The Spring Knitting and Stitching Show - London Olympia.

The Spring Knitting and Stitching Show was held at Olympia a couple of weeks ago. It took me a little while to decide whether to attend. I've only been to one show before, the autumn event held at Alexandra Palace, which was a bit intense! It was crowded with a huge queue to get in, hot with very little seating and, although I bought some gorgeous fabric, the highlight of the day was definitely the afternoon tea! However some members of the craft group I belong to, Crafternoon, decided to go so I bought my ticket.

I have to say to set up at Olympia is a million times better! The venue itself is so much more light and airy with lots of seating for a quick pit stop and nearby restaurants for lunch. We got there about 15 minutes early and I’m glad we did, the queue moved quickly and once we were inside you could actually move around the stalls without someone elbowing you or bum bashing you out of the way! Yes it’s smaller than the autumn show but all my favourite fabric shops had stalls there so I knew I’d be able to find some lovely fabric.

I did have a little ‘wish list’ of fabrics I was on the lookout for and my first stop didn’t disappoint. I found some great nautical fabric from Fabrics Galore This lovely cotton was only £8 a metre so I bought enough for a 50’s style dress with a big skirt.

While at the Fabrics Galore stall and, while it was so quiet, I had a good look at their Liberty fabrics. Not sure how they manage to sell them at only £14 a metre but they did and, my god, were people buying! I got this lovely creamy cotton lawn with blue and red flowers – my favourite colour combinations. They were also selling some great Alexander Henry fabrics but I managed to resist buying the Aloha girls – maybe in the summer.

I fancied a floral fabric with a green base and found this great rayon fabric for only £6 a metre. I’ve never used rayon before but it feels silky soft so I think making a dress with this is going to be a learning curve!

Next stop was the Eternal Maker stall. I’d bought some fabric from them at the autumn show (a lovely brown spotty soft linen which is still sitting in my fabric stash waiting for summer) and they have a great range on their website. Mmm their fabrics are so dreamy and on the more expensive side so it took me a while to narrow down which fabric to buy. In the end it was a toss-up between a red and blue spotty bird fabric or a vintage style yellow. I went for the yellow as it was a lovely spring day and I could see it sewing up into a great summer dress. It’s by Moda, £14 a metre and it’s going to be fab in the summer!

Final fabric purchase was from Phase Patch. Where we found some great prints however this red check caught my eye – it’s a cotton silk mix so is really soft and light. With a soft lining fabric this will make a great autumn dress. Also it was only £10 a metre and 60 inches wide – fab! While my fabric was being cut the stall holder suddenly said my name – in this small small world in turns out I went to primary school with her. I obviously haven’t changed much since being 8! Faye now runs a fabric shop in Chippenham, Wiltshire a town which I, once a month, travel to for work. See I told you it was a small world!

We also stopped by the By Hand London stall and had a chat with the girls about their fab Kickstarter Project where you can print your own fabric. How great is that? At the moment they are about half way to the much needed £35k for the building of the app and purchasing of the printers. Please do take a look and support as much as you can before 12 April. I also bought an Anna dress pattern while I was there, well, everyone raves about what a great pattern it is so it deserves a place in my box. 

So very happy with my purchases. They have all been washed and ironed and are ready to be sewn up – which to use first?!?! I have such a long line of projects in my head. First up is making a calico toile of the Colette Patterns Peony Dress which I might try and cut this weekend.

This weekend I’m also attending a special meet up of my Crafternoon group where we haul our sewing machines to one of our houses and make dresses for the charity Dress A Girl Around the World . This is the third time we’ve done this and it’s a great way of using up small bits of fabric which would just sit around. Do you have an hour to spare to make a simple dress for a girl in Africa?