So, as we announced on Instagram a little while ago, Becca and I are all geared up for the next round of Sew Up North! We, and hopefully some of you, will be hitting the coffee (and cake) shops of Leeds, probably buying lots of fabric and charity raffling our hearts on September 29th in Leeds city centre.

We will once again be supporting the fabulous Yorkshire Air Ambulance charity. We have got THE most incredible list of raffle prizes, even more than last year, and so we’re hoping to be able to top our fundraising record of £724. So if you’re coming, bring your raffle ticket pennies!

Tickets for the event will be released in the near future (watch this space) as will more detail on the specifics of the day, but we wanted to let you know the high level at this point.

As has already been spotted by some keen previous attendees on Instagram, Costa have cold-heartedly closed the branch on Briggate at which we formerly kicked off proceedings. But never fear! We have located another venue and sweet talked John Lewis into letting us meet up at their 4th floor cafe in the new Victoria Gate store. (To be fair, when I asked whether we’d be OK to bring over 100 fabric mad shoppers together in their usually reasonably calm and quiet cafe on a Saturday morning, they didn’t argue!)

After grabbing a drink (and possibly a bun or a bacon butty?) we will once more disperse into the fabric shops of Leeds. We’ll be leaving this to happen organically (ie we won’t be forcing you to pair up and form an orderly crocodile around the city centre!) but don’t worry if you’re thinking of coming alone; sewists are an unusually friendly bunch and I’ve never yet seen anyone stranded.

After shopping time, we will meet up once more at the Belgrave Music Hall & Canteen, where you will be able to buy lunch and/or drinks from the vendors downstairs (assuming they’re granting us the same space as last year, we will be upstairs), enjoy a grand fabric and pattern swap, grab any last minute raffle tickets and then sit back and enjoy watching more sewing related prizes than you knew were possible being won; who knows, you might be one of the lucky ones?

There are a couple of small changes from last year. Firstly, as mentioned, we’ve changed the initial meeting point, but since John Lewis is a fairly large landmark and definitely still sells lots of nice drinks and snacks, that shouldn’t be a problem.

Secondly, to reduce the stress levels for Becca and myself, we have decided not to hand out goody bags this year. I’m really sorry to anyone who’s disappointed by this, but they took a lot of time and a fair amount of personal investment and this year, we neither of us have the headroom for it. It also stopped us being able to mingle and chat to people ourselves, so we’ve decided to make things more straight forward all round.

Thirdly, and again in the interests of our sanity, there will be another blog post in the next couple of weeks asking for volunteers to help out with certain tasks on the day. So many people kindly offered to help on the day last time, and we were a smidge tired at the end, so we’re going to be sensible and accept some willing volunteers this time around! We hope no one’s offended by this!

Finally (and this is the good bit), according to Becca I’ve got the gift of sweet talking to the Belgrave into allowing us to have more people this time around within their Health & Safety limits. 150 tickets will be available in the next couple of weeks; there is no charge for these, but it does allow us to be sure that we’re not breaching the requirements set by the Belgrave who let us use their space free of charge.

So, pop the date in your diary and keep an eye out for the posts over the next few weeks. We have been absolutely stunned by the generosity of our raffle prize sponsors and we’ll be whetting your appetite with all the goodies on offer. And there will be a post when the tickets go live.

Hope to see you there?

Sally and Becca x

The post It’s been a while crocodile!!! Sew Up North 2018 appeared first on The Yorkshire Sewist.

Now the Title just says it all!!!

As soon as the Tickets were realised back in April both Becca and I said we must go!! So Becca was eagerly there at 9am ready for the Tickets to be realised along with the Super theatre access and workshops whilst I sorted the accommodation and Train Tickets for us to be ready and raring to go on the Saturday rather than traveling down and back the same day which is uber tiring especially when travelling over 2 hours each way!!

Now look what I had packed to take with me! Handmade wardrobe even down to the PJs! The Fabricology Bag is my contribution to the pattern Swap!

I travelled down on the Friday evening, navigating the underground and the DLR with ease and got off at Prince Regent Station as the Custom House is being revamped. Now I arrived at 8.40pm and it’s pitch black….

I had Google Maps on my phone but it decided to take me the wrong direction of where i needed to go and then my phone died and I took a very scenic route to my Hotel….. but thankfully I came across Jamie aka MaleDevonSewing from Series 4 who was taking a phone call outisde the Hotel he was staying at and took my luggae trolley off me and said to go and sit down and have a drink with him and some other Sewing Bees! I was amongst Celebrities but of course my phone had died at the point!! Dam!

Jamie kindly walked me to the Hotel i was stopping at, as he knew where he was going (i bloody didn’t!!) as he went to that one 1st rather than the Ibis he was actually staying at! LOL so I finally arrived at the Hotel at 10.40pm!!! I had set off from Doncaster Station at 6:03pm and had a full day at work too!!!

We was up at and ready for 8am, so we made our way down for Breakie. It got very busy after we arrived as there were long queues forming but thankfully we managed to get our fill before it got that busy!

It was a tad drizzly, but that didn’t dampening our spirits…(sorry bad pun!Lol!) We made our across to the Excel!!

I finally got to met Elle, Sarah and Rachel  for a quick chat and hug before we headed to the Cloakroom. But we did say we would met later for a natter.

We dropped our luggage off at the Cloakroom at a bargain price of £1 per item!! You can’t go wrong as it was £2 per item at the ICHF Stitching, Sewing and Hobbcrafts Show at Manchester back in February! Then had a chance to grab some snaps of the the cool olympic membrolia.

When we returned back to where the Show was hosted at N5 a massive queue had formed!! Swear it was only 5 minutes we passed it and there wasn’t a queue whatsoever!!

So we waited patiently, near the entrance and joined the end of the queue when they came to the entrance, whats the point of going all the way back there to come back again?! We even got a friendly smile from Patrick when he passed!!! Ekkk!!

We had a quick look around before the Super Theater at 11am. We found Melissa of Fehr Trade in the corner and spoilt myself with her especially made in Yorkshire Pins!! We managed a quick chat but she was uber busy which understandable!

Said Hello to Kate and Rachel of The Fold Line and who had the most amazing seats ever!

Had a quick look through some of the Stalls and even managed to find Lisa of The Avid Seamstress  and Clare too where i received a another badge to my collection! Yay!

Becca and I met with Pecia aka Mini Adventures who was going to the Super Theater too and the Workshop we was attending too! She was making the most of her Birthday Pressie and that her adorable Pie and Pop were joining us later.

The Super Theater was interesting… even though we paid extra for the premium seats we still ended up at the back which wasn’t really fair but hey ho! Sarah aka Likesewamazing was on the Alteration challenge!! She was teamed up with Jenni Bob Taylor from Series 2. They did really well considering they only 45 minutes to complete the challenge!

We then quickly grabbed some lunch in the form of a Chicken Burrito and Dr Pepper before we knew it it was time for the Vintage Technique Workshop hosted by the lovely Delphine unfortunately the workshop was a little rushed as the previous one had over run but i came away with lots of instructions and new knowledge that i didn’t before.

Then we met with Jamie and chatted outside the workshop area for some reason rather than sitting down like normal people would …… and met the lovely Kellie who was going to Jade’s workshop of sewing with beaded fabric, the lucky thing!!

Oh yes… Did i mention Becca and I are now Cover Stars for Love Sewing Magazine?!

Finally, caught up with Mark of GirlCharlee who was doing very well on his stand, it isn’t surprising as they are good quality jerseys! Also said hello to Tracey from Series 4 too who was with her daughter eyeing up the goodies too!! Yeah I am that short… please don’t point it out any further!!

Also a quick chat to Mrs Maven of Maven Patterns!

Then to wind the day down, we then met with Rach, Elle, Sarah, Jen, Jen W and Sarah for a natter before everyone was going home.

Of course I couldn’t not have a silly photo with Jamie, still can’t believe it’s been 2 years since we last saw each other at the Interviews for the GBSB Series 4 but thankfully we had time for a catch up!!

Wow, what an experience the GBSB Live was! It was great to see people in real life rather than just on Instagram! I do hope that there is another next year but i do think I will go in the weekday rather than the weekend where it would be quieter, more lush fabric to oggle through and to talk with the stall owners properly.

If i have missed anyone out, I do apologise as there was a lot of people there and it sometimes hard to recognise faces to their Instagram handle!

Here’s a few random photos from the Show..

I didn’t get a lot from the Show as there wasn’t really calling out to me as I’m trying not be a Fabric Hoarder and buying Fabric just as it’s pretty, I need to have a project in mind before i buy.

So there you go folks my epic few days ‘down South’ lol I ain’t used to such a big City and the amount of people!! I should of taken more pictures!!

Sal x

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