It might be time for me to admit I have a fabric buying problem as, as if buying a load of fabric and swiping winning a load in the stash swap at SewBrum, last weekend I found myself on a train to London at an ungodly hour* to meet up with some really rather lovely sewists and explore Walthamstow Market.

This week’s stash of sewists [and if that’s not the collective noun, it should be!] were all members of a group on the wonderful forum The Foldline. The group is united not just by our love of sewing but also by our age; we’re all 20-something sewers *cough* just in my case *cough*.

When I finally got to London, the first thing that threw me was the wind. Literally. It was raining when I got out of the station to meet the others, so I put up my brolly. This turned out to be a bad ideas I turned the corner towards the meeting place, got grabbed by a HUGE gust of wind and thought I was going to be knocked sideways.

Once I’d recovered I finally got to meet the lovely ladies who’d also made the journey; Dinushi, Jenny, Lucy and Laura (who also organised the day), as well as Laura’s fiancé who bravely came along in the face of the stash.

We headed off down to Walthamstow market, and there was no stopping us. We went into pretty much every store, stopping at every stall in the market en route. There was a lot of umming and ahhing and, a lot of enabling. All it took was for one of us to go ‘but will I really use it?’ for the rest to say ‘ ah but you could maybe use it for this’ and come up with a load of reasons for them to buy the fabric. Enablers.

It worked….

The lipsticks will be a blouse, the strawberries (hiding just out of shot…) will be a summer a dress, the hearts will be a dungaree dress, the shiny gold jersey is for my new year’s eve dress and the green sequins are for a Christmas party skirt.

The sequins are pure enabler; I spent all day debating them and they spent all day convincing me that I did want them. I’m not sure why I was surprised to be honest. I mean look at them . They’re SEQUINS! And there were little sequin babies when I moved the fabric for cutting, which definitely didn’t make me go ‘awww’…

After all that shopping, we were pretty weighed down and starving so stopped for a bit of lunch and a natter before heading off into the sunset. And speaking of the sunset, the sun finally came out. Once we were finished…

Thanks again to Laura for getting us all organised and to all of the sewists for putting up with my sequin indecision. It was a great day and I can’t wait for our next meet up (although I think I might need to do some sewing first to reduce down my now ridiculously massive stash!)

x

*seriously, if you think I complained about having to leave home at 9:30 for SewBrum, on Saturday I left home at 8. With a hangover. Not fun.

<Warning! This post might get long. Go fetch a cuppa (or gin…) first>

On Saturday I found myself leaving home far earlier than I usually would* and heading into town for my first ever sewing meet up. I had no idea how many people would be there or what to expect so it was with some trepidation that I climbed the steps up the museum and into the Edwardian Tea Room.

What I saw when I got there can only be described as overwhelming:

With the exception of pictures, I don’t think I’d ever seen so many sewists all together and in one room. This picture captures maybe half of the people who were there? It was pretty crazy.

From the tea rooms we headed down to the Rag Market for a fabric spree. Despite Birmingham being my home turf, this was the first time in a very long time that I’d gone into the market. In my head it’s a bustling, busy place with too many options, leaving me to normally run away to a bricks and mortar shop instead.

On Saturday though, armed with a very specific list of fabric I needed, I embraced the hustle and bustle and left no stall unturned. The market did not disappoint with three projects sorted for less than £20!

The purple is destined to be a long sleeved Moneta, the floral is for a Sewaholic shirt dress and the black is for a first mock up of the super secret project.

We headed from the rag market out to Moseley for lunch at the Farmers’ Market. With the sun shining, it was a lovely day for it, and whilst I went to the samosa man, I think the falafel man couldn’t believe his eyes at the number of sewists queueing up for one of his delicious looking wraps

The final stop of the day was Guthrie and Ghani, and if I’d thought that the tea rooms was busy, G&G was busier! I was talking to Lauren at one point and she said by her reckoning there were over 70 people there!

It was a great opportunity to chat some more with the lovely people there, cross my fingers really hard during the raffle (no, I didn’t win the overlocker :'( ) and enjoy the lovely coffee and cakes. The best bit though? STASH SWAP!

I had no idea what to expect from the stash swap, but my word it definitely didn’t disappoint. I came away with…

…3m of floral fabric that will become a shift dress of sorts, green gingham that I’m hoping will make a shirt dress (need to measure it first!), loads and loads of white broderie that I plan to dye blue (surprise surprise)…

…a Simple Sew halterneck pattern, another cape pattern with matching skirt and, amazingly, an UNUSED Colette Dahlia pattern. The generosity of people clearing their stashes is amazing, I was bowled over by what was on offer!

Speaking of generosity, the lovely Caroline of CJ Made gave me a piece of the gorgeous Girl Charlee jersey she won in the raffle.

Isn’t it gorgeous? I’m hoping I can just squeeze enough out of it for a shift dress

PLUS look at the merit badge I got in the swap!

So the one on the left is the one that was made for me by the lovely Claire of Sew, incidentally. Isn’t it incredible?! My return offering felt a bit paltry in comparison to her amazing work but I think it was well received 🙂

(I made Claire a fountain of knowledge because she is one of the nicest, knowledgeable sewists I’ve met, always quick and happy to give answers or point people in the right direction)

And after all that I went to a party in the evening. As promised in my last post, here’s a picture of the Poison Ivy costume in all it’s glory. I was pretty pleased with, but I didn’t half feel silly roaming the streets of Moseley on my way there….

Phew! All that’s left for me to say is a MASSIVE thank you to Charlotte of English Girl at Home for organising Saturday’s event. I had an  amazing time and it was fab to meet so many other like minded sewists. Absolute blast of a day.

Roll on Sew Brum 2016!

x

*I left home at 9:30. Make of that what you will