameras. (*I also picked up 3m on behalf of Vicki too.)

I also got a quick pic in of me, my infamous pink-trolley and Saeed (of 'Saeed Fabrics' shop no less).

On the day I wore one of my latest me-mades, my 6th version of the 'Deer and Doe' FREE 'Plantain' T-Shirt pattern. And, yes I know - I've been a bad, bad blogger - I should've posted about the 5x other Plantain tee that I've made already (and the 7th & 8th that I finished earlier this week too haha!). I love this pattern it's definitely a TNT (tried 'n' true) one for me now!

Happy sewing peops!

What's Your Weirdest Non-Sewing, Sewing Gadget?

Image Source: Amazon.co.uk

Tell me... are you guys like me? Are you always happy to see and learn about nifty new-to-you sewing notions? I know that I am! I particularly love my vintage Vanguard buttonholer attachment - it made gorgeous buttonholes on my Grainline Alder Shirtdress last year.

I've even been known to make a few things myself (e.g my pressing hams and holders here and here, pattern-weights) or come up with different uses for everyday objects (like my laptop-stand to overlocker tilt-table)!

But, how do you feel about using the weird 'n' wonderful to aid your sewing?

On the list of "weird things I've bought for sewing" an Inclinometer must be right up there!

I saw this bit of builder's equipment used in my current issue of Threads Magazine. (No. 178 - May 2015). The gadget is on Page 44 as part of the 'Prepare Patterns for Fit' article. The article describes it as an 'Angle Locator', and it shows you how to use one to measure an individual's actual shoulder slope. You can then transfer those angles onto your bodice pattern to exactly match your own body.

Screenshot From: Wikipedia

It seems there are quite a number of free mobile phone apps that should also perform the same level-gauge/angle finding duties. I'm not quite sure how accurate those would be so I shall be sure to do a comparison and to share my findings with you guys when my new toy arrives :-)!

For £3.73 on Amazon (I have their Prime service so delivery is free - yay!) it seemed an inexpensive purchase and I'm intrigued to see if it will help resolve a slight sloping-shoulder fitting issue that I believe that might have :-)

So, come on let's share! What's the weirdest non-sewing, sewing gadget that you own or have ever used?

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!! ;)

HAM-TASTIC GIVEAWAY - WINNERS ANNOUNCED!!!

...and the 2 lucky winners of the GIVEAWAY are UK commentor No. 21 Alexandra who blogs over at Alexandra and the Cuckoo Clock and International commentor No. 29 - Candace who blogs over at Sad Sewista.

Congratualtions Ladies! I've sent you an email requesting your postal address so I can send your fab new goodies to you :) And I'll be emailing you photos of your fabrics available to make your individual-selections from - so that I can make you the custom-made, specially commissioned Tailors Pressing Ham of your heart's desire!

And if you sadly missed out on this opportunity to win a Tailor's Pressing Ham and Pressing Ham Holder... then please do keep a keen eye out for new posts on my blog in early February 2014 for some exciting news about how you might be able to get your hands on your own special set of pressing tools to add to your arsenal of sewing notions 'n' tools ;)!!!

MY HAM-TASTIC GIVEAWAY!!!

Comments are now closed guys - the winners of the Giveaway will be announced tomorrow evening (Sunday 19th January 2014). My thanks to everyone who entered!

As promised a couple of days ago I'm holding a Giveaway to celebrate my 3rd Blog-i-versary. So, if you fancy winning a some fab sewing stuff then please enter here! 

There are 2-sets of sewing-items to Giveaway :)
1 for a UK Winner, and 1 for an International Winner.

  
  And here's the list of goodies in my special sewing-bundle of fun :)

  1. A really useful mini 'Repositionable Tripod' great for your sewing and craft photos.
       (The Camera is NOT included LOL!)

  2. A pair of lovely sharp Thread Snips - just perfect to keep right next to your sewing machine.

  3. A packet of Milward Between Hand Sewing Needles.   
  4. A Tailor's Pressing Ham - approximately 24cm long x 14cm wide x 12.7cm tall (9½ x 5½ x 5 inches).
  5. And, finally Tailor's Pressing Ham Holder - to hold your lovely new Ham!

     BTW - The items 4. + 5. are hand-made by yours truly!
 

  Here's how to enter the GIVEAWAY... 

   ENTRIES WILL CLOSE ON SATURDAY 18th JANUARY 2014 AT 5.00PM UK TIME. ENTRIES ARE ELIGIBLE FROM BOTH UK AND INTERNATIONAL READERS. THE WINNER'S NAME WILL
  BE DRAWN AT RANDOM. THE WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED ON SUNDAY 19th JANUARY 2014!

 

  1. Please leave a comment in this post below + state if you are in the UK or Internationally based :).

  2. Please, please ensure that I am able to contact you if you're a lucky winner! Make sure
     that your comment is associated to your blog/profile. If you want to leave an email address in
     your comments feel free to do so - but to reduce the chances of you receiving tonnes of spam to your inbox, please
    post it in the style: name[at]domain[dot]com.

  3. [OPTIONAL] Oh, and do please share what you're planning to sew for your first project of 2014!

PLEASE NOTE: That if I cannot easily find your email address

then you shall NOT be eligible to enter the Giveaway (sorry!)

And, the cool thing is... I'll custom-make your Pressing Ham in fabrics of your choice :) I'll email photos of swatches and colours to the winners. (The Hams in the photos are just a couple of examples of Hams I've already made.)

Good luck everybody! 

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).

Work-In-Progress: 'LOOPHOLE B' Top from the 'Pattern Magic: Stretch Fabrics' Book

Just a quickie to show you what I'm working on :)
The last 2 Saturdays in June I've been on a course at Morley College (more about that to follow when I post pics of the finished top!).

It's a knit top from the Pattern Magic: Stretch Fabrics by Tomoko Nakamichi.

This is what it looks like in the sample-photos from the book:

 

I've cut out the fabric today, and I hope to get it sewn up on my overlocker this evening (or tomorrow).

Should Be Feeling Warm 'n' "COZY" Soon...

Can you guess what I've been up to today... ;) ? Something in my sewing room should be feeling warm 'n' cozy soon enough LOL!

Much fiddling with tracing paper, scraps of calico and basting in by hand with a zipper.

Other Random Stuff...
I wanted to share this paper-bag from the William Gee shop (which I blogged about before here). I love the old-fashioned wording e.g. "Synthetic Cottons" clearly when this was printed thread must chiefly have been available in Cotton verses the modern prevalence of Polyester thread readily sold nowadays. And, "Zip Fasteners" it's almost as if they have to remind customers that the purpose of a zip is to fasten something together (hehe).

Plus, (this one is aimed at UK-residents) can you spot that the telephone number shows a very, very old area-code for London? Yup, "01", according to Wikipedia the 01 code was assigned to London in 1959, and stopped being used in May 1990. So, the paper bags (which seemed to be in plentiful supply at the shop counter) must be at the very minimum 23 years old... I'd say more likely 30-40+ years old. Talk about buying ahead in bulk huh!?! :)

Brighton Meet-Up: The Day I Went Dotty in Ditto!

 

...well now, I'm feeling very remiss as I should learn to post up about meet-ups as soon as possible after they happen (this is now a week after the event itself - my bad!).Last Saturday was the great Brighton meet-up, and the sun decided to come out to play with us. As did reams of tourists and fun-makers attending a very lively festival (the streets were certainly crowded with happy faces soaking up the sunshine and atmosphere).

 

Myself, Zora and Jo met up at the allotted time at Brighton station - and then we made our way to All-Bar-One, where we joined Zoe, Stevie who were waiting for us at our reserved table. Later on we were joined by Joanne (no blog) and Rehanon - making 7 happy sewing ladies all together.

En route to the bar we side-lined quickly to the North Laine Antiques and Flea Market (on Upper Gardner Street). There were a bunch of stallholders selling fabric, vintage notions, one stall had a teenie tiny antique sewing machine on it (see below centre-right pic). There was a stall with very random looking fabrics, another with vintage notions, and a couple of old sewing machines lurking too LOL!

 

 

 

Zora picked up some great printed hessian sacks for only £2.00 a piece - she's going to re-purpose them for cushion-covers in her kitchen.

 

We had a lovely lunch, followed by a very civilized swapping session (not as overwhelming as the size of the stash at the recent Goldhawk Road meet up, but just as much fun!).

 

I acquired some lovely things, and I hope that the things I brought to giveaway are feeling equally loved as my new goodies are :) I got a great top pattern from Zoe - Simplicity 2593 (a Cynthia Rowley design). The cute red "oh deer" fabric (v. Christmassy!) I got from Joanne (I'm thinking collar/cuff trims), and the lovely Mustard-ey Yellow knit fabric is courtesy of Stevie.

The top pattern intrigued me when I spotted it - because the neckline finish kind of reminded me of a Roland Mouret dress in check (plaid) that Keira Knightley wore back in 2005. "One-day" (in the very distant far-off future), I intend to sew my own version of this dress - but the way to re-create the neckline had eluded my little grey-cells. Hopefully, the pattern instructions for 2593 will give me inspiration LOL! (Vogue Pattern 8280 which I already own will be the main body/basis for my knock-off.)

 

Image Sources: Left - Simplicity.com , Right - film.com

This 1971 pattern in the swap pile (we all thought it looked very Margot Leadbetter from The Good Life) didn't come home with me though ;)

After the swapping was over, myself and Zora whizzed off to the local Oxfam charity-shop to [as now is customary after a sewing-swap] drop-off the items that no one wished to take home with them. This way nothing should end up and landfill, and we also get to "pay it forward" somewhat too. We then swiftly made our way back to catch up with the remaining ladies at the New Fabric Fair shop (a small but crammed to the rafters emporium - not v. trolley friendly LOL!), before wandering down to the fabulous Ditto Fabrics (on Kensington Gardens). It's at Ditto that I succumbed to these lovely dotty-spotty polka-dot lovelies for sale by the proprietress Gill. I bought 5-pieces, plus some felt (which I intend to make a needle-book for my Mum to match the Knitting-Needle Roll I made for her at Christmas)

  

We then popped into the Brighton Sewing Centre, where Zora picked up some awesome giant-sized ric-rac, and I got this zig-zag, chevron-effect black and white fabric in a fat-quarter (I'm not a patch-worker/quilter, but I think that buying a small piece of fabric that "calls" to you to keep in your stash is a) cheaper, and b) more space saving - than buying a couple of metres that you may never-ever use LOL!). By this time just Zora and I were left - with the other sewists having peeled off to their own devices (or to make their way home). So, we walked Westwards back into the more High Street end of town to check out C & H Fabrics (where I picked up my second fat-quarter of the day - with thread spools/reels!). 

 

And, we also just managed to slip into Fabric Land just as they were closing where I grabbed  a couple of metres of this blue coloured elephant fabric (so now I can emulate one of Winnie's make and sew a cute blouse for myself :) ).

  

I also grabbed a pen and stencil set - as I want to experiment with writing words on fabric that hopefully do not wash out! And, I got a pair of tweezers for £1 from TIGER - great for removing stitches that the seam-ripper leaves behind LOL!

I've also updated my Google Map of Brighton sewing/fabric places too in case anyone wants to visit by themselves :)

Here's hoping that Birmingham (in 3 weeks!), and London in August are just as much fun if not more!!