Fabric Godmother Open Day - Come and Say Hi!

Hi peops! If you happen to be in Southern England on 15th August, then there will be few better places to be than the Fabric Godmother's open day. It's a chance to hang out in their lovely space (a classroom in a former school! I'm obsessed with it), whilst checking out their entire range of fabric, sewing patterns and notions. They'll have a bunch of special offers on fabric that are not online (including some beautiful vintage fabrics) and cake and coffee. 

I'll be there for most of the day helping out, and there are other sewing bloggers who will hopefully be showing their beautiful faces on the day as well (confirmed's include Rachel from House of Pinheiro and Wendy Ward from MIY Workshop). I don't get out to as many sewing get-togethers as I would like to these days, so PLEASE drop by and say hi if you are able. It's going to be a frikkin' sewing party!  

Guest Post: Part of the Process

(image from the Brighton Craftaganza flickr group)

Yesterday I went to the Brighton Bloggers' Bash, a meet-up arranged for local bloggers to get together at Super+Super HQ, make contacts and discuss their blogging hobby/job. I met some nice people including a lovely lady who doesn't currently have a blog, but is a prolific sewer and would love to start a sewing blog (having had a couple of false blogging starts in the past). However, she feels something was creating a barrier, and she with so many sewing bloggers out there she might struggle to find a unique voice and she is also in awe of many of the writers of the most popular blogs. 

This morning I chatted with Patty over coffee about this lady's dilemma. He had some (typically) insightful things to say on the subject, so I asked him to write a guest post for my blog to share them with y'all. Check it out peops, this is the good shit...

One of the most common reasons people give preventing them from doing something creative is that it has already been done. Lots of people are interested in doing something such as making garments, starting a new blog or any kind of creative activity. Many people feel daunted by the plethora of existing blogs and huge range of existing makers in any given field. It is as if there should only be a certain number of people in any creative field, as if it were a party in a small house and could get too crowded.

I believe this is a manifestation of a fundamental misunderstanding of what creative activity is. This misunderstanding is deeply rooted in our culture. We learn it at school and through the media. We are taught that creativity is the expression of a higher ideal in a finished object of great beauty and skilled execution. This is wrong in approximately fifteen different ways. It is complex but basically it comes down to perception of value.

In our society value resides in finished products. Art is one category of the production of products. Craft is another. We look with lust and desire at finished products and believe they are created by specialists using talents beyond our mortal capacity to understand. We are thereby separated from our own creative power which is what makes us depend on shopping to satisfy all our psycho-spiritual needs.  

From outside the house party of creative practice looking in we see only finished products. We mistake the product for the practice. We are excited by what is happening but like Peter Pan we find we cannot fly in through the window ultimately because of our own self limiting beliefs. It’s important to understand that EVERYBODY feels this. Even those who appear to be such ‘natural’ creators, those that have identified themselves as ‘creatives’ early in life have had some crucial intervention, some teacher or parent who told them they had talent (thanks Mrs Cheeseman) so in a way they are beholden to the same false idea as all the rest anyway.

Of course praise is not enough. It will get you through the door but you won’t stay if you don’t find the secret, and the secret is process.

The only difference between the maker and the aspiring maker is that the maker realises that the process is everything, the final product is merely an effect of the process.

Process is everything. Originality is a fetish that only makes sense in terms of intellectual property law. Forget about originality. Even if you took an idea verbatim from somebody else, your process of making it would be unique, the journey you took would be of value to you and by extension to those around you. This is especially evident in craft where similar patterns produce uniqueness and process is celebrated, where bloggers share the process of creating and pontificate on how it changes them and their lives. This is what ‘Art’ wishes it was.

The value is in the process and the finished product is a continuation of that process, affecting the lives of others, that scarf you made for your dad lives on in the process of his life. Value itself is a living process not to be confined to a number or a thing.

We are conditioned to understand the final product as the container of quality. In order to believe this we have to believe that each category of products is produced by specialisms we cannot comprehend. This is where ‘talent’ comes in. 

Reinforced by the talent shows that now dominate our TV screens the biggest of all lies is talent. The very idea that some tiny percentage of people ‘own’ creativity by some genetic twist of fate is laughable. There are no ‘creative people’. Creativity is our species defining characteristic. We all need to use it, it is a psychological prerequisite for a happy life.

Anything can be learned by anyone.

So don’t stand outside the party waiting for an invitation. Don’t be confused by the dazzling heights that other bloggers and makers have achieved, look at the processes they are engaged with. Each process is unique, each one fills a vital gap in that person’s life, without this deeper engagement they would not be able to continue the work for years and years.

Success, slick production values, money, attention, these are all byproducts of a process of self discovery that will last a lifetime. And they may never come. If the process is right for you it won’t even matter anymore. Any stage of that process is as essential as any other. That includes the first six months however awkward and frustrating they may be.

More than anything else consider this: we are in a big phase of change, we are renegotiating our cultural values and we need everybody to join in the debate. This includes you. We need your unique process, we need your unique contribution. Making stuff is cultural production. Nothing is trivial.

Now does the house party still look full to you? Ring the bell then go through the door.

It’s all part of the process.

Walthamstow Blogger Meet-up and Swap: Plus Confession!!!!

I was very fortunate to spend Saturday in the company of many lovely sewing ladies in London. Hot on the tails of our successful Brighton De-Stash Meet-up, the formidable Claire organised another along the same lines to be held in cheap-fabric-Mecca, Walthamstow. Attendance was excellent, despite the drizzle and chill. Above from left to right you can see: Melizza, Alana, Suzy, Karen, Jane, Rehanon, Claire, Michelle, Kat, Marie, Rachel, Catherine and Camilla.

Shortly after meeting, we all headed to a lovely cafe for sustenance. Then it was time for the swap. Oooh, I love a swap! It's like shopping without the guilt, and as you can see from the photo above, so much fun!

I'm pleased to say that I was able to go home with quite a bit less than I brought along. Below you can see my score: a lovely piece of blue sateen (destined to be a fancy dress for my best mate), some stretchy elastic from Jane (destined to be on some pants!) a copy of Sew Hip (destined to sit about the studio at work for months until I find where I put my other copies) and three sewing patterns (two of which are destined to inspire creations for work and the dress one might get used for a personal project).

Oh, and I mentioned guilt before. I fell off my no-new-fabric wagon with a bang. As soon as we were done swapping and had settled the bill at the cafe, we went to an excellent fabric shop called Saeed's. By the time I wandered in I saw some worried expressions on the faces of my companions. Anchors. On. Fabric.

They were right to be worried. I couldn't resist. 1.5 metres of wonderful blue and white anchor jersey was purchased by me after probably about three years of strict no-buying new fabric. But it didn't stop there. Birds were there. I like birds about as much as I like anchors on fabric, and Saeed, that checky devil, had sourced some wonderful quality jersey with magpies on it. 'Another 1.5 metres please, Mr Saeed. Oh, can I leave my back-bone here, I won't be needing that anymore.'

So, I feel a bit shit. Oh, and also excited that I have some incredible new fabric, of course. But why do I feel a bit shit? I guess it's because I feel so strongly that comfortably-off people living in developed countries have a responsibility to cut down their consumption of new products. And since I have tried to 'be the change I want to see' for a long while, breaking that inevitably feels a bit wrong. When I think about it objectively, I know that 3 metres of new fabric is not going to make much of an impact on the world, and of course it's not like I live a carbon-neutral lifestyle (for example, I have recently been the very grateful recipient of a plane ticket to NY for our honeymoon). But I am more conscious than most in many aspects of life, and I guess clothing and sewing were always the areas I put most effort into when trying to be a good example.

However, I've decided it won't be too bad, particularly considering I just gave quite a few pieces of fabric and patterns away to new homes, if I don't let these wonderful pieces of jersey languish in my stash and actually sew them into well-loved garments. I plan to use both fairly quickly, and to eek out as much as I can from both. You'd best hold me to that!

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!

Brighton De-Stash Meet-Up!!!!!

I'm very excited to announce that Claire from Sew, Incidentally and myself are co-organising a sewing meet-up and swap! It is to be held in my fair city of Brighton at the beginning of February. Following from the success of the swap/meet-up I organised last June, if this one turns out to be half as fun as the last one, it promises to be a very good day indeed.

Why:

The beginning of a new year is a great time to have a look at what we have and be honest with ourselves about what we don't really want (i.e. time to do some Stash Bustin'!). This swap meet-up will be a great opportunity to pass on any fabric/notions/patterns/sewing resources that've been lurking in your stash forever to someone who will find new inspiration in it. Similarly, you'll be able to get something new-to-you to kick start a new project without spending any money, who isn't interested in that in these cash-strapped times?!

Where & When:

We will meet at Brighton train station at 11.30am on Saturday 4th February, 2012. The station isn't enormous, but we'll aim to be outside the WHSmiths to avoid confusion (and all the stag and hen parties that make Brighton their destination at the weekends!). Mine and Claire's mobile phone numbers will be distributed to those who plan to attend in case anyone gets held up, lost etc.

We will aim to leave the station around 12pm and head to a cafe/bar (exact venue to be confirmed). There we will have the swap, eat lunch, have a couple of drinks if you wish, chat and make friends. When we are finished, those who wish to can then head to the lovely sewing shops and flea markets in Brighton for shopping/inspiration hunting.

(Image source)

Who:

Anyone who enjoys sewing or wants to start sewing! You don't have to participate in the de-stash to attend, your company will be more than enough. Hopefully this meet-up will attract some sewing meet-up regulars and new faces alike.

(Image source)

What:

To be more specific about what the swap entails: if you wish to actively participate in the de-stash swap part of the meet-up, please bring some unwanted sewing stuff with you. 'Stuff' translates as fabric, sewing patterns, sewing magazines, sewing/pattern-making equipment, sewing/pattern-making books, buttons, zips, other notions: basically anything that you no longer want/need that someone else might be inspired by or could make use of.

The swap will be structured fairly so that the more de-stash things you bring, the more opportunities you will have to pick something that another sewer has de-stashed. But no matter what or how much you bring, it is unlikely anyone will go home empty handed!

How:

If you wish to attend the Brighton De-Stash Meet-up on 4th February, please send me an email with the subject 'Brighton Meet-up' to my blog email address which is sozoblog (at) gmail (dot) com. This will give me a clear indication of how many people plan to attend so I can book the table at the cafe/bar. Closer to the date Claire and I will then email the attendees with further info about the meet-up and our contact details.

Claire and I really hope to see you there!!!!