Sewing Cafes in South East London

I've been back to work for a whole month now and my precious time for sewing has taken a knock back so I've not got anything to show yet but hopefully I can share the 2 quilts I'm working on soon!

So in the meantime I thought I'd do a bit of signposting and make a list of the sewing cafes and workshop places that are springing up across South East London. I'm sure there are lots more so I'll keep adding them as I come across them! Let me know if there are others I can add too.

SewOverIt is in Clapham has a great range of classes, with more being added all the time. It also has a cafe and allows you to book time to use machines whilst enjoying some lovely cafe. All of this and a great stock of fabrics and haberdashery bits. It was here that I did my fantastic Machine Embroidery class in January.

Seweastduwlich in East Dulwich is just round the corner from me and I've popped into the shop many times. They now offer workshops to make cushions and dresses as well as knitting and crocheting.

Others I've come across but not been to... yet:

The White Room in Crofton Park. Has machines you can book by the hour or block with a spot of tea and workshops including hat making. They also offer useful sewing machine repairs and servicing. Must pop in soon.

Stag & Bow in Forest Hill.  Has a shop, workshops and takes design commissions - phew! Currently they have lots of amazing discount offers when you book more than one workshop, making it even easier to try all those new crafts you've always wanted to master!

Sewing Time in Blackheath. Has a great range of workshops, courses and clubs. Not strictly a cafe but a place to go for support, learning new skills or making some friends and joining in! 

Miss Libby Rose in Greenwich. Again this isn't strictly a cafe but has a great range of classes which include beginner sessions and sessions especially tailored for children.

Crafts Bee in Beckenham. Offers a huge range of courses and workshops including sewing from pattern cutting and corsetry!!

And across London:

London Sewing Workshops in Bethnal Green
The Create Place in Bethnal Green
Saturday Sewing Sessions in Chelsea
The Papered Parlour in Clapham
Our Patterned Hand in Broadway Market, Hackney
Ray Stitch in Islington 
The Sewing Rooms in Putney
Earl Grey and Rose in Streatham
Cheekyhandmades in Walthamstow
Homemade London in West End

Building Blocks

Two new babies and a first birthday all in the same month so throughout March I've started a factory line in Building Blocks. Each set has 6 blocks and each side has a different fabric. I used a mix of spots, plains, elephants, floral and patchwork mix.

By cutting each side the same size of the finished blocks I ensured that the finished block will be snug. I ordered the foam from Ebay and cut it into squares with an electric knife - huge fun, but best done when the kids aren't around!

I machine stitched five pieces together and sewed two complete sides and an inch of the other two sides of the final piece. Then I trimmed the corners and threads, flipped the squares the right way round and squeezed the foam into place. The final edges were finished by hand sewing in a matching thread.

More Pom Poms

Do you remember making pom poms when you were a kid? I do. And the recent popularity of huge paper tissue ones lead me to go back to those original pom poms to decorate a gift. It was also a great activity to do with Finn. We found this lovely film on youtube so Finn (and me!) could see what we needed to do and we were away! We especially enjoyed the haircut stage!

Boys Scrappy Abstract Quilt

This is for a new baby boy all the way in Holland! I used a mix of blues, greens and purples with some lovely boy motifs - rockets and robots! Just the right size for a pram, a play mat and later a great memory!

The back is made from a solid piece of blue stripe and the binding is white cotton, creating a lovely frame.

Applique T-shirts

It feels as though many of my recent posts have been for or about Sophie and this one is no different - lucky girl. I promise other things are coming soon!

As babies do, she has had a growth spurt resulting in no tops fitting her and so I headed out on an emergency trip to a local cheap clothes shop to see what I could find. Unsurprisingly none of the lovely things I had in mind but lots of pink and horrible slogans. I ended up buying a pair of long sleeve tops aimed at boys and a plan to make them unique.

After looking at some of the clothes from shops I liked I settled on doing the letter 'S' and a bunny and drew out my designs on paper.

Next I flipped over my designs and sketched the lines in reverse. You can see that my original sketch is made of quite thick lines so it was relatively easy to see the line through the paper.

I then placed Bondaweb over the reversed sketches and traced the outline. I cut around the Bondaweb leaving an edge and ironed this onto the wrong side of my fabric.

I then carefully cut out the shapes.

Then I removed the backing from the Bondaweb ready to iron my fabric onto the t-shirt. A great tip to remove this layer is to rip it, the fabric doesn't rip but the Bondaweb paper does and makes it really easy to peel off.

To ensure my fabric stays in place I stitched round the edge. I used a lovely soft grey thread rather than white as I think it blends in better. I set my machine to zig zag stitch with the needle to always stop down. I tweaked the stitch length and width to small and close together.

 By going slowly and stopping regularly to reposition my fabric and direction I was able to sew close the edge and create smooth curves. A couple of reverse stitches at the start and end and I was finished!

The finished article!

Nap-time Purse

Its amazing what you can do in the space of a baby's nap when you put your mind to it!

Today is my last of maternity leave and I had a couple of things left on my list of things to do before heading back to the real world.

One was go to the wonderful 'Watch with Baby' at my local cinema and the other was to make a clasp purse. So, this morning Sophie and I joined several dozen other mums (and a couple of dads) and their babes to watch a film - typically the film I choose wouldn't play so I had to watch the other film which was terrible! And this afternoon I cracked open my 'Easy Peasy Purse' kit, a gift from my lovely brother last Christmas.

Having already read the instructions and purchased the recommended glue, I was ready to go and Sophie seemed to be settled for a decent length sleep - perfect!

After cutting out the pattern, ironing the interfacing to the exterior fabric and cutting out my pieces I sewed the side seams of the two exterior sections plus fleece together. I then ironed all the seams and pushed the side seam down to meet bottom seam and and sewed a seam 2 cm from the corner, this creates a lovely shape.

 After repeating this with the lining it was time to join the two sections together with a row of stitches close to the edge. I then trimmed up to make neat and tidy.

Next, I added glue to the frame and purse - left to go tacky and gently pushed the side and top edge of one side of my fabric into the purse frame.

I left the first side 15 minutes before tackling the other side and then, using my scissors I pushed in the piping that will  keep everything firmly in place.

And there its done! I'll wait overnight to let everything dry properly before putting bits n pieces in it.

I think I've caught the bug and will definitely be ordering more clasp frames in the future. I'm already imaging a lovely patchwork version!

Etsy Shop - NOW OPEN!!

Yep - I did it. With just a week to spare of my maternity leave left I have opened my 'shop' on Etsy. I've still got some more bits to add but there are quilts, baby bibs, bloomers, booties and changing mats for sale. I shall be holding my breathe until my first sale!