Blame it on the internet

Just as this is not a biking blog, this is also not a sewing blog. I mean, I occasionally sew and then blog about my makes, but the blog is not primarily about sewing. In the past I mostly only made big-ticket items, like Hallowe'en costumes and fancy dresses. Then last summer I stumbled across Lladybird's blog, and I swear she's like a gateway blog because I started following more and more of them. So many great sewing blogs out there. And they were making not-just-fancy-dress-in-all-senses-of-the-word clothes. I started and planning to sew more, and then actually doing it. I challenged myself to not buy any new clothes this year, but only make them. I took part in Me-Made-May. And I started following a bunch of sewers sewists on Twitter.

As with the blogs, it started very simply, with one or two Twitter accounts. But then snippets of conversations would pop up in my feed and I'd want to know who these people were talking to. And I started following more and more of them, until my "Following" numbers nearly doubled. I started butting into conversations and they started talking back to me and laughing at my jokes and convincing me to buy patterns and fabrics and such. A livelier and lovelier bunch of enablers people you are not likely to meet.

And did I mention organized? They have an idea, they put the plan into action. Wouldn't it be nice if we had a place where we could find all the sewers sewists people who sew and use social media? someone said. And so sewcialsts.org was born.^* With a customizable logo and everything.

Wouldn't it be nice if we didn't just talk to each other online but met up in person? they said. And they do. There are fantastic sewing meetups in New York and London and it all looks like a great deal of fun.

All this lengthy and ridiculously involved exposition is to lead up to what I did last Friday. I went to a sewing meetup!^**

Sew Dixie Lou in London was making an epic trip across the pond, part of which would be spent in Toronto. Gjeometry and Crafting a Rainbow^*** said "Hey, let's meet up!" I shyly raised my hand and asked if I could come. And the cool kids said yes. Along with the Toronto half of Hamilton Chicklets, we met up at The Rhino in Parkdale.

Even though it was her birthday, C had brought us some lovely treats from London, including lip balm in the shape of a spool of thread. It's like she knows all about my addiction!


Over an extremely leisurely lunch (which for me was the sewcialist food of choice: grilled cheese sandwich), we talked about sewing and other bloggers and other stuff and these women are just as lovely and funny in person as they are online. And helpful! Especially when it comes to wardrobe malfunctions.

What does one wear to a sewing meetup? Naturally, something one has made. So I had hoped to finish the modifications on the eyelet dress in time. Alas I only had time to install one of the flanges. And then I discovered just as I was leaving that my fabulous hand-picked zipper install was not so fabulous but had come undone a little on one side. I had no time to change, so I grabbed a couple of safety pins, pinned the thing up, hoped for the best, and biked off. I'll just say right here that the flanges totally work! Lots of room to bike in the dress now, and they zip up cleanly. Pictures will have to wait until the whole thing is finished, but so far I'm dead pleased.

Anyway, those pins came in handy because it turns out that either I've gained in the bust or the dress has shrunk a little and it was a little tight across the back. And also? Invisible zippers are not terribly strong. Halfway through lunch, it split. I grabbed one of my safety pins to keep it from undoing too much, and G lent me her cardigan and then braved the extremely fragrant bathroom to zip me back up. See what I mean? This lady just met me but I had no qualms asking for help. So lovely.


Anyway, after lunch we went to Designer Fabrics, where I bought a replacement zipper and managed to not buy any fabric (although I am tempted to go back for that grinning-skull chiffon). My willpower broke down when we went to The Workroom, though. I resisted the cool frogs and the chambray and the abstract florals, but then I saw this stuff with numbers all over it. The others were all "You can't teach math and not have a number dress!" and the result is that I now have 2 m of fabric I'm not entirely sure what to do with. This is how stashes are born, my friends.

After we had done as much damage as we could, we took C to Cadillac Lounge to gloat over our booty and have tequila and really potent bourbon drinks.




All too soon, it was time to leave. I'm really glad I've been captured by Twitter, otherwise I would have missed out on a wonderful day. When's the next one?


^*I haven't put my blog into the Sewcialist Firehose because, as I said, it's not all about sewing and I'd feel a bit a bit awkward. But I'm all up in that Twitter business.

^**There were actually two other Toronto meetups, one in February and one the week before, but unfortunately I couldn't make it to either of them. Womp womp.

^***Yes, they have actual names, but I've sort of gotten used to calling them by their blogs. You can find out their names by mousing over the group photo at the top of the post. Don't say I never give you anything.