Spring Sewing Swap!

On a much brighter note than my last post, I received a lovely package through the post today. I had decided to sign up to Kerry of Kestrel Makes' Spring Sewing Swap because it sounded exciting and who doesn't love to receive a nice package of sewing related stuff through the post? It certainly gave me a lovely end to a fairly crappy week!

I was paired up with Claire of Ragbags and Gladrags. We exchanged a number of emails describing our likes, our style and our inspiration (a lot of which were uncannily similar) and I had a nice browse around her website too.

And so to the goodies. And what goodies!

Claire was so generous!

This great Woman's Realm 1960's coat dress pattern is fab! It's actually an unprinted pattern, something I've read about but not come across before. I will have fun figuring that out! :)

Interesting looking book on dying fabric. This isn't something I've done before, so I'm looking forward to having a proper read of this when I get a chance.

A metre of this really cute floral cotton, or possibly cotton mix. This will make a really cute little summer blouse. Just need to find the perfect pattern.

Some cute little trims and notions. A navy lace, a white/cream elastic lace, purple beaded trim and green grosgrain (how apt! :)), plus a pink floral corsage!

Some jewellery beads (sorry, my camera is not good at focussing in on little things).

And finally this absolutely beautiful beaded and sequinned, embroidered orange fabric. I'm not sure if this is maybe sari fabric? It's quite narrow and as you can see the embroidered/beaded section doesn't run the length of the fabric. I don't know what I'll do with this because I don't think I could ever bear to cut into it. It's just too beautiful. But I will enjoy admiring it, draping it over me, fondling it and just appreciating it's beauty!

Didn't I do well? Such a lovely package of amazing items. I actually feel quite guilty. My own package was much smaller in comparison with far fewer items, as I really struggled to get a lot for the budget. In general, most people seem to have done better at than than I did, so not sure where I'm going wrong! I am clearly shopping in the wrong places. Either that or everyone else knows that you are meant to disregard the rules of the swap, and they haven't yet let me in on the secret!

Thank you Claire for such a lovely selection of stuff, and thank you Kerry for organising the swap! It was great fun and it has really cheered me up this week!