This year saw the Selvedge Spring Fair venture outside of London for the very first time! Firstly to Bath in March, as part of their Fashion Festival, and which we attended as visitors; then on to Stroud last Saturday, this time to coincide with their Select Festival, which celebrates textiles and contemporary crafts. 

We were thrilled to exhibit at the Stroud event. As an online business, and a relatively new one at that, it was great to be able to meet people face to face for a change! We really enjoyed chatting to all the lovely people that we met, and to get so much positive feedback was a real bonus!

We'll be exhibiting at other fairs throughout the year and will let you know where and when via our blog and Facebook.

In the meantime, a big thank you to all the customers and fellow exhibitors that we met on Saturday for making us feel so welcome!

We're pleased to say that we've added some new items to our range of haberdashery goods from Merchant & Mills!

Firstly, we've got the Bamboo Point Turner, this versatile little tool creates perfect corners every time. Perfect for those cushions and collars!

Also new in we've got the Tailor's Thimble. These differ from most other thimbles out there in that they're 'capless' so have an open top which gives the user tactile fabric control! It protects your finger without affecting your dexterity.

 Lastly, we've got the Bodkin & Threader, a pair of neat devices to assist with threading elastic etc.

And finally COMING SOON!!! The new book by Merchant & Mills entitled "Workbook" We can't wait to get hold of a copy of this new book, which comes complete with 6 full-size patterns, available now to pre-order!

We loved making the top version of this so much that we're revisited The Camber Set by Merchant & Mills, this time to make the dress.

As we mentioned in our first blog about making the top, this pattern really lends itself to using a contrasting fabric for some of the pattern pieces. With that in mind, for this make we decided to use Nani Iro for Kokka's Mountain Views in Grey and we've chosen to add some contrasting panels in our 100% Organic Cotton Crossweave in the Dark Grey. As I'm sure you'll have gathered by now we love a bit of grey!

 Initially we were only going to make the front neck binding in the contrasting fabric but when we started to sew the pieces together we decided to contrast the back yoke as well.

This pattern has already become a firm favourite and one which we plan to make again and again. Because of it's simple silhouette and understated panels, it's a style that you can easily make several times in different fabrics, and each time it'll look totally different.

For our next make, we're thinking we'll make it in Robert Kaufman's Washed Indigo Denim, and reverse out the denim for the front neck binding and the sleeves to create a subtle contrast!

This year sees Selvedge Magazine take their Spring Fair on the road for the very first time and we're really excited to be exhibiting at the Stroud event on Saturday 16th May, 2015.

The Fair will be on at The Subscription Rooms, Kendrick Street, GL5 1AE, from 9am to 4pm, and coincides with Stroud International Textile Festival.

We can't bring all our lovely stock but we will have a carefully selected range including our designer and organic Fat Quarters & Fat Quarter Bundles, along with Merchant & Mills beautifully packaged haberdashery and gift items.

We'll also have other gift items including the beautiful Nancy Nicholson Embroidery Stitch Kits, and What Delilah Did Cross Stitch Cushion Kits.

If you live in the Stroud area, do please come along, we'd love to meet you!

For our latest make we've chosen The Dress Shirt by Merchant and Mills. This dress comes with 2 sleeve options, one short sleeved, which we're chosen, and the other a longer half sleeve with rolled up cuffs.

This dress is inspired by the Grandad style of shirt; its classic cut and relaxed style has been designed by Carolyn Denham, founder of Merchant and Mills, to be worn loose but at the same time she's managed to create a flattering silhouette. Carolyn's clever pattern cutting skills mean there's no need for a zip or buttons for this dress, making it suitable for both beginners and experienced sewists alike!

As this dress would work well in so many different fabrics it was hard to decide what to use for our first make of this pattern! However, we finally landed on the Yarn Dyed Essex Linen in Black by Robert Kaufman and chose to line the bib and back yoke in the tonally contrasting Organic Cotton Crossweave in Black. The Essex Linen is a beautiful quality fabric, what we particularly like about the yarn dyed fabrics is how the Black is woven with an Ecru to create a subtle chambray effect, as apposed to a solid colour.

This pattern is a joy to make, the instructions are clear and have helpful illustrations, which we found really easy to follow.

The one point that may be a little tricky for those new to sewing is when the back yoke and lining pieces are attached (Points 11 to 14), if this is a little daunting then check out our blog post on The Camber Set. Other than that it's really straightforward.

We did find that this style came up quite big, so we would recommend that you check the sizing carefully first with a view to possibly making a size smaller.

This is a style we'll be making time and time again, next we're thinking possibly Robert Kaufman's Chambray Union Woven Spot or the Striped Railroad Denim!