Sewing For Pleasure, NEC

Last weekend I visited the Sewing For Pleasure show at the NEC with my Mum. We bought our tickets through Tesco Clubcard for a bargain £3! And the tickets not only gain you entrance to the Sewing For Pleasure show, but also Hobbycrafts, Fashion & Embroidery, and Cake International.

I love visiting the big sewing shows at the NEC. They are a great way to stock up on sewing and craft supplies and gather inspiration. Even if you don’t buy anything (which in my opinion is virtually impossible) it is a great day out and is a great opportunity to browse and feel the variety of fabrics in a way you just can’t do online. I love being able to buy from a variety of different stalls without having to pay postage and I can feel the quality of fabric before I buy.

I always intend to take lots of photos of all the stalls as I go round the shows, but once I’m in I get far too distracted and forget! But I thought I would share some photos of some of my purchases from the day:

© 2016 Jennifer Richardson

1. I bought 6 coordinating fat quarters from the Favourite Fabrics stall in light green and grey. I always like to visit the Favourite Fabrics stall to look at their fat quarters as they normally have a deal of 6 fat quarters for £10 and on this visit these 6 jumped out at me. I made a quilt for my niece using 6 fat quarters I had previously bought from Favourite Fabrics so I intend to do something similar with these.

2. Floral cotton voile from Abakhan. I intend to make a little pair of trousers from this for my niece using Simplicity 1624 from which I have just finished the ruffle dress.

3. Pink bird fabric from Fabrics Galore. This is a fabric I spotted when I was at Knit & Stitch in Harrogate back in November that I liked, but talked myself out of buying. But when I visited the Fabrics Galore stand last weekend it was sat right on top of everything just looking straight at me so I decided that it was meant to be and bought 1.5 metres of it for making some sort of blouse. It is 100% polyester and I am a little worried it won’t breathe particularly well so I think I might do something sleevless. I did think it would probably make a good lining for something, but I want to make it into a top! It is a slight crinkly texture to it a bit like a crepe.

I also bought a purple Frixion pen…I already have 2 black ones, but couldn’t resist the purple. I got terribly excited when I discovered these pens that allow you to draw on fabric and then the ink magically disappears when you pass an iron over the top! I think my only other purchase was a couple of packs of blank cards from a stall in the Hobbycraft show that sell packs of blank cards for £2.

I thought I was reasonably restrained on this visit to Sewing For Pleasure. Mum and I love looking through all the sewing patterns on the Simplicity and McCalls stands, but I didn’t even buy a single one! That is, however, partly because I had just received 2 new patterns in the post that I had bought from Weaver Dee along with a smooth tracing wheel, a ball point twin needle, a pack of top stitch needles for doing free machine embroidery and 4 spools of Moon thread for my overlocker! You do get free P&P if you spend over £10 afterall!

© 2016 Jennifer Richardson