Pattern Review get together...

Last weekend Jenny and I attended the get together for the Australian girls on Pattern Review in Melbourne and stayed at the new Travelodge.

Mel did a fantastic job of organising the 3 days for us.

It started with fabric shopping on the Friday which was co-ordinated with precise timing by Dorothyn with G_l_e_n_d_a's assistance making the necessary telephone calls. We visited 12 fabric stores, NSW Leather and Jimmy's Buttons, so by the time we got back to the Travelodge we were exhausted. I didn't get to NSW Leather, this is now on my must visit list here in Sydney, as this was the same stop as Jimmy's Buttons. This place is an Aladdin's cave, with trim from floor to ceiling on the four walls and two rows in the centre of the shop, it was awesome.

I was rather restrained with my fabric shopping, purchasing only 4 pieces:



From the left is a Wool Blend Knit in a Teal colour, next a mixture of browns in this knit and the last blue is also a Wool Blend Knit in a lighter shade of steel blue. These 3 are from an unnameable Brunswick distributor (you will have to come on the next Melbourne PR weekend to find this secret out).

The cream piece 3rd from the left is a remnant of Silk Habutai from Tessuti that I just had to have.

On Saturday a number of us headed over to Nicole Mallalieu's studio to do a workshop on straps and D rings. Most of were not sure how this would take all morning, however with Nicole's directions and then practice we realised that such simple things make the difference between a homemade sack and a handmade bag! (Dorothyn I couldn't say it better.) I came home with the Small Tote pattern and Purse Kit to get me started.

On Saturday afternoon there was a skirt drafting & creating variations session with Anne one of the PR members. I didn't do this workshop, instead I finally got to see an industrial binder working on a Coverpro machine, thankyou misschris.

Saturday night was a very enjoyable dinner out with the group and Maree Pidgon and her daughter Jacqueline.

Maree ran a workshop for us on Sunday morning on creating a designer t-shirt. This was a very inspiring and informative workshop and I am looking forward to seeing what the other PR ladies produce as there were so many ideas floating around. Also I am kicking myself for not buying that trim at Jimmy's Buttons that I kept playing with. I think I need to make a phone call.

Sunday afternoon was spent saying goodbye to everyone and Jenny and I headed back to Sydney thoroughly exhausted but so glad that we had attended.

If you want to see more of what we got up to, go to the first link at the top of this post.