Pattern Review Weekend in Preston UK 24-26 October 2008

Pattern Review Weekend in Preston UK 24-26 October 2008

The itinerary is as follows:

Friday 24th October
Modern Approach to Dressmaking 1 day Course with Janet Moville which costs £62.00, please book directly with Janet
http://www.sewjanetmoville.co.uk/content/courses/courseDetails.asp?courseID=59
Course starts at 10am and finishes at 4pm. Bring your own lunch or order from the local sandwich service on arrival.

after the course check into Preston Central Travelodge
(Please book your room directly with Travelodge - http://www.travelodge.co.uk/
Rooms are showing as available and are £39 per night - you can share a family room which has two beds with a friend.)

Then at the hotel in a shared room (prob Ruth and Jenni's)- Activity Session 1 (5pm - 6:30pm)
then off into Preston centre for a meal e.g. Pizza Hut etc approx 7pm
back to the hotel for Activity Session 2 (9pm - whenever!)

Saturday 25th October
Saturday morning shopping in Preston market - there are 3 fabric stalls as well as 2 haberdashery stalls with patterns, notions etc.
We especially liked 'Washable Fabrics' who has lovely fabric at very reasonable prices - particularly great jersey knits and wools.
We'll have a light lunch in the 'Fryers' Fayre' cafe at the market
and then drive on to Lancaster
first to the Standfast Factory Fabric Shop (which closes at 2pm so no dawdling in Preston)
Then we'll go on to Fabrix in Lancaster
http://www.fabrix.org.uk/
and later have an evening meal in Lancaster
after the meal travel back to Preston to the hotel for Activity Session 3 (9pm to whenever)

Sunday 26th October
Activity Session 4 (then checkout by 12 noon)
then to Abakhan in Preston (open from 11am until 4pm). Light lunch in Preston or as you travel home.

Variations
Hotel: If you are travelling a long distance you can book in for Thursday night as well.
I believe we have 2 ladies planning to do this, but the rest of us are travelling on Friday morning.
If you cannot attend the course on Friday you can still join us.
Either meet us at the hotel late Friday afternoon or if joining us for Saturday, car parking is in the Pay and Display car park for the Market or you can come in by train and walk to the market (not far)

Session details
The activity sessions include the following, though we've not put them in slots just yet, will update this....
- Jewellery making with Julia (to suit fabric/personality)
- Measuring for alterations with Jenni - an interactive session
- Finding your best colours with RuthieK
- Unloved pattern, button and fabric swaps (we'll tell you more about these nearer the time).

Scoping out sewing in Preston

YorkshireLass (Jenni) and I are organising a get together for Pattern review members in the UK on the weekend of 24th/25th/26th October. Since neither of us live in preston we decided we neede to do and advance trip to check out the stores for the others.

We had a fabulous time, except for the bits where we repeatedly drove round the one way systems of Preston and Lancaster, saying to each other 'was that the turning' as we went past it again. I was navigating, so its ALLLLLLLL my fault.

Anyhoo, I think Jenni planned to only scope out the shops and not buy anything, but I always planned to SHOP. Apparently some of that rubbed off on Jenni and she took a few goodies home too.

In the end I bought 9 pieces of fabric, a pattern, some tracing paper and some clear elastic.

So for those who are coming on the weekend, we have worked out an itinerary for the weekend now, and I'll post it tomorrow.

Lovely lace

Inspired by the discussion on Prada's use of lace on Stitcher's guild, I remembered some chocolate brown lace I bought last year in Germany on the European Pattern Review weekend.

The Prada skirt is a little extreme (as designers tend to be), but I liked this version from Principles, which is a whole lot more wearable by the mere mortal

http://www.principles.co.uk/fcp/product/-/BERLIN/Black-Lace-Skirt-With-Neutral-Lining/8076

August Sewing

I was flipping through my uncut patterns and came across this one - Butterick 4464.

I really like the simple cut of these pieces and have a great charcoal with red pinstripe fabric I'd like to use from the stash.

I'd use that for the jacket and pants, then sew a red shell (prob a knit rather than their lined woven shell).

I can't decide if the skirt would then be red or charcoal. I already have an RTW red skirt, so perhaps charcoal makes more sense in wardrobing terms.

For the PR August mini Wardrobe contest you have to use three colours and that's only two, but I can sew a cream shell instead of the red for the contest - it would definitely be a useful piece to have.

Ruthie's Croquis

(picture removed)
Ruthie's Croquis from Jan 2008, a lot of work so not planning to redo for a while since I am only a few pounds lighter and still the same overall shape :-)

Current lack of sewing progress

well I have changed jobs at the company were I work and the new job is interesting but I'm working more hours and travelling, plus the house is on the market so the sewing room has to look more like a bedroom - which somewhat hampers sewing progress.

I am still just a few pounds above my WW goal weight, so have had a BIG clear out of too large clothes.
I kept some stuff to be altered/recut but still managed to get rid of 4 bin bags full.
I am trying to be a little more selective when buying/sewing new things and I'm using a more restricted palette of colours.

So not got a lot of sewing ongoing at the moment to share really.

Shopping RTW a bit more has shown up that I still have most of the same fit issues that i did when I was bigger, in fact some of them are more apparent now I am slightly less padded.

My shoulders/upper back/upper chest are quite broad, and my upper arms fleshy, this is a limiting factor with jackets/blouses etc. Tailored blouses in particular just are not the shape I am. The size which fits my shoulder/back and arms is loose below the bust. The bust darts are too low - and I have less bust than they expect for my size.

Skirt and straight leg pants - if they fit on the hips are quite loose on the waist. This varies depending on the brand, but is pretty much always a problem. Wide leg pants allow extra space in the hips/thighs in the cut of the pant, so I can go down a size and the waist almost fits (not quite but much closer).

So I've been buying knits in cotton or viscose, wider leg pants, fitted jackets and flared skirts. Oh and of course accessories like shoes, scarves and costume jewellery!