Bay Area Sewists Meetup – Fabric Swap

The Bay Area Sewists Meetup group had a fun fabric swap last Saturday! I’m the organizer for this group. More than 30 people came to the swap – our biggest turnout so far this year – and they brought some great fabric to share. The meetup took place at the Berkeley Public Library.

Here’s a group photo I took with my phone at the end – some members has already left by then so this isn’t everyone. We all had a great time.

We had four rounds where members got to choose one fabric each – provided they brought four pieces of fabric. 😉 And one member brought some very nice fabric of hers that she was selling – Liberty, wool crepe, etc. This library has great tables with wheels, which makes it really easy to set up for a fabric swap.

We had plenty of cotton wovens – flannel, plaids, prints, and solids.

And many synthetics – rayon, poly, nylon…

We also had a table with silk, wool and linen! And one member even brought a box of sewing patterns for folks to take – it was a mix of vintage, costumes, and random patterns. Thank you!

After we were done swapping, we held the pattern drawing for Cake Patterns popular Espresso Leggings. Thank you, Steph for donating your great pattern! And here’s Hillary who won the drawing, posing with her new pattern and the fabric she got at our swap.

After the swap was over (leftovers go to the East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse in Oakland), we put away the tables and put out chairs in a big circle and everyone talked about what they would do with their new-found fabric. This is just one-quarter of the circle of chairs.

Meg was happy to get this sheer fabric so she could get some practice sewing it.

Charlotte was thrilled to get this fabric – printed with little kimonos, which she envisions using to make her first quilt.

I got these two fabrics – a yard of this pretty organic cotton with airplanes, bicycles, and buses printed on it. I’m thinking of making a tote bag for a trip in August. I also got this iridescent scrap of silk – likely to be a scarf or perhaps a piece of fabric to practice sewing. I have some silk chiffon I bought more than a year ago but I haven’t sewed it yet because I’m a little scared to cut it. Maybe this piece will be good practice for me.

And I got these two patterns – Butterick historical hats and this vintage Simplicity patterns of vintage dresses. As soon as I saw the hat pattern, I immediately thought of Leila of Three Dresses, who makes a lot of period costumes that she wears to events – like a steampunk weekend.

Have you ever been to a fabric swap? Did you make anything from the fabric you got?