Sew Up North; tickets and the first round of sponsors!

Hello there!

Right, so exciting news; the tickets for Sew Up North will be going live as this blog is published. As a reminder, Sew Up North is a sewing social event held in Leeds City Centre on September 29th. The details of our plan for the day can be found in this blog post.

Tickets are going to be available through Eventbrite. Now, don’t panic; there is no cost involved. We want you to save your pennies for the raffle and help us raise lots of money for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance.

BUT we do need you to register for the event in advance. This is for very simple health and safety reasons; the final venue let us have the space for free but they have restrictions on the number of people they allow into the space. Since they don’t charge us to use the facilities, it seems the least we can do is stick to the limits they set.

This year there will be 150 places available. It’s still a couple of months away, so all we ask is that if your plans change and you’ve registered, just let us know so we can let someone else have your place.

And so, without further ado, let’s get onto the raffle prize sponsors!

First up, a big thank you to all of our incredibly generous sponsors. You wouldn’t believe how many of these wonderful companies and individuals reached out directly to us to help out, which in my book is just fantastic. We’d like to say a MASSIVE thank you to all of you, you’re all amazing!

So many sponsors have contacted us that we’re actually going to have to break this down into multiple posts! Keep an eye out for these over the next few weeks, there are going to be several of them!

However, for today, here are the details on our first few sponsors.

First up is Sew Essential. Lucy has been one of our sponsors from the first event (thank you!) and is part of the family running the wonderful online store that is Sew Essential. They are my first stop whenever I’m looking for any haberdashery that’s slightly less standard because they have an amazing range of goodies; they also stock some incredible fabrics (I may have succumbed to temptation at the Stitch Room Sewcial event recently) and a simply amazing range of patterns. They have a fantastic range of machines available too; my overlocker came from them and it’s been amazing. Lucy and Angela are always happy to provide lots of advice over the phone or email too. They’ve been kind enough to donate a £25 voucher to the raffle fund; thank you!

Next we have Fabric Magpie. Boz runs this lovely independent website, holding a curated collection of fabrics, and is extremely good at posting very tempting Instagram posts which test my willpower time and again! Her recent tester version of CocoWawa’s Honeycomb dress was one of the reasons I bought that pattern; check out her Instagram feed for inspiration. Boz was kind enough to volunteer a £25 voucher for her online shop; thank you!

Next up is a prize which has been testing my self control for some time now, since it’s already in my possession. Vicki from Minerva Crafts (again, one of our original sponsors) has sent me 4 two metre cuts of Art Gallery Fabrics jersey for the winner of the raffle. I was lucky enough to review one of their jersey fabrics recently (check out the website for a huge range of prints) and this stuff is to die for! Don’t worry, I have had the sense to put the parcel from Vicki safely in a big box out of my line of sight so it will make it to the raffle intact! Thank you for your support, Vicki!

Now for our first pattern designer prize! Ana is the designer behind Cocowawa Crafts (check out her interview on The Stitchers Brew podcast for the origins of the name!) and is building up a fantastic catalogue of patterns with a distinct, slightly quirky style. I am totally in love with my version of her Honeycomb dress and shirt, which is convenient, since she has donated a hard copy of that pattern to the raffle pool! Thanks Ana!

Finally, for this round of sponsors (we have A LOT more heading your way soon!) we have Sew Me Sunshine. Harriet’s independent online store stocks a lovely range of fabrics and patterns designed to bring a smile to your face. I’ve got some gorgeous purple denim from her lined up for an autumnal pair of dungarees and I’ve also stashed some sports lycra for when I’m feeling brave enough to tackle Melissa Fehr’s Activewear book. Harriet’s contribution to the fabulous prize pool is a pattern of your choice from her site and 2m of fabric to make it up in. So basically, provide the thread and your machine and you’re all set! Thanks Harriet!

Right, I think that’s a long enough post for today, don’t you? Head over to Eventbrite or our Facebook page to get your hands on tickets for Sew Up North and keep an eye out here for details of the (many more) other sponsors of our amazing raffle!

Becca & Sally xx