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.

Hello!

I can finally share with you my Project using the new ever so gorgeous Tilda Circus Collection!

When Nadine from Sew and So asked for Bloggers to have a play with the new Collection, well you can’t say no….. Tilda make the ever so cute and whimsical fabric collections which I have stalked on the Internet for years and you know what, i’m embarrassed to say….. I was a ‘Tilda Virgin’ till now! Hahaha!

The Tilda Circus range is so much fun. Inspired by a trip to the circus it’s full of elephants balancing on trees while serving tea to from a teapot to a monkey, of course it’s natural! LOL! There are also dancers holding umbrellas with owls perched on their hands… it’s a Circus for Christ’s sake, It ain’t normal! Also a little girl on a swing and bright bold floral prints.

It is the perfect mix of kitsch and vintage with a touch of girly to it.

It’s fresh blue, red, turquoise and green series with flowers and motives reminiscent of the old circus life. They have a great summer feel that instantly makes you want to be outside. I really love the greens and the reds in this range. They do pop!

This fabulous collection has all your Tilda favourites in. Not only does it have the beautiful fabric, it also has buttons, new Tilda friends and clothing patterns for them and of course, a quilt pattern which are available from sewandso. So if you haven’t dabbled into Tilda well you best start now to see what the fuss is!!

I was sent this lovely fat quarter bundle which showcase’s the Green in the Collection but i must say they are gorgeous and to say I wouldn’t normally buy ‘green’ but I’m really impressed with the colour, print and quality too!

So i got my thinking cap on…..as you do! I thought just for a change from dressmaking, I’d make an accessory, a Crafty Apron!!

This will be ideal! As my job as an Activity Coordinator as i am always on the go making things with my Residents and I’m always misplacing my pens, pencils, brushes…. you name it, i lose it!! Hahahaha! So this will hopefully keep my tools at the hand ready!

I’ve seen some aprons via Pinterest but wasn’t keen on using Bias Binding as the apron ties so I’d thought I’ll give Cotton Webbing Tape a go!

So if you guys are interested in making yourself a Crafty Apron then read on! With just 10 simple Steps… “Say what?!” I hear you say! Yeah It’s just that easy!! No Pattern needed!!

Supplies:

2 Fat Quarters of your Choice

2m of Cotton Webbing Tape

Tailors Chalk

Thread and Bobbin

Scissors

Rotary cutter and Mat

Ruler to get those straight edges or go ‘freehand’ and to live dangerously!

Optional Extra – Clear Quilter’s Foot, I use mine all the time to get spot on Top Stitching!

Step 1:

A 1cm Seam Allowance is used throughout unless stated

First of all, we’ll be making the Pockets! So grab the Fat quarter of your choosing to make the Pockets

Cut one piece 18 x 45cm and another piece 13 x 45cm

Step 2:

On the Long sides of each Pocket, turn over by 1cm to the Wrong Side and Press. Once you’ve done that for both Pockets then Top Stitch in place, I used 0.6cm/ 1/4′ Inch Seam Allowance

Step 3:

Place the shorter Pocket on top of the taller one like this;

Now to figure out where you want to Pockets to go! Me personally, i quite like a mixture of big and small Pockets so i decided to make 4 pockets (2 on each side)

I did this by marking the middle of the Apron itself and then folding the side to the middle and then marking the fold point with a pin. For ease of a straight line i used Tailor’s chalk to mark my pocket, don’t know about you guys but even after nearly 3 years of sewing i still struggle to a precise straight line hahaha!

To Stitch the Lines for the Pockets, Sew a straight line from the Bottom to the Top. For the Centre Line of Stitching, don’t worry about this now as we’ll do that nearer to the end to get a nice straight line through all 4 Layers of the Apron.

Step 4:

Now to cut you other Fat Quarter in Half Length ways.

Place one of the Half of the Fat Quarter Right Side up with the Pocket Pieces Right Side up too like this;

Then place the other half of the Fat Quarter Right Side Down on top of that, so it looks like a Sandwich!

Step 5:

Stitch through all Layers down both sides and the bottom.

Clip the bottom edges near to the stitching line and then whilst turning the Apron Right Side out, find your most pointed tool available….mine was a wooden skewer (Yeah…. I like to improvise!) and gently poke the corner out.

Step 6:

Find the centre of the Back Piece and the centre of the length of Cotton Tape so with mine its at 1m mark on the Tape for ease of reference. Pin into place to match up with the middle of the Fabric. The Fabric needs to overlap the the Cotton Tape by 1cm. I found it easier to place the Tape by marking with my Tailor’s Chalk where 1cm fell on the Apron.

Step 7:

Start at one end of the Apron, sew the Tape to the Fabric along the length of the Cotton Tape, Finish where the Apron finishes. The line of Stitching needs to be as close to the edge of the Tape as possible, like this;

Step 8:

Fold the Cotton Tape down, over the Front on the Apron. Pin and Stitch, close to the the bottom of the tape as you can, then Top Stitch along the Top Edge in the same way using 0.6cm/ 1/4′ Inch Seam Allowance like I show you below;

Step 9:

To finish off the ends of the Cotton Tape, I double folded the ends and then stitched in place for a nice clean finish

Step 10:

Stitch from the Bottom of the Pockets, through all 4 Layers and finish where the top of the taller Pocket Finishes. Again i used the Tailor’s Chalk and Ruler to get a nice Straight Line

There you go! One Craft Apron ready to get your Creative Groove on!

I can see my residents wanting one of these for themselves! Hahaha! As you can see it’s all encased nice and neatly so no raw edges on show

Here is the Crafty Apron modelled on ‘Dorris’ with some Sewing Supplies

I hope you’ve enjoyed my quick and easy Tutorial on making your own Crafty Apron!

Just in case you missed the Schedule of my fellow Bloggers taking part in the Tilda Circus Blog Hop, here you go;

Saturday 8th April – SewandSo

Sunday 9th April – Bakes, Books & My Boys

Monday 10th April – Littlest Sweet Shop

Tuesday 11th April – The Yorkshire Sewist – That’s me of course!

Wednesday 12th April – Starting Stitch

Thursday 13th April – Just Sew Sue

Friday 14th April – Just Jude Designs

Enjoy the Hop!

Also not forgetting one last thing!!

Since I’m the nice and sharing type, I’ve got 2 Fat Quarters from the same collection I’ve been working with together with some Cotton Tape so you can make your own Crafty Apron!

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post here, my Facebook Page, Twitter or Instagram. If you’re feeling lucky you can leave a comment on all four to quadruple your chances to win!!

The Giveaway is open to Worldwide as it wouldn’t cost too much to post internationally

The winner will be announced on Saturday 29th April 2017!

Sal xx

The post Tilda Circus Blog Hop, Crafty Apron Tutorial and Giveaway! appeared first on The Yorkshire Sewist.