Ukraine Fundraiser - Fabric and Pattern Swap - Hove 13th March

 

I know I'm not alone in finding it incredibly hard to watch the events unfold in Ukraine at the moment. The most recent figures suggest that more than 1 million people have been forced to leave their homes because it too unsafe for them to stay. That's a million lives in turmoil and a million people fearing for their future. For lack of knowing what else to do, I'm organising a fundraiser to donate money to the Choose Love charity for their Ukraine Crisis Fundraiser. 

To raise funds, I'm hosting a fabric and pattern swap on Sunday 13th March, 2pm-4pm. Fabric Godmother have kindly offered up their studio in Hove, Sussex (close to Portslade station) for it to take place. 100% of the donated funds collected via eventbrite will go to Choose Love. Plus it's going to be a fun way to offload some of your unwanted sewing supplies and exchange them for some 'new' stuff that you are excited about. 

For more info and to reserve your spot, head over here. I hope to see you there!

The Great Dribble Bib Swap!!! Are You In?

So, right now many of us are currently knee-deep in our Me-Made-May challenges. If you are, I hope you're having a fun and illuminating time. I'm not wishing the month away, but I must admit that each year, when May comes to an end and the challenge is over, I always feel some loss, mostly for the connections and community that are created during May. Well, this year I've decided to try something new-to-me, something that also might fill that Me-Made void when June rolls around: I'm hosting a sewing swap!

This swap is aimed at new or expecting parents, or the friends, siblings, colleagues etc. of new or expecting parents, who are up for sewing and then posting a baby's dribble bib, and to receive one made by someone else in return.

Why dribble bibs? Well, it seems like there are a lot of sewing bloggers and Instagramers around the world who have either recently had a baby (mine is seven months old now but I view anything up to a year as 'recent'!), or have one on the way. I thought this might be a nice way to connect with each other, reaching out in sleepless solidarity by sending each other a low-energy little project. Obviously, new parents or about-to-be-new parents don't have heaps of time to sew, but finding a scrap of time to do so can be really beneficial to mental health (I've found), so this might be a great motivation to find that spec of time! But this sewing swap really is open to anyone, not just parents, who has a baby in their life, or is about to.

If you would like to take part, then please email me (sozoblog at g mail dot com) with your name, address (this is a global swap) and whether you require a bib for a boy, girl or unisex (if your expecting and don't know the gender) by 30th May. I'll then email you the details of who you'll be making a bib for by 1st June. You will have the entire month to create a dribble bib (as opposed to a bib for protecting clothes when eating) and pop it in the post by the end of the month. I'll use a random number generator to assign who will send a bib to whom, so it'll be nice if you include your name when you send the bib so the recipient will know who made it.

Aside from being assigned a gender/gender-neutral, the style or design is totally up to you, but please make it big enough to fit a baby up to year old or thereabouts. If you are stuck for inspiration, then I've collated some ideas on this Pinterest board, which also includes links to some free bib patterns and tutorials (and you can find my dribble bib tutorial here).

Frankie has recently pushed out all four front teeth AT THE SAME TIME, so it's dribble aplenty round these parts. I really hope that some lovely sewers/sewists take me up on this so we can send each other some awesome dribble catchers! Oh, and I'm totally new to hosting a swap like this, so if there's something you think I've missed then please let me know.