Trip to Birmingham to the Sewing for Pleasure show

 Thursday my D Mike and I headed off on a trip to Birmingham with his parents - this was a dual trip, firstly to visit the home building expo because we want to build our own eco house, ideally somewhere near the river in Suffolk, and second for me to visit the Sewing for Pleasure expo.

All of us have come back with lots of inspiration and ideas from the building show and I came back with some lovely goodies from the Sewing for Pleasure show.

The first thing I did at the show was some silk painting – I purchased some silk paints a little while ago, and just haven’t had a chance to experiment with them yet, this was the perfect opportunity.  I selected a small square which already had a nice design on it and gave it a go.  It’s great – very therapeutic – the colour just bleeds into the silk and the effect is great – note to self – find some extra time for silk painting.

There was lots to see at the exhibitions, I managed to see some retailers who I have purchased goodies from before – for example the Babylock stand was there and I was able to address a couple of problems I had with my overlocker/serger (user error).  Gill Arnold was there, I attended a couple of her courses, so said hello, and asked a couple of questions and she mentioned that Linton Tweeds had a stand at the show.

I left Gill and dashed off to find Linton Tweeds, renowned as suppliers to Chanel and other prestigious international fashion houses.  I have often looked at their web site but there is something tactile about purchasing fabric, and I like to look, feel and touch before I commit to buy.  I found the following items (at a great price of course) so that I can make myself a couple of Chanel inspired outfits.

This is the pink woven and the black wool crepe they will work great together.

Here is some black and white weave and again I will use the wool crepe as the contrast and should I need any more, I should be able to reorder.

Here is the brown wool crepe, together with the silk that I purchased in NYC from Fashion Avenue - I think they all work great together.

I find the trouble with purchasing expensive fabric, as apposed to the fabric I buy from the market at £1 or £2 per meter, I am petrified of putting my scissors into it.  This means I DEFINITELY have to make up a calico version first.

Last but not least, I purchased a new gadget, a Husqvarna Viking embellisher machine.  One of the girls on the sewing discussion at the Stitcher's Guild Sewing Forum, Shams, made a beautiful coat where she had embellished it with her own design – it looked great and once I had a play with the machine at the show I was hooked and brimming with ideas. While I was at the Linton Tweed stand, I also purchased these balls of yarn below – I thought they would be great for trimmings and using with the embellisher and on another stand the skeins of wool.

 

 

 

 I think these are left over from the woven fabrics!

 

 

 

So I am going to sort out my sewing room and get ready for two weekends of sewing while my D Mike is away.

More later........................