I had a great day on Saturday at Sew North, it was a meet up for sewers in Leeds organised by Sally from Sew Sweet by Sally and Becca from Red W Sews. They did a great job!

We met downstairs at Costa Coffee, I did feel sorry for anyone who went down for a quiet cup of coffee as there were about 50 of us, making new friends and reacquainting with old ones. There were quite a few Yorkshire Spoolettes there so it was great to meet up again. There were several who expressed trepidation at arriving as they didn’t know anyone but put two sewers together and you’ve soon got a friend! We were given goodie bags which included discount vouchers for B&M fabrics 🙂

We went round the shops in small groups as clearly having 50 descend on one shop wasn’t going to work. We all had a Sew North badge on so we could recognise each other, though I did nearly recruit someone into our merry band when she asked for directions to one of the shops, I chatted away to her, not realising she was just visiting by chance!

My group went to Samuel Taylors first. I resisted there, I did go with the intention of buying a shirt length of the quilting fabric I used last week with dressmakers dummies on it but they had none left.

Next stop was Kirkgate market. We went to Fletchers stall first where I fell for a gorgeous navy check in a beautiful fine wool, apparently it’s made for Paul Smith. It’s darker than it looks in the photo. I can’t quite remember how much it was but it was £10 or less per metre, I’m hoping to make a winter shirt-waister dress from it.

After Fletchers we meandered down to B&M Fabrics stall but it was heaving with our group so we found the African print stall, Fletchers new furnishing fabric stall and also had a wander over to Jacs fabrics.

We returned to B&M fabrics where it was a bit quieter, I fell for a lovely silvery grey tweed with a fine purple stripe, it’s quite heavy, more jacket weight. They also had some fur fabrics, which I don’t usually go for, but they had a really nice black one which I fancy making a winter hat out of, I had a fur hat years ago which I loved and as I’ve made a few hats this summer I thought I’d try a winter one. I would show you these two but unfortunately I left the bag in B&M’s shop, so I’ve got to go back for it!!

Next stop was B&M’s shop on the outside of the market. There I fell for some gorgeous boiled wool, it’s very fine and drapes beautifully, even better it washes well too apparently! It was only £8/m so I bought 2.5m in teal and 2m in navy, it’s 60″ wide so that should give me plenty of leeway depending on what I decide to make.

Anne and I had a lovely lunch in a little deli (proper fish finger sandwiches!!) before meeting everyone at Fabrications who had kindly put on tea and cake for us all. We sat and chatted, showed off our purchases and rummaged through the fabric & pattern swop which was a huge pile in a corner. I found some patterns and three lengths of fabric.

Sally and Becca had organised a raffle in aid of Yorkshire Air Ambulance with lots of great prizes such as pairs of tickets to the knitting & stitching show, vouchers for sewing shops etc. It raised over £200. To my amazement I won the top prize, £100 bag of fabric from Minerva fabrics!!! There’s a gorgeous length of tweed, I’m not usually a brown person but this has lots of blues and turquoises in it too, I love it.

There are two lengths of a fine, textured cotton type fabric, one in black and one in white, they’ll make lovely tops or shirts. The grey & black jacquard type print is a stretch fabric, I fancy a top in that one. The zebra type fabric in silver and black will make a great evening jacket.

There are two colourful prints which I’m not sure about, any suggestions welcome, altogether it was an amazing prize. My stash has certainly gone through the roof now!!

I haven’t done a stash report for a couple of months, mainly because there hasn’t been much change…there has now!

Stash Report

Stash end of July (ok, it’s a bit more than a couple of months!) 111.5m

Fabric used (sari & duster jacket)    8m

Fabric added to stash….     21m

Total stash in November   124.5m