Crafty Clyde goes to The Sewing Weekender!

Well what a weekend it was!

I arrived late Friday to be greeted by a concerned security man as I had wandered into the gardens of the Cambridge University campus in the dark and he'd picked me up on CCTV. Hilarious.

Punting in Cambridge - didn't have a go but just watched :)

Once settled however the weekend, organised by Charlotte of English Girl at Home and Rachel and Kate of The Fold Line - was outstanding! I even got to join them for breakfast on Saturday morning and was made to feel welcome despite my ridiculous nervyness. 

Charlotte and Kate 

Right from the start there was a serious excitable buzz going on as we were handed some amazing goody bags and a box of supplies from Adam Ross Fabrics. So many sewing ladies all in one room!!

Arrival!

I was on a table with Pippa from The Fabric Wrangler, Eliza Sew-Little who works in Guthrie and Ghani,  and Melissa Fehr of Fehr Trade! They were an absolute comedy dream, very funny ladies.

tiny sewing machines

 I didn't actually get a great deal of sewing done - was too busy chatting, drinking tea, being overwhelmed by all the 'sewing celebs' in the room- but did finish an Ogden Cami just in the nick of time and wore it out for dinner. Turtle print - naturally. I'll blog about that another time as I have a second one in the making aswell...

A very tasteful Ogden Cami...

Sewing prefects were fantastic and went from table to table helping out and chatting away. I couldn't believe my luck when Elena from Randomly Happy stopped by for a chat. #fangirl I also failed to remain cool when Rachel from House of Pinheiro made an appearance, and even selected some of my fabric in the stash swap!

Day 2 was a little calmer as we had several talks on different subjects. I absolutely loved Rachel's discussion on inspiring creativity and the idea of 'finding your sandwich' (basically if you were to make a sandwich that represented you, what is it?!). Here is my sandwich! As someone who works in a very black and white industry (law) it was such a refreshment to hear about all this creative thinking and ways of getting your brain free to design and edit your own thoughts.

Marilla Walker was also fascinating to me because she has a clearly obsessive and inquisitive nature - I mean who else would make 20 toile versions of a bra...just because!! She gave a brilliant insight into her processes and why she does what she does.

Elena gave a talk on creating a meaningful wardrobe - which quite frankly made me fall in love with her a bit. That woman is hilarious. It certainly made me re-evaluate my ever growing sewing list and personal style. I really do think I'm going to delete the list and liberate myself from these self-imposed shackles of guilt induced by 'patterns bought but never made'.

Tilly and the Buttons (minus the Buttons) gave a very insightful glimpse into how she started and the behind the scenes of how a pattern comes to life - she also hinted of September and January new pattern releases!

Sewing talks

There were so many other lovely speakers and attendees that I could go on for ages - but needless to say it was a pretty epic weekend!

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