Dream sewing business opportunity

Do you dream of moving to the countryside and making a living from sewing?  Then perhaps this is the ideal opportunity for you.  Due to retirement a thriving sewing business in Cornwall is fresh to the market.  It has two retail outlets: one a lock-up shop/workshop with waterside and pavement access and long lease, one centre village shop and 4 bed Georgian terraced house.

The village shop

It has been established 11 years with wide customer base: dressmaking, alterations, soft furnishings, upholstery, canvaswork, fabric sales and contract work.  This is one business which thrives in the recession!  There is opportunity for growth in any or all directions.  Available as a whole with the house £295K or just the waterside premises for £50K. Training and support available.

For more information please contact info@mdmsewingservices.co.uk or call Pippa on 01209 820446.

View from the riverside premises

Free projects

We are working on a revamp of The Sewing Directory, ready for the 3 year anniversary at the end of March.  I'm doing a lot of it myself so it's being done a section at a time.  I did the first one last weekend and we now have a lovely new projects section so do take a look..

We also have some great new contributors who will be writing new projects for the site - Laura Strutt ( nee Laura Cruickshank) the former editor of Sew Magazine and author of the Haynes Sewing Manual, and Helen Rhiannon from All Sewn Up.    So make sure you bookmark the projects section to come back to in the future.

You can always sign up to our newsletter to keep up to date with the revamp and latest news regarding the site. 

By the way we've got lots of snow here in Cardiff today.  Hope you are all enjoying the snow too :-)

My little boy in the snow

January Fabric Finds

There are lots of brilliant new collections in the shops at the moment, a colourful start to 2013.  Don't forget many shops still have sales running so you might be able to get a discount on them too.

Salt Water from Tula Pink

This long awaited collection from Tula Pink (feels like it's been out in the States for ages) has now hit UK shores.  Eclectic Maker have just added it to their site and I believe Staystitching will have it any day now.

Notting Hill from Joel Dewberry

A bright and colourful new collection from Joel Dewberry also in stock at Eclectic Maker.   Gone to Earth have a couple of the fabrics, maybe more are to come.

Constellations from Lizzy House

New in stock at The Village Haberdashery this collection is modern, graphic interpretations of the moon and stars in space in gorgeous shades of blue.  Alternate colourways will soon be available at Backstitch, you can preview them on their site here.

Star Wars & Marvel Fabrics

Frumble have just got some brilliant Star Wars fabrics, and some Marvel fabrics too ideal for boys (or men).

 

Cuzco from Kate Spain

The latest collection from Kate Spain with its beautiful prints can be found on Fabric Rehab (who do the bundles pictured) and Eclectic Maker.

Happy Harlequin from Fabric Freedom

I am loving the jewel tones of this new collection from Fabric Freedom, available on the Fabric Inspirations website.

Timber & Leaf from Blend Fabrics

This nature inspired collection is now in stock at Celtic Fusion Fabrics.

Hopefully that will be enough new fabrics to keep you sewing for a while.  I'll be back with another new fabric round up in February.  Now I'm off to purchase some Happy Harlequin... I just can't resist... maybe I need a little Salt Water too?

Win vouchers for Abakhan Fabrics

Abakhan Fabrics, Hobby & Home have kindly offered 3 x £20 voucher to be spent online or in store for this week’s giveaway. 

As well as selling bargain fabrics, crafts and sewing supplies Abakhan Fabrics also offer a selection of craft classes in their Liverpool and Mostyn stores.  They would like your feedback on the classes on offer to be entered into this draw to win one of the three £20 vouchers.

To enter
Please tell us if you did live near one of the above Abakhan stores which class would you like to take?  You can view the classes here.

Bonus Entry
For an extra entry in the draw please tell us what class would you like them to offer that they don’t already have available.

You don’t need to complete a second entry form for this question, just add it under your answer to the above question on the same form.

SALE: Also don’t forget to check out their big winter sale, there’s up to 70% off many items and 15% off everything instore and online.  www.abakhan.co.uk

Terms & Conditions

Employees of Abakhan fabrics or The Sewing Directory are not permitted to enter.  Each person may have 2 entries, once answering the main question and a second entry from the bonus question.  Three winners will be chosen at random to receive a £20 voucher; prizes are limited to one per person.   All entries must be received by 6pm on the 22^nd of January 2013.  Prizes can be shipped to an address within the UK or Ireland.

52 books in 52 weeks - Want to join?

Happy New Year everyone!

I mentioned in my personal resolutions post that I wanted to read more in 2013.  Having thought about it more I've decided to set myself the challenge of reading 52 books in the year, an average of 1 per week.

I quite often have weeks where I don't get chance to read at all, but then on a good week I can fit in 2 or 3 books (I read 4 over Christmas week).  So I'm hoping I can manage 52 books by the end of the year.  I'm not counting sewing books for this, I tend to review 4 or 5 sewing books a month so that would already be my 52 books a year.

For the last 2-3 years whilst running The Sewing Directory I've been collecting up second hand books from the charity shops but haven't had time to read them so I have hundreds here in the house waiting to be read. 

I'm a big fan of historial fiction, I particularly like books by Jean Plaidy.  I've read all her Tudor series but have the Victorian series here ready to start.  Plus I was lucky enough to find about 30 of her original books from the 50s and 60s at the local market so have a whole shelf of them to read.  Some have been republished in the last 10 years or so but many haven't so it was a great find.

My first book of the year is Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, I love books about the Tudors and this one came recommended to me by a few people.  I started it earlier and I have to say although I'm enjoying the story I find the writing style pretty hard going, it seems to meander a lot and it's hard to keep up with what's what.  I'm determined to finish this one but may not read any more of hers, will see how I feel by the end.

Natalie at the Yarn Yard is also doing this resolution too.  Does anyone else want to join us?

You don't have to decide up front which books you are going to read, just make a list as you read them so at the end of the year you can look back on what you'd read throughout 2013.  I've got a rough idea of what I want to read but will see where to mood takes me and what interesting new books come out during the year.

I was thinking maybe we could do a blog post every quarter to say how we are getting on and share which books we've enjoyed, and which we haven't to help people decide what to add to their reading list.

If you fancy joining in blog about it on your blog and post a link below.  I'll update this post to include all the links so people can find them.

If you are on Twitter please let me know your Twitter name and I'll add you to the Twitter list I've made.  Then we can all keep up with what the others are reading.  You can find the list here and my Twitter name is @sewingdirectory.  The hashtag we are using is #52books

I've not added a tab to the top of my blog so you can see what books I've read so far. 

Happy reading everyone.

Edited to add - Following conversations on Twitter mid year we're going to share some book recommendations based on what we've read first half of the year.  If people are up for it we may try and arrange a book swap too, we can send a few of our favourites off to someone else who is taking party in the 52 book challenge.