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London Sew Social – Oh my, what a fantastic weekend!

Some weeks ago I had the chance to see some of my favorite blogging friends again and to meet some new ones. You may recall that last year Gioia from the italian sewing blog dotta and I organized a kids sewing blogger meeting in Paris. Well we did it again and met all those fantastic women from all over Europe in London! It was just amazeballs. As one of those who took part the second time, it wasn’t as OTT exciting as last year. I already knew that I get along with these girls. I met friends not just some strangers that I knew online… Nonetheless, I was full of joy and so looking forward to this meeting for weeks. If you follow me on instagram (which you totally should), you were able to follow me along right away, if not: Let’s take a walk around London together now, shall we?

This time we were 15 people: Gioia – dotta, Marta – Do Guincho, Olu – Needle and Ted, Victoria – As it Seams, Laura – Titchy Threads, Maartje – Huisje Boompje Boefjes, An – straightgrain, and me were already part of Paris Sew Social. Liesl – Oliver + S, Ines – La Folie, Andreia – In a Manner of Sewing, Toya – Made by Toya, Maria – My Cozy Co, Eva – by eva maria, Trine – groovybaby and mama. Unfortunately some people of the old crew couldn’t make it and were strongly missed: Sophie – C’est la Vie, Marte – Compagnie M., Nina – Fliegfederfrei, Laura – Behind the Hedgerow, Maria – La Inglesita, Nina – Pienkel

We all arrived on Friday and almost all of us stayed together in the St. Christopher’s Hostel at London Bridge. We all had been super happy about the experience with St. Christopher’s hostel in Paris. Well, this one wasn’t quite as nice, but it was okay and we all really liked the location in London. Together with Rachel from House of Pinheiro we went to Shaukat in the afternoon to buy some Liberty of London at much cheaper prices than at Liberty itself. It was really amazing to get to know Rachel a little bit, too. Such warm and fun person. And so stylish! The amount of Liberty fabric that Shaukat stocks is incredible and the quality is sooo nice. However, I went to London with the thought to only buy fabrics that I now a project for right away and so ended up going home without buying any fabric. It felt a bit weird, but I also was quite proud of myself… After Shaukat we stopped by the Victoria and Albert Museum. I can’t really say anything about it as I was deep in conversation with Olu, Marta, Laura, Trine & Co. We went for dinner just around the corner from our hostel. It was an arabian restaurant, Arabica, and seriously incredibly good. If you happen to go to London, go there for dinner. Yes, do!!!

The next morning we took a walk around Borough Market. This is a wonderful food market right at London Bridge. They even had “German Deli”, i.e. sausage. Well, I’m not sure if germans would actually call it “Deli”, but well, we sure like our “Bratwurst”.

After Borough Market we walked a little bit along the southcoast of the Thames and headed then towards St. Paul’s Cathedral and Soho for some fabric shopping. This time we almost all of us stayed together for all of the time (besides Olu and Toya who live in London and Laura who was there with her family and had to take care of her kids sometimes). This was so great. I loved to get to talk to all of the other girls. During our long walks through London, we got the chance to talk to everyone!

As I said a some fabric shopping had to happen on Saturday, too. Even if it was just for some eye candy. I deeply enjoyed our visits at Mac Culloch & Wallis and at the super beautiful Cloth House! Mac Culloch has an incredible collection of notions (even feather bands worth 100 Pounds per meter) and at the Cloth House I was really tempted by all those wonderful fabrics in all shades of blue. There are fabrics in other colors of course, too, but the blues ones totally stood out to me!

We afterwards had a look at Liberty of London, which in fact is a really big store with their beautiful prints on much more than just fabric: Stationery, dishes, bird houses – you name it, they got it. In the evening we went to an amazing pub in southern London that belongs to Toya’s partner. Halloumi-burger with selfmade french fries – yummy! On Sunday several of us had to leave early. The rest took a walk through the City of London towards Spitalfields Market.

We basically checked out all the clothes there just to say “Uh, yes, that’s a great idea! I should try that!” From zipper bags to Liberty of London welt pockets there was a lot of inspiration!

We then moved on towards Brick Lane. As it was a national holiday in England, Brick Lane was incredibly crowded. There was sooo much good food, a lot of music and nice flee market treasures!

After Brick Lane and Spitalfields Market only the three portugese women (on the pic from left to right) Marta, Ines and Andreia and I were left (plus Marta’s husband). We decided to tour London by foot. I’m pretty sure we walked at least 10 rather 15km that day. We first walked back to London Bridge and then along the Thames to the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. We had the most amazing weather. It was quite warm, the sun was strong, all original Londoners were enjoying their holiday during that sunny day. There were several musicians and artists along the way and it was a really nice walk.

From Westminster we headed to St. James Park (just east of Buckingham Palace) where we sat down in the grass and chatted quite some time while we gave our feet their necessary rest. We then passed by Buckingham Palace and walked a little bit through Hyde Park. Afterwards the geek in me despertely wanted to see Baker Street 221B. Unfortunately, we didn’t see Sherlock. Well I’m sure he had better things to do. We were arrived just minutes before they closed, but that was enough to buy a little souvenir for my husband and to see that I need to come back with him to visit the Sherlock Holmes Museum. (Good to know that there is something like this to see in London. My husband normally isn’t too much into city trips, but the Sherlock Holmes Museum plus all the food markets would be 100% his thing…). On Monday we took another walk around Soho and Covent Garden and then it was already time to say goodbye to everyone.

It’s always a little bit sad to leave friends behind, but at the same time it just feels so good to know that I now have friends all over Europe. Our vacations in the next years are probably often times be planned around some additional meetings with them. Such as our vacation in Spain in March where I met Maria from La Inglesita. But that is a story for another day…

Just as last year we had some amazing sponsors. So many gorgeous fabrics, trims and patterns wait for me during the next months! Thank you to everyone who filled our goodie bags!