Last Sunday I was lucky enough to be able to go to the Great British Sewing Bee Live at Excel. I had awonderful day and it was a much needed break from the madness of the last few months. This was my first time visiting the Excel Centre and I am impressed at how easy it was to get to. There were a lot of firsts on the day,,as well as my first time at Excel, I decided to try the Emirates Cable car, what n experience. The views over London were inspiring and I enjoyed it.. I did get a little startled now and then when I looked around and saw a FAB member decal on the window
I bought a show guide which is something I don’t normally do for these things, it was at first glance expensive at £8 , but it came with a free bag and lots of articles, so was more like a magazine. I flicked through and found out where all the freebies were. More of them in the next post. My first stop was the Liberty clothing display from the Fashion and Textile museum. I had seen this previously at the museum but it was good to see all those beautiful prints up close again..

I decided to go up and down each row of stands so that I didn’t miss anything. At the show was a fashion show sponsored by Vogue patterns that showcased some of the dressmaking patterns available, both from their brands and the independents. I saw the 11:30 showing and was so pleased I did. There were some lovely clothes shown and it was here that I first saw my PERFECT pattern for me. It was love at first sight. The pattern is form independent pattern designer The Avid Seamstress. The pattern is an Aline/swing dress with pockets and best of all a raglan sleeve. the pattern is called the Raglan Dress and this will be another great stash buster. She also had a childs version of the pattern which I also purchased. Evalyn will be getting lots of these. For Evalyns I have traced off her size ready to use the pink stretch denim i bought years ago. a nice applique dinosaur should complete it. Despite destashing I did succumb to buying some fabric. more on that in the next post.

The show wasn’t as big as I expected but it did mean I could see everything at a leisurely pace. another plus point was all the independent stands. one of the stands I visited was Sew n Beads the website does not do it justice. There were lots ofnlovely items there , one thing I particularly liked was that she had lots of items made up you could buy but there was also the option to buy the same items in kit form. I bought two lovely kits there. Of course I plan on making more of the same with my stash and the pattern!

I bought some nice cards and an interesting pattern from the Leicestershire Craft Collective . The cards are for me to look at , not necessarily send but the pattern I am a little disappointed in. I specifically asked if this could be adapted for a younger child and they said full instructions to adjust for all sizes were in there. They weren’t. It does say how to adapt it but not the way she made it sound. It will still be a great stash buster but for adults  and downsizing I will need to do some more work.

More to follow at a later date