Where do I begin!? What a whirlwind of adventure we have had the past several days!
Ever since Joann Fabrics closed here in the United States about a year ago, it’s been rather depressing in regards to shopping for appropriate apparel fabrics. I know I am not alone!
Thanks to my flight benefits, we decided that this year we would “hop across the pond” for the premier sewing and craft exposition, The Stitch Festival. This festival is open to the public with a ticket purchase. We bought a day pass for Friday March 20th, 2026, and the hours were from 10am to 5pm. It was about $20 usd, not bad!
I am very blessed to have flight benefits which allow us to fly TO England for $0.00 (and we just pay taxes to fly to USA). I couldn’t be more thankful for this opportunity, and we try to take advantage of it when we can. You get whatever seat is left over on the plane, if not all the seats are sold. These can be some pretty rough seat situations (and this particular ride to LHR was the worst ever!), yet I just smile and be thankful because its a true perk of my career to fly for free.
Where we Stay in London
We always stay at Russel Square at the Royal National Hotel. I recommend this hotel and area, it is highly convenient! We were recommended this option by a professor who regularly takes students on tours to England. While the Royal National does tend to attract a younger, student oriented clientele, it is very quiet, it’s basic, clean and simple. The beds are comfortable. The Russel Square metro stop is convenient to everything included the airport, and there is a plethora of restaurants.
After flying on United from IAD to LHR our first stop was Terry’s Cafe , for a wonderful English breakfast. I recently found out my ferritin is only 9, which is quite anemic, so I treated myself to an extra order of black pudding. I really like eating it when we come to England, my husband, not so much.
The Day of the Stitch Festival
What we wore to the Stitch Festival…
I wore this very special skirt I made using McCalls M8005. It was a “scrap buster” project, but very thought out, and not random at all, despite looking random to the eye. I wanted it to look like a Dolce and Gabbana skirt I saw. Here is a little video short of the inspiration and the skirt. I knew this would be a cute thing to wear to a very fabric-centric event!
The red bow shoes are here. The tee was a birthday gift from my mom, here.
Joe is wearing a cool shirt in a coordinating yellow stripe I found him 🙂
I wore my purple coat I made too, and their was a coat check available at the expo which was lovely.
The stitch festival itself was INCREDIBLY STIMULATING of fabric excitement overload!! There is one other place I have felt this way before, and that is at Mood Fabrics in New York, a 3 floor fabric haven of great influence in the NY Fashion industry. This is the same vibe. There is an abundance of beauty! An abundance of possibility! If you are an ISFP personality type like me, you understand. When your way of looking at the world is heavily influenced by dreaming up aesthetically pleasing concepts, in my case, clothing ideas, it almost too much to take when given so many choices in front of you. Kind of knowing this ahead of time, based on my visits to Mood Fabrics, I came with a rather detailed specific plan of sewing patterns I like, along with the meters, and types of fabrics I was hunting for. A plan helps so much with the overwhelm.
I will also say it is an extremely PEOPLE-LY experience. There are SO MANY women, swarming like bees. I’m not saying this as a bad thing, because it actually makes me delighted that sewing and crafting is still so popular, and I love seeing the event go off so well. But it’s stressful at the same time. Sometimes you can hardly walk. It can quite literally be as dense as a NYC subway at rush time, in certain parts of the expo floor. Given the extreme flow of shoppers however, I will say the cutting of fabrics, and paying for them went exceptionally speedily in most booths. It seems they are well experienced with this show, and over the years have found their rhythm in keeping business flowing smooth.
My absolute personal favorite shop at the Stitch Festival is Roy’s Material World. We are familiar with Roy’s shop through our visits to Leicester, England. He is a friend of The Dressmaker’s Ball community, and I like to give them my business because I’m fond of them. I also bought 2 fabrics from a retailer of vintage found fabrics (I will add her booth name if I can find it) , we picked out Joe a stretch jersey for his shirt I will make him from Lili Fabrics. I bought 2 fabrics from Rainbow Fabrics, and all the rest from Roy. I also bought an assortment for cute sewing labels from Little Rosey Cheeks.
In addition to fabrics, there are many other booths. Everything from embroidery, cross stitch, knitting, crochet, to shoe and slipper making! Lots of quilting booths as well. Sewing machine manufactures had a large presence there as well. I’m blow away by the modern technology!
My husband is such a great sport at events like this. He is very supportive of my sewing, and his mother used to love sewing herself clothing as well. He had several things to shop for himself. I helped him look for the fabrics for the special projects he’s given me to do, and he had fun doing that. We ended up staying from about 10am to 2:20pm. By then I was concerned how much money I was spending, and I was getting tired honestly! It was such a fun but draining time!
We walked to one of our favorite places in London, the lobby at the St. Pancras Hotel, and we had pots of Jasmine tea to wind down.
Later that evening, we ended our 2nd and last day of London for this trip, at Swan Pub in Russel Square. We had fish and chips and mushy peas naturally! The pub is one of the top 5 rated pubs in all of London, and so close to our hotel. It was a great atmosphere.
Here is what I bought at the festival… “Typical Adrianne Fabrics”! Very girly and vintage-y. I seem to always be drawn to the same things, and that’s ok!
