SewBrum meet up

Last Saturday I went to Birmingham for a sewing meet-up organised by Charlotte of English girl at home.  This was the first time I'd participated in one of these events and I really enjoyed it.

Fabric shopping in Birmingham city centre had been arranged for the morning, however having been there recently I decided to give this a miss and went instead to The Cotton Patch which was only a couple of miles down the road from the afternoon part of the meet-up at Guthrie and Ghani and was somewhere I'd never visited before.  It's a shop aimed at quilters rather than dressmakers, but that didn't stop me!  I bought three dress lengths of  fabric which the sales assistant cut using a rotary cutter and self healing mat rather than scissors.  Oh my goodness.  So quick!!  I was won over and bought a cutter and mat to take home with me - this will save me quite a bit of time when I have my marathon cutting out sessions I think.  I also bought a flexible ruler and a measuring gauge whilst I was in gadget-buying mode. 

Rotary cutter, self-healing mat, flexible ruler and a measuring gauge

The three fabrics I picked out were a lovely sunflower print, a helenium print and a leafy batik print.  The first two can wait until next year to be sewn up because they're a bit too summery for me to think of sewing with them now, but the third one - on the right in the picture below - I intend to make up quite soon.  I love this combination of colours and I'm looking forward to turning this into a dress.

Sunflowers, heleniums and leafy looking print

I had a very enjoyable time browsing around The Cotton Patch, there was a tempting selection of fabrics in there, the staff were friendly and I imagine if I were a quilter it would probably be able to supply everything I need.  But I'm not, nor ever likely to be.

Then it was time to go to Moseley for the meet-up.  Guthrie & Ghani is a lovely shop and I had time to have a browse around before everyone started to arrive from their city centre shopping. There were lots of people - some of whom I'd met before, some who I recognised from their blogs but most were new faces and I spent a very enjoyable time sitting drinking tea and chatting to several of them - I even discovered that I share a birthday with one of them!  It was lovely to be in a room full of people who were so enthusiastic about sewing.

There was tea (which was very welcome) and cakes and a raffle with some great prizes, and after that a pattern and fabric swap.  I took three pieces of fabric and one pattern with me and came home with one piece of fabric and three patterns (must remember to add them to my pattern page - now done).  I was so engrossed in the chatting - and a little bit of shopping - that I completely failed to take any photos of the day at all.  However, Charlotte has already blogged about the day and others who were less forgetful with their cameras than I was have too.

This is the fabric which I got in the swap - there's about three quarters of a metre which is enough for me to make a straight skirt.  It's a stretchy cotton and I really like the colours and vintagey look of the print.

These are the patterns - I'll almost certainly lengthen the skirt pattern on the left, the dress pattern in the middle I've hummed and ha'd about buying before so I think it was meant to come home with me, and the artwork on the vintage pattern on the right caught my eye.

Finally this is the fabric I bought - a Japanese double gauze which was a bit spendy but I'd seen it online and coveted it and it was even more beautiful in reality.  This photo doesn't do it justice - the background colour is a beautiful deep teal.  I love it.

All too soon it was time to go - I could happily have stayed longer and chatted to more people the time seemed to go so fast.  Roll on the next meet-up!