Hidden sewing gem in East London

Just a quick post with a heads-up on a great place to sew I stumbled across this week. Departure Cafe is part of a community project in Limehouse, and as well as having a big cafe and second-hand book shop, hires sewing machines for just £1 an hour. A brilliant antidote to many of London's sewing cafes, which I often find overpriced. The atmosphere was relaxed, with avid sewers dotted throughout the large cafe space working on their projects. Could make a great venue for a future LDC meetup.

Departure run informal sewing groups and structured courses, along with ceramics and film nights among others. The sewing sessions are in the afternoon - worth checking out if you're free in the daytime.

I'm always on the lookout for new places to sew - so if anyone has any good tips, post them up.

This is the blog of the London Dressmakers Club

This is the blog of the London Dressmakers Club.  We are based in London, UK.

We are a sewing group organising meetings through Meetup.com.  You can find us here:

 

              The London Dressmakers Club on Meetup.com

This group is open to anyone who enjoys sewing and fashion: beginner or advanced dressmaker, maker of garments or sewer of useful items - everyhone is welcome to join.

We are looking to schedule all kinds of meetings and events.  We would love to hear about what you would like to do, like sew alongs or exhibitions to go to, - if you would like to go on fabric shopping trips, attend meetings where we can sit, hand stitch, and swap sewing tips, - or something totally different that we haven't thought of yet.

We would also like to encourage all members of the group to contribute to this blog: this is a members' blog and better the more people contribute.  You can comment on any post already, but we would particularly like members to become registered authors so you can put up your own posts and photos. Please drop us a line.

You could write about a project you made or a work in progress you are busy with (lots of progress photos please! I'm a sucker for those! G.).  You could tell us about an item you want to make and what you like about it: show us photos of the fabric, the pattern or any other bits and pieces you got for it. Or you could tell us about a technique you found useful, or give a summary of a good blog or a short list of links - I'm sure that any kind of contribution like this would be really helpful to other members.

We could also have a regular feature of 'Ask a sewing related question'.  You ask the question, the members of the London Dressmakers Club do their darndest to provide a helpful answer.  That could be really helpful?

Put your thinking caps on and let us know what you come up with.

Please get in touch!