Brighton De-Stash Meet-Up De-Brief!

A couple of months ago I announced the Brighton De-Stash Meet-up that I was co-organising with Claire. Well, the event took place last Saturday, so in case you were wondering, I thought I'd let you know how it went.

Thanks to Claire for taking this picture above, and you can see the lovely swap-ettes, from left to right: Kathryn, Stevie, Laura, Shivani, Julia, Ally, Rehanon, me, Alana, Santie, Leah, Camilla and Laura (and of course Claire who is taking the photo!). These are some seriously lovely ladies that I'd be very happy to spend most Saturdays with!

Anyways, there was no messing about. Straight to the bar for drinks and swapping stash. Above are the little pressie bags of sewing goodies Claire and I put together for the laydeez. I took a photo of them all together because the fabrics (all scraps from work, don't worry, no pieces of fabric were harmed in their creation) looked pretty cute altogether.

Saturday's was the third sewing-based swap I've been part of, and it was equally as much fun as the previous ones. The ladies were so lovely and brought some seriously good selections of unwanted stash. We started out by briefly show-and-telling everyone what each swap-ette had brought along to swap and then piled it all up in front of them.

We then nominated someone to start who picked an item from someone's pile that had caught their eye. That person, who was now 'in deficit' was one item down, so it was their turn to pick something from someone else's pile. And so on... Because some of us (ahem) brought so much stuff to give away, it became some people's turn to pick quite often, but many times those turns were given to some of the other attendees who hadn't brought so much, so everyone got a pretty equal opportunity to choose something they liked to take home. I think the booty was spread out quite evenly, accept for those who deliberately wanted to go home lighter than they arrived. (Picture below: a swap in progress!)

After the heady excitement of the swap, it was time to get eating, drinking and chatting. Oh, and there was free wine. Free. Wine.

The day continued with a visit to Ditto Fabrics, argueably Brighton's best fabric shop. But it was interesting to see how few purchases were made AFTER the swap, compared to last time when shopping happened BEFORE the swap!!!! Having already scored bag fulls of new-to-us swag, the wind was taken out of the ladies' shopping-sails! Some of the ladies chipped off at that point, but the rest of us went for drinks and vegan cake so Santie could get her fix. Patty (Mr So Zo) joined us and was apparantly able to hold his own in a conversation about yokes and such; I guess he's learnt by osmosis.

So what did I come home with after the swap? Well pictured above are most of the notions I scored. Some cool white bobbley trim, the kind of which I've had my eye on in shops in the past. Some pretty jewel buttons, and some incredible navy and white buttons. Claire also gave me a fabulous red anchor applique but I forgot to include it in this photo.

Fabric-wise, I am relieved to have given away more than I gained! My new bounty is a thing of beauty! I'm really vibed about using all these pieces and I'm determined to have used most of it all before I attend another swap. That'll prove that the swapping endeavour really does work: that you end up with stuff that you are excited to use that had previously be laying dormant in someone's stash. Anyways, from left to right there are: blue and grey striped wool, fine blue cotton or cotton-blend, T-shirt weight red stripey jersey, T-shirt weight bright teal jersey and incredible African wax fabric (a personal weakness). I also got a duvet cover which I also forgot to photograph!

And finally, I also scored a vintage crochet magazine (which now lives in Patty's crochet stash box, I feel that deserves its own blog post one of these days), some 1940's sewing patterns (a couple of which are heading to the lovely Jane who couldn't attend but sent some by post treasures to give away during the swap), a couple of copies of Burda magazines (often become useful ages after you initially acquire them, I find) and a couple of copies of Sew Hip magazine (never seen this before).

So there you have it. It really was a great day and all the ladies were wonderful company. Claire is already in the process of organising another which I hope to attend, so if you couldn't make last Saturday's (and live in the South of England) hopefully see you at the next one!