Brilliant Birmingham Blogger Bonanza

Yesterday morning Marie and I set off to Birmingham bright and early to meet up with 30 "strangers from the internet". After our initial apprehension about whether anyone would actually turn up, we soon found ourselves surrounded by 30 super sewing ladies. There were oohs and ahhs as everyone admired each others handmade outfits and excited squeals as people met online friends in real life. Once everyone had assembled we set off, not quite two-by-two but pretty much, to the amazing fabirc heaven that is Barry's. The lovely ladies there had kindly agreed to give us a 10% discount and seemed remarkably unphased by the huge gaggle of sewists who descended on them. 

Temporarily shopped-out and hungry, we headed to headed to Cafe Soya to refuel with a yummy lunch and a mammoth swap. Ah the swap!

This is the table of fabric alone!

Hovering and waiting for Claire to give the word...three...two...one....GO!


There was fabric galore along with patterns, notions, magazines and trimmings. It was all quite overwelming so I picked up a few things but on the whole thought I had been quite restrained...although looking at my loot I think I came away with more than I thought, including some delicious wool which is destined for a pencil skirt and some beautiful vintage fabric that Mellie told me had been her grandmothers!



We then headed off to the Birmingham Rag Market, and finally the Fancy Silk Store for yet more shopping, before admitting defeat and heading back from whence we came, armed with delicious goodies generously baked by Claire.

Thank you so much to everyone who came yesterday, it was amazing to have so many lovely ladies come along and I hope you enjoyed yourself as much as I did. It was wonderful to catch-up with familiar faces and meet a whole load of new ones....I have so many new blogs to check out now! Below is a full list of everyone who came along and links to their blogs if they have them - do go and have a browse!

Alana - Lazy Stitching

Amy - Almond Rock

Anna - Get Crafty

Caroline Bones - Cotton Hairess

Caroline Booth & daughter Phoebe

Caroline Nixon

Carys

Claire - I want to be a turtle

Charlotte - English Girl At Home

Charlie - Charlie Says Sew

Deborah - DFabrication

Emma - My Oh Sew Vintage Life

Erica

Hannah - Hugs and Kisses

Helen - Helen Made

Jo - The Amazing Adventures of Taracat

Julia - The secret life of seams

Karen
Rachel A Study in Stitching & mum Liz

Lara - Dreaming of Avonlea

Louise - Thread Carefully

Mellie - Mellie's workroom

Rachel - Layer, Stitch, Repeat and The Hollywood Sew

Rose - Strange Notions

Sabs - Tybalt: king of cats

Sarah - Not Found

Tanya

Zora - Read all about it

So what did I buy? I came away with the lovely little stash below:

Cloakwise from top left: Checked cotton for yet more PJs, red linen/cotton for a Kelly skirt, black and white print for a dress, red and white print for another dress, and poly-something polka dot which may become a lining for a victoria blazer.

I think I terrified poor Charlotte with my excited admiration for her gorgeous Kelly skirt (I think I said hello to the skirt before I said hello to her!), and then proceeded to buy exactly what I needed to replicate the skirt for myself. Well almost...just when I thought I could not love her skirt any more, I checked out her blog and found she has lined the pockets with owl fabric. OWLS people! Need I say more. 

Buttons for my Kelly skirt plus a couple of extras....how could I resist?!

Thanks again to everyone who came, and a special mention to my fabulous co-hosts Marie and Claire. There is nothing left to say except...bring on 3rd August when we get to do it all again :)

K xx

FO x3 a.k.a stash-busting challenge success

Back in April I set myself a stash-busting challenge with the following pledge:

I, KraftyKat, will make at least three garments using fabric from my stash before the Birmingham meet-up on Saturday 15th June. If I do not complete this challenge, I promise not to buy or acquire from the swap ANY more fabric at this meet-up.

 

 

The meet-up is tomorrow - so how did I do? Well, I'm delighted (and just a tiny bit relieved!) that I have three new garments to show you!

 

 

Number 1: Sewaholic Pendrell blouse #3

 

 

 

This is my third version of this pattern but the first time I have made this sleeve version - just realised that you can't actually see the sleeves in this photo - doh! - but it's the 2-ruffle version. The fabric is a lovely drapy cotton and is lovely to wear - infact I am wearing it today! I can see this being a staple in my work wardrobe.

 

 

Number 2: Sewaholic Pendrell blouse #4

 



 

 

 

Yep your eyes are not decieving you - another Pendrell blouse. During me-made-May i realised that my wardrobe is lacking basics in solid colours. The Pendrell blouse is the perfect basic pattern so I made yet another version, this time the sleeveless view. Rather than leaving it completely plain (and a little bit boring), I stitched lace trimming around the armholes.

 

 



 

 

Number 3: Pyjama bottoms



 



 

 

Ever since I made my first pair of PJ bottoms last year I have been meaning to make another pair and what better excuse that Karen's upcoming pyjama party? I used Simplicity 2116 and the most gorgeously soft cotton fabric which is absolutely beautiful - you probably can't see but the gold bits have glitter on them! These were pretty quick to whip up, and that's even with french seams, which effectively means I sewed the PJs twice. I swear I am never buying PJs again. A super-quick make which I can ensure is long enough for a tall person like myself and choose my own funky fabric of my own choice? There is no downside to this!

So there we go - stash-busting challenge complete. A good job too as I may have fallen off the wagon a tiny little bit last weekend (I was refraining from buying fabric alltogehter, although re-reading my pledge I notice it specifically mentions only no fabric aquiring at the meet-up, so I unwittingly gave myself a massive loop-hole!). Either way I felt terribly guity, but there is a story behined this purchase. A few months ago I walked past a stall in Leicester market and saw this very fabric. I convinced myself that I was being good and walked away. Ever since then I have not been able to get this fabric out of my mind. I searched and searched on the internet to no avail. All was lost. Or so I thought, until last week I happened to pass the stall again and there it was. There were just 2 metres left and I knew I had to snap them up there and then - also at just £2/m it was barganious.

Oh and did I mention it is AMAZING fabric!??!

 
To give you an idea of scale, this is pretty much the whole length of it - my boyfriend is holding it up so I can take a picture. So it's a very large print. It is about 2m by 2m. My original thought was that I want to make a skirt to show off the print. It would make an amazing circle skirt, but I just don't think I have enough. Ideas on a postcard (or in the comments below!) please!

I am so releived to have completed my stash-busting challenge and am geering up for a fun-filled day tomorrow. There will be over 30 sewists congregating in Birmingham - the fabric shops and rag market won't know what hit them! I am looking forward to seeing familiar faces and meeting lots of new ones. If you're coming along - can't wait to see you there!!

K xx



Me Made May catch-up: Weeks 4 & 5 and reflections

Hello everyone, here is my forth and final Me Made May 2013 post and it's a bumper special covering the last 2 weeks. I must confess that I am missing a couple of pictures here - I debated re-modelling the outfits for these days but to be honest they were pretty much exact repeats of previous days so it didn't seem worth it. Apologies for my laziness! So without further ado, let's get on with it...

Day 20

 

Today was my birthday and I am modelling my third Pendrell blouse, as yet unblogged and saved especially for the occasion. Yep that's right, I've been sewing new stuff! This is the first of three items I pledged to make before the Birmingham meet-up as part of my stash-busting challenge. The cake in this rather attractive photo (!) was made for me by my lovely boyfriend and I'm sure you will not be at all surprised to discover it is an owl. Lets have a closer look....isn't he clever! It was very tasty. 

 

 

Day 24

 

At the end of the week my boyfriend's brother came to stay. He was visiting from Australia with his girlfriend. We had a lovely time and ate lots of curry. They left on the Friday and pretty much as soon as they left I had some friends arrive for the weekend. I wore my beloved crescent skirt but didn't manage to get a photo. However, it can be seen many times in my previous MMM posts....it has been a bit of a staple!

 

 

Day 25

 

 

 

Today was the day of my birthday BBQ! This has become a bit of a tradition and has now been going for about 6 years. It pretty much always rains but this time the weather defied the odds and we had beautiful sunshine! It was sunny enough for me to wear my New Look 6557 dress, which was the first dress I ever made. Apologies for the shoddy iPhone picture - this was snapped quickly just before going to bed.

 

 

Day 28

 

Another pictureless day I'm afraid. I wore my green double knit renfrew, which has been seen many times before over the course of this challenge!

 

 

Day 30



 

Sewaholic Pendrell blouse #1. I love this top and in fact I am wearing it now as I type this! Nothing else to report here, this was a work day.

 

 

Day 31

 

Me Made May draws to a close with the reappearance of Pendrell #3 for another day at work - it was a Friday, hence the jeans. I think this may be one of my favourite outfits of the whole challenge, although it's a close call.

 

 

Phew! All done! Looking back over the whole month, I think it was more of a challenge than I anticipated although I'm really glad I took part. Possibly due to the weather, there were a number of me-made items, mostly dresses, which didn't get a look-in, which is a shame. So what have I learnt from this challenge?

 

1) I need more me-makes in solid colours. I love prints, but this means that sometimes I struggle to put an outfit together.

 

2) I need to sew more work-wear. A lot of my makes so far are "occasion" dresses - frosting rather than cake as the saying goes! Since I spend most of the week needing relatively smart clothes, my handmade wardrobe need to reflect this. Which brings me on to the next point...

 

3)...I love dresses and I would wear dresses everyday if I could BUT my current wardrobe contains no me-made work-appropriate dresses! This needs to be a-dressed. Ahem.

 

4) I sew a lot of Sewaholic patterns! I knew I loved Sewaholic, but even I was surprised by how many of my makes are from this pattern line. This by no means a bad thing - it is a testament to the awesomeness of Tasia's patterns. They fit me well without the need for major adjustments and the patterns are extreamly versatile and easy to wear.

 

So - basics in solid colours and smartish dresses are my sewing future! Thanks so much to SoZo for organising this fantastic challenge. I am already thinking of next year where I hope to be in a position to up my pledge and commit to wearing me-mades at least 4 days a week. Bring it on!

 

Did you take part in Me Made May for the first time? What did you learn from the experience? And do you have any recommendations for smart work dresses?!

 

K xx

 

 

Me Made May catch-up: Week 3

Me Made May 2013 made have officially come to an end (sad face) but the fun continues around these parts for now as I bring you a round up of week 3 (only 2 more posts after this one, we're getting there, albeit slowly!). Week 3 was a week of repeats...I warn you now that there is nothing new to see here (that comes in week 4).

Day 13

 

 

I got a bit confused on Flickr and I think this photo was labelled as day 9 or something, but no, it's day 13! Sewaholic Renfrew again, so in an attempt to detract from the fact you've seen this before, I'm joined by Sally in this photo. She was more interested in playing outside than having a cuddle though - shortly after this picture was taken she took a giant leap to freedom!

 



 

Day 18

 

 

Sewaholic Crescent skirt. Shoddy self photo taken in the mirror of my parent's bedroom as I was visiting them this weekend. Picture taken just before I ran out of an empty house to meet a friend...why I didn't ask her to take the photo instead I do not know...think I was worried I would forget and end up photo-less for day 18.

 

 

Day 19

 

Another self photo...Colette patterns Sorbetto top. Again to distract from the repeat boredom I am modelling two early birthday presents given to me my my lovely mum - crocheted slippers and a felted bag. Isn't she clever!

Right that's week 3 done and dusted! It's a beautiful sunny Sunday here...I'm looking forward to a morning of sewing and then a session of plotting and planning the Birmingham meet-up with the lovely Marie. Can't believe there is less than 2 weeks to go now until the big event! We currently have 36 sewists signed up - eek that's a lot of people. I'm ever so slightly terrified but remain mostly confident that this is going to be AWESOME!

Happy Sunday everyone!

K xx

Me Made May catch-up: Week 2

Eep where has the time gone! We're into the final week of Me Made May 2013 and I have been TERRIBLE about keeping up with blogging about my outfits each week - opsie! I do apologise. However, I have been photographing my outfits and keeping a bit more up to date with posting them in the official Me Made May 2013 Flickr group so all is not lost. My pledge was to wear me-made garments at least 3 times a week. Let's see what week 2 looked like...

Day 7

 

Sewaholic Pendrell blouse - I love the print on this top, but the puffed sleeves do make it a little bit tricky to wear underneath a cardigan so it's best saved for warm days. Also, because my fabric is fairly stiff, they do stick out quite a bit so I sometimes feel a bit costumey in this top. Saying that, I do love it and I really like how it looks with these trousers and is nice and smart for a day at work.

 

Day 10



 

 

I managed to get to Day 10 before my first repeat - here again is the first skirt I made, the Sewaholic Crescent skirt. Apologies for the slightly unfocused picture, I have no idea what happened! I love this skirt. It is perfect for work on any day but, as here, I often find myself wearing it on casual Friday. Does anyone else hate "casual Friday" or is it just me?! I find it more of an effort to decide what to wear on these days than on any others. It is most confusing.

 

 

Day 11

 

Onto my third Sewaholic pattern of the week - my second Renfrew top. I have not blogged about this before as it was pretty much the same as the first! This is sewn in very thin (and very cheap) jersey which doesn't do it many favours but I do like the colour and print and it works ok with a top underneath. This day I was flying up to Glasgow so it made a nice and comfy plane outfit.


Day 12

Day 12 does not count at all towards my Me Made May campaign - it was the day of the Glasgow Women's 10k so I spent most of the day in my running gear. Here I am just after crossing the finish line looking rather soggy as it was a very wet and windy day! The weather obvious worked in my favour though because I ran my fastest time yet despite the Glasgow hills!

That brings us to the end of week 2...week 3 coming soon! Are you taking part in Me Made May? Are you managing to keep up with your pledge - or even exceed it?

K xx

Me Made May round-up: Week 1

Hello and happy May Day bank holiday to everyone who has a bank holiday today (I was going to say to everyone in the UK but I think perhaps Scotland does not have this day off...or did I make that up?!). It's a beautiful sunny day which is glorious, although I was not feeling so pleased about it when I went for a long and very hot run in it this morning (10K if you're interested, in preperation for the Bupa Women's 10K in Glasgow next Sunday, eep!). But now the running is over and I have no plans but BBQing and chilling for the rest of the day, I am ready to embrace the weather! I hope it's lovley where you are too.

Right, so, Me Made May! This year I have pledged to wear me-made garments at least 3 times a week. I will be doing a weekly round up each weekend (yes I missed the ball this time but hey ho, since it is a bank holiday today counts as a weekend!). I have decided to used calender weeks (Monday to Sunday) rather than counting each 7 day week from 1st May as my brain is easily confused and it's easier to keep track of things this way. So without further ado:

Day 1

 

 



 

Apologies for the overly bright photo, it was impossible to get anything better in the morning sun! Here I am wearing my Sewaholic Minoru jacket and (also Sewaholic) Renfrew top. Slightly boring outfit, but I struggle with work wear! I wear these two garments all the time, they are comfortable and practical, what more could I ask for.

 

Day 3

 

 

Casual Friday today - sporting a Colette patterns Sorbetto top. I haven't worn this top much recently, but I enjoyed wearing it and I think it will be brought out more often in future, especially during the remainder of Me Made May!

 

Day 4

 

 

Wearing my Sewaholic patterns Crescent skirt. This was one of the first garments I made, and still remains one of my most loved and most worn. I am plotting another crescent skirt or two in plain fabrics as I think it would make a great wardrobe staple. Oh and yes - that is the world famous Birmingham rag market in the background!

 

On Saturday Marie and I went on a reconasance mission to Birmingham in preperation for the meet up we are hosting along with Claire on 15th June (not long now - are you getting excited!?). What were we doing you may well ask - well, we mapped the rag market - quite literally!

 

 



Yep we've compiled a visual representation of all the best fabric and notions stalls to help you out on the day. Can you tell we're excited? I had to get a picture of Marie and I with the results of all our hard work so we asked a young Chinese couple to take a picture of us...

 

 

 

I think perhaps in retrospect I should have explained to them that we would be posing with a peice of paper and making silly faces because they looked extreamly confused and kept asking "Are you ok?" "Is that your pose??". Much hilarity was had. There were sillier pictures but my camera has a habit of randomly deleting pictures and so we have been left with the sensible one - probably for the best!

 

Oh and in case you were wondering, I didn't buy a single piece of fabric during my trip to Birmingham - I was so proud of myself. I am committed to my stash busting challenge and this weekend I have started work on the first of the three garments I muct complete before the meet-up. I am determined to succeed!

 

What are you up to this long weekend - do you have any sewing plans or will you be out enjoying the sunshine? Or are you at work (boo!)? 

 

K xx

 



Yorkshire dales and British yarn

Hello everyone, and happy May! It's been a beautiful day here today and I'm feeling rather cheerful! This could also be partly due to how much I have enjoyed looking at everyone's day one Me-Made-May outfits on Flickr. I am amazed by the variety of outfits as well as all the great backdrops that everyone has used for their photographs. There will be a round up post from me coming at the weekend, but it's clear already that I am going to have to up my game!

Last weekend me and Mr.KK went away for a long weekend in the Yorkshire Dales. It was great to get away and although the weather was mixed (sunshine, rain and hail all within an hour!) we still had a lovely time. I do love the countryside. We spent our time walking in the dales through fields and field of lambs of various ages and daffodils a-plenty - it all felt very springlike!

We stayed in a small town called Hawes and on a wander through I was delighted to spy a knitting shop - so of course we had to pay a visit. The shop is called the Knitting Basket and it stocks a great selection of yarns, including a number of locally spun and British yarns. Having spent the weekend surrounded by sheep, I felt it was only right to purchase some local yarn!

I came away with two skeins of blue faced Leicester yarn in the 'owl' colourway (of course!). This yarn is so beautifully soft, and was spun locally in Yorkshire at the mill of the West Yorkshire Spinners. I love the fact that I can show you a picture of the breed of sheep it came from - take that cheap acrylic "wool"! I can't wait to use it - I think it would make a lovely scarf.

For a while now I have been thinking more about the yarn I use in my knitting, what it is made of and where it come from, as a result of reading the blogs of wonderful people such as Roobeedoo, who is an advocate of independent British yarn companies, as well as going to a workshop run by the designer Erika Knight who has her own collection of 100% British yarn. I think the main thing that put me off is the cost - I thought it was so much more expensive - however a bit of research tells me that this is not necessarily the case. True, it may be a bit more pricey than your £1.50 ball of 100% acrylic, but you certainly get what you pay for (i.e. actual wool!). I am coming to realise that quality is so important. If I am going to spend time making something I truly love, then it is important to use good quality materials. That's half the joy of making your own garments - you know what goes into them and where it comes from.

A bit of googling has revealed that so many more yarn companies than I realised have British yarn ranges. For more information and an exhaustive list of smaller British yarn companies, check out The British Yarn Guide. I can't promise that I will only and forever more use British yarn from now on, but I will definitely be thinking a lot more about where my yarns come from and going for quality over quantity!

Do you try and use British or local yarns in your makes? Can you recommend any good companies or stockists?

K xx