The Knitting and Stitching Show

On Friday I went to The Knitting and Stitching Show here in Dublin. (Yes, Dublin is where I now live) It was my first time ever on a craft and sewing related trade show. The average age of visitors was well over 50 and when I come to think of it I did not see one single man visiting the show. Also a lot of them seemed to be regulars, travelling from far to all of these shows.

The show is originally English and exhibits in several places in England every year. So most of the sellers were English, except for a couple of Irish businesses thrown in for good measure. I particularly enjoyed the book stalls, which were jam-packed with sewing and craft related books I can normally only browse through on amazon. Unfortunately the show was mainly geared towards knitters, crocheters, quilters and card-makers with only one stall selling sewing patterns, none selling tools and accessories specifically for dressmakers (disappointing!) and only two stalls selling fashion fabrics. The show was still a good laugh and I loved browsing books and looking at some of the art exhibits they had on. I even got to try out a variety of sergers! Oh, I soooo want a serger...

The only thing I ended up buying was one meter of a lovely yellow wool and poly blend, which I plan to make into a pencil skirt and a meter and a half of a wool and poly brown fishbone fabric for pants.

I bought both from M. Rosenberg & Sons, a family fabric business. The son of the original founder and his son and daughter were running the stall and I have never seen such impeccable customer service before. They knew everything about the fabric they were selling, were very helpful and friendly and gave you advice on how to treat and sew your fabric. If you want to buy from them too you can find their travelling fabric show timetable here. They will be at lots of shows this autumn all over England.

Other than visitng The Knitting and Stitching Show this week I have been sewing a pair of pants to wear in my new job, which I'm starting tomorrow. I just have to sew on some buttons tonight and I'm good to go. Pictures to come soon!