Clothkits and Liberty fabrics

Work is extremely hectic at the moment what with looking after the As and A2 Textiles exams, trying to ensure all of the students are fully prepared and calming down meltdowns as and when they happen. Plus IVing the Personal Progress course and 2 more courses to finalise the paperwork for and that's before we've even started to mark the Textile exams and coursework for the year. Is this why I became a teacher? Well lets just say it's not my favourite part of the job.
But it does mean I genuinely have a reason to develop new projects, hunt out lovely fabrics and places to buy them. When I was last in London I went to Liberty to buy some of their printed tana lawn but became totally befuddled and just gave up. However while checking my emails on Friday I found an offer from Clothkits, who have opened a shop in Chichester, which gave me 20% off all their fabrics. So my very kind husband braved the torrential rain, took me down to Chichester and sat in the fabric shop, filled with ladies on a sewing course and customers choosing fabrics while I spent ages hunting for my fabrics. He even joined in with helping me find exactly the right things and encouraging me to try on clothes!

 My fabrics

I will definitely be visiting Clothkits again. I've long been a fan of their products but it's always lovely to see the products for real and the assistants were so friendly and helpful. The only problem with the place is how to leave without spending lots of money. As well as all the Liberty fabrics they have there were Marimekko prints, Amy Butler fabrics, MiniModerns, Kokka Echino, Michael Miller and Jane Foster, etc.

But its not only the fabrics, the trims and kits are lovely too. I may have to invest in both their bustle skirt and 50s dress along with some diddy pom poms and sherbet pips pom poms oh and perhaps some Liberty print bias binding.

Belated Happy New Year

I just don't know where the time has gone this year, I seem to have been busy every weekend which is my usual time for blogging. Anyway things I've done with my weekends this year include:
Going to London (a lot) - which is great fun.
Seeing Hamlet at The National Theatre - haven't been to the theatre to see a proper play for ages, so a good cultural start to the year.
Staying overnight in a hotel in Notting Hill - very nice.
Seeing Alex loads and managing to keep up to date with her work which is looking fabulous and brilliant.
Going to The Barbican to see 'The Irrepressibles' and 'Gaby Young and Other Animals' - mmm Irrepressibles weren't as good as at Latitude.
Getting to The Barbican to see Future Beauty, 30 years of Japanese Fashion - I'd intended to see it on 3 other visits to London and been side tracked each time. It was well worth the wait, although Alex finds Japanese design such a challenge as it's the polar opposite to her love of designing to accentuate the female curve.
Ikea - busy as ever, meatballs, no catalogues, buying things you didn't know you wanted, more blue bags because you forgot to take your own to carry away your purchases, 35p ice cream cones! Oh I love it.
Brilliant Biba sale bargains - it's funny how when things are cheap you can still end up spending a lot of money because you buy more of them.
A trip to Basingstoke purely to photograph the Triumph shop for Alex's new project shop report  - hmmm about 6 photos taken and then a lot of shopping!
Afternoon tea at Libertys - why were Alex and I the only people in the restaurant who finished every crumb of food on the cake stand?

But my favourite - The Electric Cinema for 'The Kings Speech'. Is seeing a Colin Firth film there becoming a habit? Last year we saw 'A Single Man'. I loved the film, but  the experience of the Electric Cinema is very special.

Well there won't be any more weekend trips for a while - I was supposed to be saving my money, not doing a very good job so far.