The Sewing Weekender Online, 13th – 14th June 2020
After organising (in collaboration with The Fold Line) four in-person Sewing Weekender events, we were expecting that we would need to skip a year, during 2020.
Then, inspired by other online events (in particular, an online beer festival Phil attended) we decided to move online. Running the event online this year has the added bonus that we don’t need to cap attendee numbers at 90, as we do for the in-person event. It also means that this year’s event can be international, as you don’t need to travel to Cambridge, UK to take part.
We’ve decided to donate all profits to charity this year, and will be splitting them 50/50 between two charities, NHS Charities Together and Mind. To enable us to do this, all of our contributors have donated their time for free, which we hugely appreciate.
So, how does it work? As at our in-person events, this is an informal sewing event. Work on a sewing project of your choice in your own home over the weekend of the 13th – 14th June. Share your plans and progress with other attendees using the hashtag #sewingweekender.
We have created a schedule of inspiring video talks, messages and more from sewing bloggers and independent businesses, to keep you entertained while you sew, which you can access by purchasing a ticket. By purchasing a ticket you’ll also receive a digital goodie bag, and donate to two excellent charities.
We hope you’ll really enjoy the weekend of the 13th- 14th June. If you’re someone who regular attends sewing meet-ups, then hopefully this will go someway towards not being able to this year, and if you haven’t attended a meet-up before this should be a gentle introduction to it – from the comfort of your own home.
Carmen and I are organising an international meet-up in Paris over the weekend of the 18th – 19th May 2019.
On Saturday 18th, we’ll be touring Paris’ fabric shops and ending the day with a group dinner / drinks. On Sunday 19th, we’ll be starting the day with brunch, visiting the exhibition “Yves Saint Laurent: Dreams of the Orient” at the Musée Yves Saint Laurent, and heading out of town to visit the Bennytex fabric warehouse (check out Annie Coton’s blog post, it sounds amazing).
Sign-up is now open (to give us an idea of numbers to expect for planning purposes): Sign Up Here!
A quick note to say that everyone is very welcome, and you can attend as much or as little of the weekend as you like. I’m conscious that two reasons people sometimes don’t feel comfortable attending meet-ups are anxiety and mobility. If you would like to join us but have any concerns do get in touch with me and Carmen. I’m already thinking that we should have some group shopping trolleys ready as when I attended the previous Paris meet-up Carmen organised in 2014 I got carried away buying heavy wool fabrics and could barely carry them!
♥ What? ♥
A free-to-attend meet-up of people who love to sew, in Paris.
Following in the footsteps of the 2014 meet-up organised by Carmen, Paris Sewcial / Paris Coud will be a chance to get together with an international group of sewcialists and to explore Paris’ fabric shops.
The planned itinerary for Saturday 18th – Sunday 19th May is below. Attendees can feel free to dip in and out, attending one or both days, or parts of the day.
Saturday 18th May
10:30 – 11:00: Meet in Montmartre
We’ll be meeting in Square Louise-Michel, located below the Sacré-Cœur and in the heart of the Montmartre fabric shopping district.
Multiple metro stops including Anvers, Abbesses, Pigalle, and Château Rouge are located within ten minutes’ walk from the square.
11:00 – 17:00: Explore Paris’ Fabric Shops
We’ll spend the day exploring Paris’ numerous fabric shops. A map will be provided to help attendees navigate the city, and we’ll visit the shops as a group, or number of smaller groups, dependent on the number of attendees.
17:00: Dinner / Drinks
We’ll carry on the conversations over a group dinner / drinks (location tbc dependent on number of attendees).
Sunday 19th May
11:00 – 12:30: Brunch in Montmartre
We’ll start the day by returning to Montmartre for brunch and chatter.
13:00 – 15:00: Visit to Musée Yves Saint Laurent
At 13:00 we’ll visit “Yves Saint Laurent: Dreams of the Orient” at the Musée Yves Saint Laurent. It isn’t possible to book a tour on Sundays, so we’ll be joining the queue outside the museum. A visit to the exhibition takes approximately 90 minutes. It’s also the perfect opportunity for a stroll past the Eiffel Tower, which is located 15 minutes walk from the museum.
15:00 – 18:00: Visit to Bennytex
Those willing to join us in a trip outside of the city centre on the hunt for fabric will catch the bus to Bennytex fabric warehouse. The journey is approximately one hour each way by public transport. For more info about shopping at Bennytex see Annie Coton’s blog post.
We’ll start the journey back from Bennytex at approximately 17:00, with attendees back in the city centre for 18:00.
I was lucky enough to attend the Paris meet-up organised by Carmen back in 2014. Inspired by that event, Carmen and I have decided that it’s time for another Paris meet-up, so we’re organising one over the weekend of the 18-19 May 2019.
We’ll be touring Paris’ fabric shops on Saturday 18th, with a to-be-confirmed activity on Sunday 19th for those who can stay for the full weekend. Further details to follow, once we’ve finalised our plans.
At this point we wanted to share the date, so that those of you who can make it can start planning.
The second Sewing Weekender, sewing holiday, took place at the start of August. As is always the way with organising events, when we started planning it seemed ages away, but it was here before we knew it and over in a flash.
Kate, Rachel & I arrived at our venue, Murray Edwards College in Cambridge, on Friday afternoon and were kept busy until the evening setting up sewing machines, overlockers, and irons, stuffing goodie bags, and inflating balloons!
We were joined on Saturday morning by fifty-one attendees and six prefects/speakers, for the sewing (tea drinking, fabric stroking, nattering, fabric swapping) to commence.
♥ More time for sewing, more machines, overlockers and irons than at last year’s event.
♥ Even more sponsors & overflowing goodie bags.
♥ Embroidered badges for every attendee (thanks to Elle Harris‘ machine embroidery workshop).
♥ A mini sewing bee! Elizabeth and Susan both finished a garment during the weekend, so were set a timed challenge by Melissa and Fiona, using supplies from the swap – and completed that too!
♥ Speedy sewists who managed to complete garments during the weekend, including Elizabeth and Emma.
♥ A stroll through Cambridge in the sun (as well as one particular lunch break in torrential rain…).
♥ And lots of lovely sewists!
There’s a great atmosphere at the Weekender, and it’s the same atmosphere at sewing meet-ups small and large (as well as online): welcoming, inspiring and full of fun. Assuming people do keep wanting to come, there’s never going to be enough tickets for everyone to attend the Sewing Weekender (this year tickets sold out in less than twenty minutes), but I’d highly recommend getting to a meet-up in person as often as you can.
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!).
♥ 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)
I’m very excited to finally announce what Rachel and Kate from The Fold Line, and I, have been up to for the last few weeks. We are hosting a UK sewing holiday, a weekend break which will take place in Cambridge during August 2016.
Full information about the event, including ticket sales, and the schedule is available on the Event Page hosted on The Fold Line. Tickets are on sale now!
Here on my own blog I wanted to say a little about how the event came about.
I’m always really tempted by sewing (and knitting) holidays, but haven’t, so far, been able to attend one. If they are not in the UK there’s inevitably travel costs and time off work required (If I were single I’d totally go for it, but it’s not so easy to justify to Phil when we could instead go on holiday together…!) Those sewing holidays which are in the UK often understandably cost a few hundred pounds due to the costs of tuition, meals and accommodation.
So, The Sewing Weekender is a slightly different sewing holiday. We’re keeping things laid back and informal and as a result are keeping the price as affordable as possible. We’re also very lucky to have sponsorship from some great indie companies (full list here) which has also allowed us to keep ticket prices down.
Happily, Kate, Rachel and I were all thinking about sewing holidays at the same time so were able to team up to organise the Sewing Weekender!
I hope you’ll be as excited about the event as us. We’ve got a lovely venue booked, and are going to have plenty of time for chatting, tea, and sewing, plus great talks from fellow bloggers, and amazing goodie bags!
I realised recently that I’m attending the local Weavers, Spinners, & Dyers Guild, and the Embroiderers’ Guild monthly, but I don’t meet with other local sewists nearly that often.
In order to change that I’m suggesting having a regular catch-up in the diary once a month. Given that setting aside a whole day can be difficult, I’m thinking one evening a month (roughly 6pm-9pm) to chat and (optionally) eat/drink/craft/swap. Everyone is welcome.
To get the ball rolling, I’m proposing that the first two dates are Tuesday 26th January, and Friday 26th February. The January get together will take place in Birmingham City Centre (I’m suggesting The Stable if that sounds ok to everyone), but we can vary the location in future.
In order for everyone to have an idea of roughly who/how many people can make it I’ve created a basic poll. Add your name & tick the dates you’re planning to attend. If your plans change you can alter your selection. The poll can be found here: http://doodle.com/poll/eemuhrm2kkcuncbw
I can’t believe it’s already been two weeks since the SewBrum meet-up. After many months of preparing (i.e. gathering raffle prizes) the day whizzed by.
The meet-up started in the Edwardian Tearooms at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. It’s one of my (many) favourite spots in Birmingham so I thought I’d drag everyone there:) There were 60+ of us drinking tea and chatting in the tearooms. It’s quite a large cafe but we took over a good section; we’d been allocated about a third of the seating, but I think we may have taken over around half by the time we were due to leave.
From the tearooms we wandered across town to the Rag Market, and nearby Barry’s Fabrics and Fancy Silk Store. We had unseasonable good weather this year so didn’t get wet while walking around Birmingham. One of the market stall holders who sells Liberty-style printed cottons (near the food stalls at the front of the outdoor section of the market) did particularly good business!
When they were ready, attendees caught a bus into Moseley Village to visit Guthrie & Ghani, via lunch at Moseley Farmers’ Market. We lost count of the exact number, but there were over 90 attendees at Guthrie & Ghani so it was pretty full in the upstairs studio space which the meet-up took over for the day. Goodie bags were waiting at the shop for the first sixty or so attendees but ran out before everyone arrived (partly because it is very difficult to predict exactly how many attendees will turn up on the day in order to prepare, and partly because such large numbers are difficult for sponsors).
The raffle held in the afternoon at Guthrie & Ghani, plus donations given for tea and cake, raised £554 which has now been donated to the Made Up Initiative, and has helped to push the total amount raised by the Initiative over £3,000. We also held a pattern and fabric swap, with leftovers donated to a nearby charity shop.
I’ve heard a few people previously mentioning that they aren’t fond of larger meet-ups. I totally understand that once you’ve built up a group of friends who sew it’s nice to meet up with them, and that it’s much easier to chat with everyone as a small group. But I also think it’s good to have meet-up events that are open to everyone. It was through large meet-ups, advertised to everyone, such as Rachel’s London meet-up and the Birmingham meet-up organised by Marie, Claire and Kat, that I first met other sewists in person. One of the best things about the sewing community is how inclusive it is, and I think it’s important that there are inclusive meet-ups that anyone with an interest in sewing is welcome to join.
Massive thanks to everyone who came along – I hope you all had a good time & managed to meet some new-to-you sewists. I just wish I could have had more time to chat to everyone. A list of attendees is available here.
Around 38 attendees also participated in a merit badge swap and there were some amazing badges swapped on the day (you’ll find some on instagram tagged with #sewbrum). I was paired with Victoria, my badges for her are below, and were inspired by her love for sci-fi.
And hers for me, which features Paris, alpaca feet and a computer on/off logo – very fitting:)
I have put together a small gift for one member of the merit badge swap, on an embroidery theme. It contains a cute embroidery book I picked up last time I was in Paris, and two Dandelyne miniature jewellery embroidery hoops. The winner, identified using random number generator, is Vicky.
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 Pinterest board 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.
