Edinburgh Meet Up & Sewing Friends

It's true that one of the best things about making online connections with other sewing people, is getting to meet up in real life. I feel lucky that I live somewhere where it is relatively easy to arrange or attend meet ups, with a crowd of regular attendees.

On Sunday, Helen of Grosgrain Green arranged a meet up to go to the Pringle: Fully Fashioned exhibition at the National Museum in Edinburgh. Despite my being over 40 minutes late due to forgetting that the trains were not running as normal, everyone kindly held off going into the exhibition until I arrived.

It's a small exhibition (but free!) to mark 200 years of the iconic Pringle of Scotland company. I would recommend a visit if you can, as it's only on display until the 16th August. The garments on display are fascinating and totally pristine. Here are some of my favourites:

Digitally printed twinset by Julian David for Colette (2010)

 Amazing all black outfit (with jewelled hat!) created for a female golfer 

Groovy 1960s jumper

Helen had booked the nearby Spoon cafe for us, and here we all are:

(L-R) Me, Helen, Elaine, Clare, Debi, Joyce, Liz, Jen, Franca with Ellis (Photo from Franca - Thank you!)

It was the first time I had met Clare, Joyce and Liz and it was lovely to have some new faces in our group. We also had our youngest meet up attendee, Ellis, who was unimpressed with the sewing chat and spent most of the time sleeping. After brunch we went to Edinburgh Fabrics for a browse, but we were very restrained in purchasing.

Hopefully we'll get another meet up arranged at the end of the summer. If you have ever met up with people you've first 'met' online, how do you describe it to other people? I've settled on 'sewing friends', rather than trying to explain the complications of following blogs and Instagrams or Twitter as a way of getting to know people. Sewing Friends is an easier and nicer term, don't you think?

K x