THE STITCH FESTIVAL 2022

The Stitch Festival logo

Business Design Centre, London, 3-6 March 2022

I attended The Stitch Festival on Thursday 3rd March on it's first day, hampered by a tube strike throughout the city, but not enough to stop a huge ray of fabric and craft lovers in abundance!

Inside the Business Design Centre, London, with stalls of fabric and wool shops

It was a joyous day, meeting fellow shop owners, and fellow sewers. The Business Design Centre is a lovely building, and the festival was set up over 3 floors (kind of!). There were exhibitions and displays dotted around, with a hub of workshops on the upper balcony level. 

The dressmaking competition was simply wonderful, showcasing all your creative skills, using all your fabrics. It was particularly warming to read all the captions and various occupations of you all, what a busy bunch you are!

Dressmaking competition garments on displayDressmaking competition garments on displayDressmaking competition garments on displayDressmaking competition garments on displayDressmaking competition garments on displayDressmaking competition garments on display








Aren't they just simply fabulous!

Throughout the day, there were talks from various people within the sewing community. I managed to catch a few in between all that shopping I was doing! I confess here, I'm really rather rubbish with social media. I just enjoy meeting and chatting to people that I never stop to think about taking a photo and posting it on the 'gram or wherever! So unfortunately, all I have are a few static photos of the day. There were plenty of you who made wonderful stories and reels throughout the day, which was incredible. 

You've most probably heard of The Great British Sewing Bee. Esme Young on stage giving a presentation I luckily managed to catch the presentation of Esme Young who spoke of her past, the various design collections she's been a part of, and what she has to look ahead to. She was immensely grateful for how much The Great British Sewing Bee has brought to her, and it was so lovely hearing her speak with such joy and passion for the art.

There were plenty of other great speakers and I wish I had access to all the days of the festival!

And shopping of course! I must say, I felt slightly deflated as I was looking around, as there were so many synthetic fabrics, that I had to really search and wade through everything to find anything that I deemed to be sustainable. It was a real moment of bringing me back to how big an issue our climate crisis is, and how much there is to do. The good part is that I did find a couple of stalls that sold fabrics that were sustainable both in the fibre and the making of. We are getting there! I managed to buy some 100% English wool, which should be perfect for a coat I've got my eye on making!

I will be looking at taking A KIND CLOTH to exhibit at these shows in the future.

I bought some pattern-cutting tools I must share with you! I hadn't seen these before, and I certainly wish I had a whole lot earlier! Display of Sewing Pattern tools including a Seam Circles GuideFrom Jenerates, Jen Hogg has designed these Seam Circles, which now make adding seam allowances onto paper patterns a breeze. Especially around those pesky curves and sleeveheads etc. The bonus being that they are made in Scotland from Cherry Wood Veneer! I also picked up one of her sewing rulers as I'm always flipping my ruler the wrong way round, and cannot get to the inner side of seams I'm measuring. Invaluable tools I recommend you take a look at. Her instagram handle is @jenerates

If you're ever losing your 'sew-jo' I recommend talking to other sewists, touch some fabric, and see what other people are making. If you can, get yourself out to one of these shows, the energy is contagious! Or simply, click here to take a look at our range of sustainable fabrics for dressmaking that are kind to both the planet, and to you!

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