Happy Birthday to Us!

Can you believe it?!  We have been open ONE WHOLE YEAR!!  January 20th 2012 was the day The Sewing Shop opened its doors for the first time and the unsuspecting needlewomen of Lichfield.

 

And what a totally fantastic year it has been!  We've met so many lovely new friends, we've learned how to be buyers and book keepers and teachers as well as shop keepers. And as the following photos will show we've filled a rather empty-looking shop with loads... 

 

 
...and loads...

 
...and loads...

 

...of stock.  It's quite incredible to see just how sparsely furnished our shop was when we first began trading. 

 
A glimpse through the rainbow curtain at the back shows just how tidy and organised we were.

And now..?  Well now we are jam-packed full of fabrics and yarns and haberdashery of all kinds.  We have sewing machines and magazines.  We have buttons and bias binding.  We have pompoms and Poodles. 

And we couldn't have done it without you.  We'd just like to say a massive

THANK YOU

to every single customer who has visited our shop, whether you've bought one single button or hundreds of metres of material.  It has been a fantastic year.  here's to many, many more.

Cheers
Lindsey and Sandra
xx

What's Been Going On..?

It really is 3 months since I last wrote a blog post!!!  I can't believe it.  Huge apologies but we've been so incredibly busy as more customers have discovered The Sewing Shop...  No bad thing but it has meant that our  plans to dominate the wonderful worldwide web have faltered somewhat.
But now all that can be rectified as I have a lovely little laptop.   So I can sit in the bosom of my family in the evenings and post on the interweb, rather than sit on my own in the cold and lonely back room tethered to the desk top PC.

But enough waffle. 

Enough apologising.

What has been going on in those 3 months, you ask?

Well we've got more stock.  Much more stock! 

Our two shelves of cotton fabrics have now expanded to five, with designs from Michael Miller and Riley Blake amongst the many beautiful bolts. 

Cupcakes and Polka Dots

We have many more colours, textures and weights of Stylecraft and King Cole knitting yarn and fabulous patterns from both companies. 

We have just take delivery of the amazing Hooked Zpagetti.  A new European craze for lovers of knitting and crochet on a BIG scale (more about this in the next day or two). 

Our range of ribbons is growing all the time.  We now have grosgrain, patterned, spotted, striped, sheer, floral and patriotic as well as the standard double faced satin. 

We have some gorgeous patterned bias bindings - great for making bunting or edging hemlines, placemats, curtains, etc.  Some even have a lacey edge.

Our workshops have been going great guns.  We have now added various fabric techniques to the range of crochet classes we offer.  Our Simple Applique Cushion Cover has been very popular and bunting is not just for the Jubilee so you can still come and learn to make this cutie.

We post details of all of our workshops on our Facebook page and, in future we'll keep the website updated more regularly, so they'll be listed on there too.

So that's a very quick catch up.  Over the coming days, weeks and months we'll bring you more regular updates of what's going on in the world of The Sewing Shop.

ttfn
x

One week on.

Well what a week it's been at The Sewing Shop.  The people of Lichfield (and beyond) have flooded back through the doors and welcomed us with open arms.  The response has been quite overwhelming.  They've loved our refurb.  They've loved our stock.  They've just loved the fact that there is once more a shop in the city selling yarn, fabric and haberdashery.

We've had so many deliveries this week.  We now have Pfaff sewing machines in stock.  The Hobby 1132 is a great little workshorse of a machine.  Can't wait to have a play with it and we already have one very interested customer.  :)

The stands of Gutermann thread arrived from Germany.  Hooray and well done Tina, our rep, for getting them here so quickly for us.  The rainbow of colours by the front door look gorgeous.

And we've already had our second delivery of yarn from Stylecraft!  After the first weekend we needed to re-order.  The squidgy big 400g balls of Aran with Wool have just flown and our other rainbow wall - the Special DK - has been rapidly depleted.  Order number 3 will be going off to Stylecraft HQ early next week.

For those existing Attic 24 fans amongst you (and those about to be converted after clicking on the link), we've been asked about "Lucy packs".  We have all but 3 of the shades Lucy used in her Granny Stripe Blanket and we'll be getting those in very soon.  If you would like a pack of all 17 shades of scrumptious yarn then get in touch by email or through our Facebook page.  We can post them out to you for £35.00 and free postage and packing.

Apologies for the lack of photos.  We've been so busy we've not had time to take any.  I'll try to add some in the next day or so.  However, this week a friend is (hopefully) coming to take some gorgeous professional ones.  Andy (of Peacock Pix) takes the most amazing photos and we can't wait to see what magic he can create with our little shop.

Right.  I must now get back to the head-scratching task of planning workshops.  We're planning to offer crochet, knitting, patchwork and quilting and all manner of other textile and yarn related classes, but trying to work out the what, when and how is no small task.  We'll let you know just ask soon as we have them all sorted.

To kick things off Monday morning is going to see the start of Crafty Coffee Mornings.  If you've got that Monday morning feeling and getting everyone off to work and school has left you feeling frazzled, pop down for a cuppa and a cake and a bit of crochet therapy.  Hook, yarn, instruction and inspiration as well as coffee and cake are all included in the £5.  A nice way to chill out with lovely new crafty friends.  Hope to see you there.

ttfn
xx