#swapsharesew Sewing Challenge

Let’s make new sewing friends

This wonderful sewing challenge came about when I met the lovely Rosy from @rosysewsmodernvintage on Instagram. She is also a member of the Facebook group The Sewing Vloggers.

As you may or may not know I now have two YouTube channels. One being Loopy Mabel Crochet and the other one is a Loopy Mabel’s Closet. I am passionate about my crochet designs but also love dressmaking.

Loopy Mabel’s Closet is my very own personal YouTube channel where I just share my love for dressmaking. I then joined a lovely Facebook group called The Sewing Vloggers. In that group, I met lots of other like-minded sewers and Rosy was one of them. You can find her YouTube channel here.

Rosy and I then began chatting and found that we had such a lot in common. Both being inspired by vintage styles and decided to do a little sewing challenge for each other.

But we didn’t want to create anything that would incur expense as we are both passionate about being frugal. We like to make do and mend whenever we can. This was also important in our #swapsharesew sewing challenge too.

So with this in mind, we decided to use the sewing patterns we already had. We also decided to use the fabrics we had in our stash too. I chose a pattern and fabric for Rosy. She then chose my pattern for me.

Rosy sent me pictures of the Cashmerette Appleton Dress. The Jennifer Lauren Pippi Pinafore and the Tilly and the Buttons Cleo Pinafore. She had some navy fabric that was in her stash that was suitable for any of these patterns. They are all such lovely patterns and it was hard to choose. But I decided on the Appleton Dress for her. As I thought the wrap detail on the dress would really suit her.

Rosy’s Patterns

My patterns

I sent Rosy my 3 choices of patterns. The Bloomsbury Blouse by Nina Lee, The Myosotis Dress by Deer & Doe and the Tea House Dress by Sew House 7. I had some gorgeous floral viscose fabric that I hadn’t used yet that I purchased from Lamazi Fabrics. The drape was amazing and I knew it would sew up lovely.

Bloomsbury Blouse by Nina Lee

Tea House Dress by Sew House 7

Myosotis Dress by Deer & Doe

Rosy chose the Nina Lee Bloomsbury Blouse, which I was so pleased with. As it was a pattern that I hadn’t made before and had lots of sewing techniques that I wanted to try.

But the best part of this little sewing collaboration was that we both sent each other a little surprise sewing parcel. This included haberdashery notions from our own supplies that each other had to then incorporate into the sewing project. This was so exciting and really did make this #swapsharesew challenge so much fun.

Rosy sent me buttons, lace, a sew-in label and the sweetest handmade brooch with shoes and red bows. See picture below with my fabric choice. If you like this fabric you can get here at Lamazi Fabrics.

We gave each other 2 weeks to complete and then shared our makes with each other on our YouTube channels and on Instagram.

Here is Rosy wearing her amazing dress. Can you see the lace on the sleeves and the raggy fabric brooch? These were some of the habby items I sent her.

And here is my finished blouse. I love it and can you see the lace I have added to the sleeves and the buttons on the back! Every time I wear this blouse I will be reminded of Rosy and our wonderful #swapsharesew challenge. How lovely is that!

It was such good fun and it also forged a lovely sewing friendship between us. It was then we thought why not share this amazing sewing friendship challenge to other like-minded sewists. Whereby they could make a new sewing friend too and that’s when the #swapsharesew challenge came about.

After promoting the challenge and following it up with our Vlogs we had an amazing response. We managed to pair up over 60 ladies from across the globe.

The challenge is going really well so far. With lots of amazing habby parcels being sent and received and new friendships being made. See some of the examples below.

#swapsharesew Habby Parcels

The challenge is well underway and by the end of October hopefully, there will be lots of amazing sewing makes. But most importantly new friendships made.

How wonderful is that? It makes my heart leap with joy when I read all the Instagram posts and wonderful comments.

We’ve even got some fantastic prizes too which have been kindly donated by businessess in this lovely sewing community.

There are 4 categories that include, the best sewing make, the best use of the habby parcel, the best habby parcel sent and the most ingenious use of it too.

To see more of the amazing prizes and the progress sewing makes so far, please join me and Rosy on our Instagram accounts.

You can also watch our Vlogs on our YouTube channels too. Don’t forget to subscribe whilst your there.

I will post lots more pictures when the #swapsharesew challenge is finished at the end of October so watch this space!