Thursday 27 June 2013

East Fortune Car Boot Sale

Yikes what a day! On Sunday my bf an I went along to the East Fortune car boot sale. I actually cant believe that I have been in Edinburgh for so long and not realised the this Sunday market was running every week and is just along the road from me. I have been to the market before however I was quite young and I have since never thought of looking in to where it is actually located. Car boot sale have a special meaning to me as it was something that I used to do with my granddad when I was younger. I guess I moved on when I got older and I have not been back to one since. However, after a strange chain of thought that revolved around the Museum of Flight (which is next to the market) I discovered it true location and felt inspired to go back.  

Wow am I glad we went. My first awesome deal of the day came from the "shop" market side of the grounds where I discovered a lovely guy selling curtain fabric. I bought all of the thin lining fabric that he had left which came to a total of 4m for £5 not bad I thought. I'm thinking it will come in handy for practicing with and checking if patterns are going to fit.


My next bargain came from this stand. Hello... just look a all those cones of wool! I picked up a three of the large cones on the left hand side of the table. The minute I saw if I was straight on the phone to my Gran to see if she wanted any, so she will probably be getting most of what I bought. The little sign says Shetland Wool £2. Woop woop ... bargain.

My final and I think most spectacular bargain of the day was given to me by two guys who, when asked about the price tag, simply said that their mum had finished her sewing days and just wanted rid of her things.



 That's right the front of that shoe box says FREE!! The first thing I did upon seeing the box was ask the guys exactly what they meant by free???? However, before I had a chance to get a proper look through the box the guys had looked out a plastic bag, stuck the entire box in it and instructed me that I was to take them all! Can you believe it (my man certainly couldn't)? Such generosity.

So now I have all of these patterns. There are some cut, some uncut, some are too big, some are too small but FREE. Dresses, skirts, tops, vests, trousers, jacket and even swimwear!! I think I am currently a little out of my depth when I comes to resizing some of the patters but I am sure there are a couple that I can take on just now. Watch this space J



IPM Update
Progress on my Kelly Skirt by Megan Nielsen is looking good and I will hopefully have some completion photos over the weekend just as soon as I get the buttons attached.

Not being the sort of person to turn down something that is free (as clearly shown from my new stash of patterns) I have also recently completed a Sorbetto top from Colette patterns. I still can’t decide if I like it or not, I think perhaps the fabric I used could have done with having a little more movement in it. Never the less photos to come.


Thursday 13 June 2013

Indie Patterns Month!

I am soooo excited about this... I have just signed up to Indie Patterns Month which is being run by Kat at Modern Vintage Cupcake. This is a chance to give independent pattern designers a chance to get some more recognition for their contribution to the sewing world. Over the next month bloggers and other sewists will be creating garments from independent design labels and sharing their indie pattern collections with us all.

Indie pattern month

Since I started reading blogs it has been very clear within the sewing community there is a huge appeal towards giving the indie designers a fair chance with some folk showing quite an extreme bias towards them.

With this in mind and before I even knew about IPM, I have been looking for the best indie pattern for me to start off with. After a lot of goggling it was easy to see that Colette and Sewaholic were fairly easy to get my hands on. However, after even more searching and looking for inspiration from other peoples finished items I decided to keep it nice and simple and go with the Megan Nielsen Kelly Skirt (although I do have my eye on another couple of patterns for the future).

I was searching through some thrift shops a few days ago and found a lovely navy coloured Aztec print fabric and another multi coloured floral fabric with a white background. I have no idea what type of fabric they but in my eyes I think they would be ideal for skirts. Once the pattern arrives I will hopefully be able to work out if I have enough fabric for the Kelly skirt and then full steam ahead!

I'll keep you updated on my progress :-)

Laters...