Didn't we have a lovely time the day we went to Mandors?

Last Saturday saw a group of sewing bloggers hit Glasgow for a spot of shopping, swapping, chatting and lunching. Braving the rain in the name of fabric and socialising were:

 (L-R: Helen, Debi, Vanessa, Elaine, Alison, Katy, Elise, Katy (hiding!), Franca)

Alison of Heavenly Handmades
Debi of My Happy Sewing Place
Elaine of What Diana Did Next

Elise of Foof & Faff

Franca of Oranges & Apples

Helen of Grosgrain Green

Katy of I, of the needle

Katy of The Littlest Thistle

Nessa of Nessa's Place

A trip to Mandors formed the core of the visit, where we were most ably assisted by Hazel of Disaster in a Dress who works there, and had been assigned to attend to us that morning - weren't we lucky? It was very helpful to be able to ask her advice, you know when you get a bit overwhelmed by the choice of lovely, lovely fabric and end up wandering a bit aimlessly?

I was well behaved and only bought fabric I had been intending to purchase:

Plain navy dress fabric, cute pirate jersey (for baby bibs) and white towelling for bib backing, which I feel is very dull but exactly what I was looking for. I was also able to spend the Mandors voucher I received for Christmas from my sister-in-law (FYI best present ever!).

My lunch!

Shopping complete, we headed for the Butterfly & Pig tearooms where we had a delicious lunch followed by a show and tell of Mandors purchases and did a very civilised swap. I'd not been to the tea rooms before but the food was really good and the vintage-filled surroundings were so pretty. I was lucky to be back in the same place the next day for my mother-in-law's birthday when I had the afternoon tea, and can testify that it is also delicious.

Now, I love a good swap as a way of guilt-free stash acquisition and this time was no exception. Debi had even brought a whole suitcase (!) full of items and I think everybody ended up with something new to take home.

Happy swappers:

 

 (Photos from Nessa)

I got:

Some crazy wax print fabric (yes, those are pink glitter dots) which I'll be using to make a gathered skirt. I was so delighted to get this as it's one of my plans to make a skirt from wax printed cotton. I should have included something in the photo for scale but believe me, it's a big print!

 

 A couple of slip patterns, from Debi (on left) and Elise (right). I'm planning to make a slip this year too but I'm still at the stage where I just keep collecting the pattern of the thing I want to make instead of actually making it - do you ever do that?

I did very well from Elise's de-stashing as I also got this bag of threads:

I'm intrigued by the multi-coloured threads as I've never used these before - are they mainly for quilting? They're cotton

 

And a girl's coat also from Elise (on the left) which I was really attracted to as it matches the adult version I already have in my stash. Look, the hooded models are even wearing the same polo neck!

Nessa has done a lovely write up of the meet up here, and included a little bit about what everyone bought. I had only met 3 of the 9 ladies before so it was great to catch up with them as well as get to meet 6 new bloggers. I only wish there had been more time to speak to everyone. All in all it was such a great way to spend a Saturday, meeting lovely people, looking at fabric and chatting about our shared hobby.

This was my 4th blogger meet up and I hope there will be more meeting up opportunities this year. Perhaps if I organised one closer to the summer we may be able to tempt some of you southerners up...?

Thanks everyone for coming on Saturday and for making it such an enjoyable meet up - let's hope there's more such events in the future.

K x