January at Village Haberdashery

I started off my sewing year with a treat, a class with Lizzy House at Village Haberdashery learning to make a Meadow Quilt.  I missed the same class last year and when I saw it come up near Christmas, I booked straightaway and looked forward to my first visit to the Village Haberdashery shop!

For my January sponsor post, I am going to theme my choices and links around what I saw in the shop as it was such a great opportunity to see all the stock (***-Annie has just added one day flash code discount code here***).  But first,  let's start with the class- Lizzy was a generous and dynamic teacher, plus we had a bonus sneak peak at her next two collections- the first included the samples for mini pearl bracelets, and the second was breath taking, seem on Lizzy's laptop- wow, the colours and the designs were amazing!   I don't want to say too much as no public info is out there but Lizzy fans are going to love it.  Great colours, illustrative style, cuteness.

Lizzy is in full flow here showing us how to stitch the first curved section of the block. The workshop space is a well appointed basement. Five students fitted in comfortably with work space for each of us and there were plenty of machines, scissors, rulers, glue sticks etc to go round. We each made a block and decided our Meadow Quilt  colour schemes plans with Lizzy.  I picked up great techniques and a tonne of inspiration.  I plan to work on my quilt during my next work break in late February so I'll share more then.  Its a comfortable place to experience a class with a quality teacher- you can see Annie's class and workshop timetable here, my top pick would be Zoe's Edwards 'Dolores' knit top/tunic/dress class for those who want to conquer their fear of stretch fabrics.  The pattern is included in the class price and the group size is five.

Upstairs in the main shop is an amazing selection of modern fabrics, patterns and yarn.  I love the website but a bricks and mortar shop is even more temptation.  To see all the fabrics together was a real treat and I could see what was selling from the size of bolt left- the Alison Glass Handcrafted range has been very popular!   I have clothing quantity lengths of Geese in Graphite (skirt-to-be) and Plus in Teal (top-to-be).

The Handcrafted prints have a great drape and flow that I assume comes from the dye process.  I would advise a prewash with these fabrics- my colour catches came out with a good dose of dye on them.

Good greens are so hard to find so I deliberately took a snap whilst I was there. I can see the Michael Miller Dim Dots in Spearmint  that I mentioned a few months back but the Amy Butler green Wallflowers reissue had passed me by- great emerald tones!  You can see how the picture above from the shop captures a little more about that print than the standard online pic.

All around the shop are examples of fabrics sewn up into garments, many (maybe all? beautifully made by Charlotte Newland of Displacement Activity who happened to pop into the shop to get some haberdashery bits for her next display piece. 

 This child size hoodie is sewn in Art Gallery Priory square knit, Cottagely Posy, I am guessing the lining is Interlock knit in Dusty Lavender and the ribbing is cotton/spandex wristband knits in natural- you can check with Annie or Caroline at the shop to make sure.  The rest of this pic shows Jeni Baker's Geometric Bliss range on display- gold graphic prints in a pretty floral palette.  You can see how all the Art Gallery fabrics work together with Priory Square next to Jeni's prints.   The yellow/lime stencil style floral print in the middle- Polygons Bulbinella  (from Geometric Bliss)  is one I've not seen before and really stands out amongst the other prints. 

Trims are something I tend to buy more spontaneously in person and purposely for a specific project on line.  Find ric rac here- it's popular stuff! All twill ribbon is here.

I thoroughly recommend a pilgrimage to West Hampstead.  It is a bright happy shop- especially on a very wet, dark January Saturday.  And for those who can't make it there, here's an eye candy selection of best bits:

For garment makers/bag enthusiasts, this Japanese crosshatch denim practically has me salivating and clicking the paypal button.

By hand London are just about to start a Kim dress sew along- for inspiration see Sara Lawson's (Sew Sweetness) brilliant version complete with a pink voile lining.  You may want to snap up your pattern ready- there are a good range of bodice and skirt variations with this dress pattern.

Looking for a straightforward block of the month programme?   Charlotte Newland has designed a Star BOM with free instructions on the Village Haberdashery Daily Stitch blog .

There are fabric packs in store- warm and cool options which contain all the fabrics you will need for all the blocks  and even classes for those who want more instruction. 

I'm looking forward to some new releases, especially Bespoke double gauze collection from Cotton+ Steel and Cookie Book which looks like retro perfection from Kim Kight, also Cotton+Steel.  YOu can sign up for email alerts via those links.  Enjoy x