Wow what a day i had!! It was my first time attending this Show for some reason and it was well worth it! We arrived at 9.50am and there wasn’t much waiting at all and the queues were well managed.

I was kindly given a Press Pass from the Organisers which entitled me to gain free entry to the Show and a Show Guide which was very useful as there was a lot of stands and i wanted to see some of my favourite shops in person.

Its a pretty extensive guide that has broken the stalls down into alphabetically and per product and the map of the halls is huge! Its a pretty handy map as i used it quite a lot whilst attending the show.

My friend Jane came with me also who dabbles with Sewing but not dressmaking came with me and she told me not to let her buy fat quarters or yarn….. I didn’t do a very good job!!

We came through the side entrance which meant we was in Hall A to start with and came across Caroline and Fliss of Felicity Fabrics. It was great to see them in person and have a chat and of course i couldn’t not say no to a few things….. This Rust Baby cord 1.5m to make a Tilly and The Buttons Ness Skirt or i could squeeze a Cleo out of it, oh now that is making me think!! Also how can anyone pass up Kylie and the Machine Labels, i just love putting these into my makes and finally these absolute beauties by Whim Wham Buttons these handmade ceramic buttons in Colbat Blue where they made in Stoke on Trent. Plus it’d always a winner in my book for a sweet treat, thank you for the biscuit! Saved to have with my coffee whilst making a start with my festive dress.

On recommendations from Stall owners on our way round Hall A was to make our way to the Sewing Quarter Stand, where they were selling Sewing Advent Calender’s, Mugs and Fat Quarters really cheap! So of course i had to treat myself not bad for £11 for a Advent Calendar with many Sewing accessorises and a big mug, must remember its not dishwasher friendly!

Now there where some fascinating displays on show and some which i didn’t quite get too…. Yes Jane you know what i mean!

We decided to have some lunch and i was quite surprised that there was somewhere to sit as it was quite busy yet it was kept really clean. i decided to get a Chicken Katsu Wrap which was really tasty for £3.50 so it wasn’t that overally priced but not sure why Jane’s Jacket Potato with Cheese cost £5! Whilst having lunch i shouted across to Beth and had a quick chat before she went to her workshop of Silver Clay Pendant making.

The very lovely Adaku of Dovetailed Fabrics had a stall here and she travelled all the way from London and I’m glad she made the trip as i finally bought some African wax print at last! She also provided free tickets which meant Jane got into the show for free too. We had a nice chat about the fabrics and how to wash and care for them. So i treated myself to this wonderful purple floral fabric.

Then a trip to Barnyarns where i bagged these 3 madria thread for £4.00, a back up jersey twin needle and some new cute pins

Oh yes not forgetting our stop at the Cats Protection Stall, i treat myself to a new Simons Cat Lip Balm and received the 2020 Calendar and magazine for free!

Finally managed to track down Lisa and her mum after loads of messages back and forth to see where abouts’ we were and actually getting lost!! So had a good chat, laugh and wander about before heading off home at 3.30pm.

When i arrived home Mr K had cooked a beautiful Chicken Stew so it was a great way to end the busy yet exciting day. But then ended up having 40 winks and a nasty headache as it wiped me out fibromyalgia has a lot to answer for :/

I would really recommend attending the Show at Harrogate you can easily spend the full day there and if you didn’t want to stay for the food that was on offer inside you could get stamped and pop across the road into Town to get some food. We parked at the multi storey car park which was just round the corner from the convention centre and it cost £8.70 for 6 hours so not bad at all for a city centre parking.

So if you haven’t been before or a while, i highly recommend you attending!

Sal xx

The post Harrogate Knitting and Stitching Show appeared first on The Yorkshire Sewist.

Now i am wanting to keep my Sewing Projects planned out properly and this was ideal at doing so!

It has just the right amount of items to tick off plus there is space to add any other items that you may use in your project, i quite like the tick off boxes as then i can make sure i’ve actually got them by ticking them off.

There are 50 tear off sheets to plan out your dressmaking projects and it also doubles up as handy shopping list for your trips to the fabric shop, as i am that eager to get my supplies i always end up forgeting something and then spending more pennies on stuff that i don’t need there and then!

I found the size of these sheets perfect to add to your projects as they are just the right size not to lose and plus they can go back in the pattern envelope ready to see what supplies was used last time and what size was made at a quick glance rather than wasting time figuring it all out again, always a win in my book to make the sewing process quicker

Just look how cute it looks also when pegged to you final garment?

The Notepads are available to buy here

Happy Sewing!

Sal xx

**This notepad was gifted to me in exchange of my honest review**

The post Review of The Garment Planner Notepad appeared first on The Yorkshire Sewist.

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.