As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I’ve been reading quite a variety of sewing blogs since turning back to my sewing machine.  One of my favourites is the Curvy Sewing Collective.  They have some great posts about all aspects of sewing in plus sizes and encourage a very supportive sewing community, with posts from regular contributors and sharing of makes from many different blogs.  This month I came across a post about a Holiday Sewing Swap.  Simply, you register your interest and are then paired up with another participant to exchange gifts.  You exchange emails and get to know a little about each other, then send each other a pattern, and some fabric and/or notions from your stash that you think they would like.

I was paired up with Andie from Sew Pretty in Pink, who lives in Canada, and we exchanged some lovely emails.  We seemed to have quite a lot in common too.  Such as: cats (who help me to knit and to wrap Andie’s gifts); sci-fi; 50s fashion; Jane Eyre…

We both discussed our desire for a 1950s wiggle dress and I received a great pattern which will make a fabulous rockabilly dress (I have some perfect turquoise spotty fabric for this) and some lovely fabric that I’m intending to use for a gypsy style top, once I have perfected the pattern – the fabric is too nice to waste.

I’ll be looking out for more of these sewing swaps, as they are a great way to connect with people in the online sewing community.

Jx