Enter our Fashion Show!!

Are you a designer? Do you love to sew? Do you want to use your creativity and talent for a good cause?  Do you want your designs to get noticed at the Edinburgh Festival?

Enter our Fashion Show Contest!!

I'm super excited to tell you all about this exciting news.  We have managed to secure space during the Edinburgh Festival – the largest arts festival in the world!!  And we are planning to have a Weaving Destination fashion show and we are inviting you to submit garments or crafts using Weaving Destination fabric that we can showcase in the show.  

How to Enter:

Register and Purchase your Weaving Destination Fabric

Enter 'FESTIVALFABRIC' as the code in Etsy to get a 20% discount on your purchase 

Weaving Destination is a social enterprise benefiting women weavers in India, many of whom are survivors of human trafficking.  Their beautiful hand-woven, cotton and silk fabrics are organic, ethical (vegan), naturally dyed and of the highest quality. Proceeds from the sale of fabrics go back directly to the women weavers and their families. All contest participants will get 15% off their purchases. Email us your name, contact details, category and number of entries at: wetheweavingdestination@gmail.com. We will confirm your participation.

The Categories:

 1. Garments

a.    Sew Up a Garment Using the Weaving Destination Fabric and Send it to Us.

Send us Your Garment Postmarked by 20th July, 2014 (outside the UK) and 28 July (within the UK). The address for posting your garments will be sent to you when you register.

b.     We will Include Your Garment in the Fashion Show

Your garment will feature in the Fashion Show on 14^th August 2014 (18:00 – 19:30) in Edinburgh right during the month-long Edinburgh Fringe Festival.  The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the largest arts festival in the world and takes place every August for three weeks in Scotland’s capital city.  We will showcase all the designs featured in the fashion show and your design may get media attention!

When purchasing your fabric, let us know if you plan to model the garment yourself in the fashion show or if you would like to make the garment for one of our models.  If it is for one of our models, we will send you measurements and you can get started on sewing up your dream designer outfit!

                 c. You Will Be Automatically Entered in the Fashion Show Contest

You will automatically be entered in the fashion show contest which will feature a long list of fabulous prizes (to be announced soon).  The winners will be decided by a split vote between the audience at the fashion show and an online vote through the 'My Happy Sewing Place' blog.

  d.  At the End, You Can Either Donate Your Garment to Weaving Destination or We Will Post it Back to You. We are happy to send you back your garment for you to cherish or you can donate it to Weaving Destination!  Just let us know what you prefer!!

2. Housewares, Crafts and Other Items

Garment sewing not your thing?  No worries!  We are opening the contest to housewares and craft sewers as well! We will be having a Weaving Destination stall at the Fashion Show event if you want to showcase your creativity.  Do you love making bags, pincushions, headscarves, etc?  Why not use Weaving Destination fabric and we can showcase your items in our stall and sell them for you!!  You get to keep 60% of the profits and the remaining 40% will be donated to Weaving Destination.  If you'd like to participate, email us your contact details, what you plan to make and how much you would like to charge.  That way, we can plan our stall accordingly.  All items made for the Weaving Destination stall will also be entered into a separate category of the contest with equally cool prizes!! 

You can send more than one entry.  Do let us know your number of entries when you register.

You can also come and see the show, tickets on sale here.

Don't wait, precious sewing time is ticking away :-)  We will share all the photos from the event with you all!  I can't wait!! 

My Week with Tilly: The Lilou 'Queen Anne's Lace' Dress

I'm back from a lovely short holiday and am excited to show you my most recent creation!  I was delighted to pattern test the Lilou dress pattern from Tilly's new book: Love at First Stitch.  It's such a fabulous dress pattern with a chic no-fuss bodice and a beautifully draped skirt.

I cut into some precious Japanese cotton fabric that I purchased last year for the bodice.  It reminds me a bit of a 1950s pattern with hearts and flowers.  The bodice is very straightforward to sew together and has a neat lining.  I used a polka dot fabric for the bodice lining (fun!)

The skirt fabric is a lovely twill blend that is stable but with some drape.  This dress fits fabulously into my work wardrobe as it works well under a wool blazer:

Here's my best Tilly pose....have you seen the pictures from the book??  One of my favourite things to do is to read it before bed and look at all the beautiful pictures and imagine all the clothes I am going to make!!

There's something about the faux separates look that I just love in dresses!

I am really pleased with the way the dress came out.  I feel like I could wear it in almost every season – it's perfect for hot summer days or paired with a jacket for those cool autumn and spring nights.

The dress is also perfect for twirling :-)

Do you have the book?  Are you planning to make some of the patterns?  I can't wait to try them all!!