sewcialist | english girl at home

October 4, 2016
by Charlotte 4 Comments

SewBrum 2016 Wrap-Up

The 2016 SewBrum meet-up took place on Saturday 24th September.

I’m not planning to publish a weekly vlog, but I am planning to publish one every so often when I have something to share. I filmed a little bit of footage during SewBrum which you can view below:

As in previous years, the day whizzed by! We started the day by taking over the Edwardian Tearooms at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery – and I do mean taking over. From there, we wandered across town to the Rag Market, and nearby Barry’s Fabrics and Fancy Silk Store. Rhiannon introduced me to a stall in the Indoor Market which specialises in wax print, which I hadn’t spotted before, and Charlotte recommended a nearby stall which has a huge selection of cotton and novelty prints.

Over 100 of us traveled into Moseley Village in the afternoon to visit Guthrie & Ghani for shopping, chatting, a pattern and fabric swap, and charity raffle. The raffle, plus donations given for tea and cake, raised £465 for the The Eve Appeal gynaecological cancer charity.

Huge thanks to everyone who came along, I hope you had a good time & managed to meet some new-to-you sewists. It was lovely to meet people I haven’t chatted to before, as well as to catch-up with friends, including some I’ve never met in person before.

There have been some great blog posts, plus a lovely vlog about the day by The Fold Line. Links below!

Steely Seamstress: https://steelyseamstress.wordpress.com/2016/09/26/sew-brum-2016/

Almond Rock: http://almondrock.co.uk/sewbrum-2016/

Thimberlina: https://thimberlina.wordpress.com/2016/10/02/sewbrum-2016/

The Ruined Mother: http://ruinedmother.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/sew-brum.html

Red W Sews: https://redwsews.wordpress.com/2016/10/02/sew-brum-so-good/

The Sewing Directory: https://thesewingdirectory.blogspot.co.uk/2016_09_01_archive.html

Mokshatrim: http://www.mokshatrim.co.uk/single-post/2016/09/27/Sew-we-meet-again-SewBrum

Sew Essential: https://www.sewessential.co.uk/blog/sew-brum-2016/

September 23, 2016
by Charlotte 4 Comments

SewBrum Raffle Prizes!

As in previous years, we’ll be holding a raffle at the SewBrum meet-up this Saturday! Raffle tickets are only on sale to attendees on the day of the meet-up and the raffle will be drawn in the afternoon at Guthrie & Ghani.

All money raised by the raffle, along with donations in exchange for tea and cake at Guthrie & Ghani, will be donated to the Eve Appeal.

Lots of lovely companies have generously donated raffle prizes. I’m demoing a lot of the prizes in this video, or see the full list and photos below. (P.S. I mispronounced a couple of things in the video, but only had a limited window of sunlight yesterday evening after getting home from work, so no retakes!).

The full list of prizes:

♥ Sew Essential have donated an Adjustoform Supafit Standard Dress Form. The dress form comes in four sizes so the winner will be able to select their preferred size.

♥ Minerva Crafts have donated a big fabric bundle worth £100.

♥ The Sewing Directory have donated two beautiful FQ packs: Lewis & Irene Under the Sea and Heather Ross Mendocino.

♥ Prym have donated sewing boxes filled with a range of sewing supplies.

♥ Pavilion are donating five of their recent sewing books: , by Chinelo Bally, by Dawn Cloake, by Marie Clayton, and by Jane Brocket.

♥ Crafty Sew & So have donated a £25 voucher for their online or bricks & mortar shop, based in Leicester.

♥ The Crafty Mastermind have donated a kit to make Tilly & the Button’s Coco, with plenty of fabric for a dress or top version.

♥ Sew Crafty have donated a selection of goodies including pin badges, crafty pencils, and crafty notebook.

♥ Create Escape have donated a four fat quarter bundle of Lotta Jansdotter’s latest fabric collection.

♥ Remnant Kings have donated a tote bag containing a selection of haberdashery goodies.

♥ Fabric Godmother have donated a beautiful £100 fabric bundle, with a mix of knits and wovens.

♥ Plush Addict have donated an 11 reels selection of Gutermann sew-all thread, and a 9 FQ pack from the Tilda Spring Diaries Collection.

♥ The Draper’s Daughter have donated a lovely Tote Bag kit.

♥ FabricHQ have donated a £20 gift voucher.

♥ Abakhan have donated two Liberty fabric bundles.

♥ Fabrics Galore have donated a £20 gift voucher.

♥ Dragonfly Fabrics have donated a Katha Tunic sewing kit, with all required supplies to sew a tunic in a lovely Japanese cotton.

♥ Bloomsbury Square have donated a fabric bundle, containing 2 metres of crepe, and 1.5 metres of cotton.

♥ FabricPunk have donated a FQ bundle of six Dashwood Studio fabrics.

♥ Village Haberdashery have donated a voucher for their online and bricks-and-mortar store.

♥ Girl Charlee have donated a fabric bundle worth £100 in one of their tote bags. Two metres of each of the following fabrics ar included: Quatrefoil Oxford Blue Cotton Jersey Blend Knit Fabric, Coral Blue & Red Diamond Floral Geo Jersey Rayon Spandex Knit, Plum Grey Rose Floral on Taupe Cotton Jersey Knit Fabric, Heather Burnt Orange Solid Baby Cotton Jersey Knit Fabric, Fawn Silhouette on Rose Cotton Jersey Blend Knit Fabric.

♥ Adam Ross Fabrics have donated a £35 voucher for their (Birmingham-based) online store.

Plus, Simplicity have donated pattern which I’ll be giving away in the morning at the Edwardian Tea Rooms (first come first served), and Crafty Sew & So have given me some flyers for a very exciting event they are planning…

Abakhan Liberty Fabric bundles

Crafty Mastermind Coco Kit

Simplicity Patterns

Dragonfly Fabrics Tunic Kit

Fabric Godmother fabric bundle

The Sewing Directory FQ packs (Lewis & Irene Under the Sea and Heather Ross Mendocino)

Girl Charlee fabric bundle

Fabric Punk Dashwood Studio FQ selection

Bloomsbury Square fabric bundle

Create Escape Lotta Jansdotter FQ pack

Sew Crafty goodies

Minerva Crafts fabric bundle

Remnant Kings Goodie Bag

The Draper’s Daughter Tote Bag Kit

Books from Pavilion

Quilting Book and FQ packs from EQS

FabricHQ voucher

August 21, 2015
by Charlotte 17 Comments

Nicki & Ute in London

I was very excited to meet Nicki and Ute (plus all of the other lovely sewists who attended) during their recent visit to London, and to talk #oneyearoneoutfit in person.

We visited Goldhawk Road, and only made it to a handful of shops because shopping as a group always takes ages (and shopping – even for fabric – is less essential than nattering)🙂

Loop, where Nicki located all the lovely naturally dyed yarns.

Sew Over It, Islington, where Elle bought some amazing hot pink crepe.

We wandered the streets of London looking for pretty front doors and interesting door knockers.

#nickiandutevisitlondon Meet-Up August 2015

Posed in front of the first white wall we found.

And ended up at the pub.

July 17, 2015
by Charlotte 10 Comments

SewBrum Meet-Up Update

Eek, I love the new SewBrum logo. It was designed by amazingly talented illustrator and sewing blogger Maike of Sew & Illustrate.

I have lots of exciting SewBrum news to share – an itinerary for the day, sign-up is open, and I’m planning a pre-meet-up swap.

The meet-up also has an on Facebook.

♥ Itinerary ♥

The planned itinerary for Saturday October 31st is below. Attendees can feel free to dip in and out, or only attend for part of the day.

10:00 – 11:00: Meet at the Edwardian Tearooms

We’ll be meeting in the lovely setting of the Edwardian Tearooms at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, where we’ll be able to drink tea and/or eat brunch while everyone arrives.

11:00 – 12:30: Birmingham Bull Ring Rag Market

We never made it to the market last year, so this year we’ll be heading there. (Two of Birmingham’s fabric stores are located close by (Barry’s Fabric & Fancy Silk Store) for anyone who would prefer to shop there instead / as well).

12:30 – 13:00: Reconvene and travel to Moseley Village (Guthrie & Ghani) by bus

The journey between the city centre and Moseley only takes 15 minutes by bus, and buses are every 5-10 minutes.

13:00 – 14:00: Moseley Farmer’s Market & Art Market

We’ll be buying lunch at Moseley’s Farmer’s Market, which has around 60 stalls (including some great cake!). The Art Market will also be taking place.

14:00 – 17:30: Guthrie & Ghani

At Guthrie & Ghani we’ll have time in the shop which sells a wide range of sewing and knitting supplies, and we’ll have use of the studio above the shop where we will be able to natter, compare purchases, hold a pattern & fabric swap, and a raffle. We’ll also have a demo of the Lutterloh pattern making system.

♥ Merit Badge Swap ♥

In advance of the meet-up, I’m hosting a merit badge swap, partly inspired by the crafty merit badges recently released by Fancy Tiger Crafts.

You can sign up to take part in the swap using the sign-up form below. I’ll randomly pair everyone who signs up, and you’ll make a merit badge for your swap partner. There are no design or size restrictions for the badges – the idea is to make a badge that suits your swap partner; perhaps focusing on something they are particularly good at, or a particular interest of theirs, crafty or otherwise.

Anyone can join this swap, you don’t need to be attending the meet-up in October or have a blog to join in (and meet-up attendees don’t have to take part in the swap, you can let me know when you sign-up if you want to join in or not).

Sign-up for the swap is open from now until 30th September. I’ll be sending out details of swap partners periodically until sign-up closes.

I’ve set up a with a few badge inspiration pictures.

♥ Sign-Up Form ♥

If you’re planning to attend the meet-up (and/or want to take part in the merit badge swap) let us know by filling in the sign-up form below.

english girl at home

A Sewing & Knitting Blog, Made in Birmingham, England

Tag Archives: sewcialist

SewBrum 2016 Wrap-Up

SewBrum Raffle Prizes!

Nicki & Ute in London

SewBrum Meet-Up Update

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