Who's a little Sewing Bee??

Hey Guys!

I can't believe it was nearly a week ago, but I just got the photos so I need to share with you the fun we had last weekend!

Just in case you hadn't noticed all the goings on, I was part of a group of sewing bloggers invited to try out John Lewis's new heritage fabrics they have printed to celebrate their 150th Anniversary. The fabrics were reprinted from their heritage archive, and let me tell you it was a hell of a job trying to choose which fabric to use!

The day was set up as a fun sewing bee in the Oxford Circus Haberdashery, with Lisa Comfort from Sew Over It as our hostess with the mostest! The John Lewis girls treated us like VIPs, with lovely sewing boxes made up with all the implements we needed, we each had a Janome DC3050 and 2 overlockers to share, a choice of their heritage fabrics, cute Cath Kidston aprons to sew in, a lovely lunch and a professional photographer to come and capture the day - which also included a little trip up to the epic roof garden! :)

We all had a whale of a time, and I was joined by my girls, Clare, Fiona and Roisin - and Amy came all the way down too! We also had Charlie from ThisBlogIsNotForYou and Elena from Randomly Happy (who was killing it while she was about to pop out a small person!). It was lovely sewing with my besties and meeting new people too!

We had fun chatting to customers, and advising them on questions they had about the machines, fabric and patterns! You know, the things we love :)

Lisa had selected a few patterns for us to choose from, with some of the girls choosing Vogue ones, Elena choosing Lisa's shift dress, and Clare and I going for Lisa's Betty dress. You guys know I love that aesthetic. I had stashed a few TNTs in my bag, and perhaps if I'd used one I might have finished, but I adore how my dress turned out.

We even got the benefit of a fitting session with Lisa in the loo - wishing I'd worn a nicer bra though! 

I think the staff were a bit confused when they popped in on their lunch! She kept us on track during the day- which was much needed as we are distractable chatterboxes!

As I mentioned, I didn't get to finish my dress, but I did only have the zip and hem to go. And of all things, you don't wanna rush those. I have since popped in a zip, so hopefully I can get it hemmed to show you guys at the weekend! I'm still debating machined or hand hemmed, but it will all hinge on how deep it's going to be.

I'll leave you with a (massively picture heavy) look at the day. Sort of a selection in chronological order, lol. Most of the credit for the photos goes to our Brian Doherty Photography, with the rest going to Kim and Holly from John Lewis!

I would also like to warn you that I have a very concentrating frowny face..

Also, it's hilarious how much the sewing table looks like my living room. But the funniest thing is seeing it get progressively messier through in the photos!

Like a BOMB went off

Many thanks to John Lewis for a wonderful day - you guys can have me back any time!

God I would love to work in that Haberdashery...

Emmie x