Sharon Sews

Day two is over...only one more day of the expo. There were many more people attending today and that always brings the excitement level up a few notches. Cheryl had her free fashion show at 10:30 a.m. and while we were gathering clothing and accessories to bring to the stage we met Mary. Mary was one of the many customers browsing in the booth just minding her own business. However, she was wearing a beautiful pink embellished tee that just happened to match perfectly with the pink skirt that was headed for the fashion show! And just like that, we had a model named Mary. Okay, we may have been just a teensy tiny little bit too enthusiastic about asking her to join us, but hey, it was morning and we did have quite a bit of caffeine in us. Anyway, Mary was fantastic - she worked that runway like she'd been modeling her whole life. Thanks Mary! Near the end of the day I had an opportunity to browse a few more vendor booths. Still not as many for garment sewers as I would have pref

Day one is over and I'm not sure what I think of this year's sewing expo. My first reaction was that there weren't too many vendors at the show geared towards fashion and garment sewing. Lots of quilting stuff and even quite a bit of knitting stuff. Granted I haven't been to the Minneapolis expo in four years, so perhaps that has been the natural progression over the past few years. I do miss seeing all of the great independent pattern companies represented - especially Sewing Workshop . I always looked forward to seeing (and trying on) their sample garments. Then I would end up buying a pattern or two (or four as they usually had a show special when you bought four patterns.) Oh, another thing I miss is the button vendors. It can be so difficult to find great buttons! To be fair, I am at the show as a booth helper so I didn't spend too much time browsing the sales floor and I haven't attended any classes. As a booth helper I have a chance to talk to the people

Thinking about attending a sewing expo for the first time? Or maybe you fondly recall the first sewing expo you attended. Well, if you're addicted to sewing/patterns/fabrics/gadgets like I am, you probably thought you were in heaven when you arrived at the expo. I remember vividly the first one I attended. The year was 1997. I stumbled onto an advertisement for a Sewing Expo and was intrigued. I had no sewing buddies to share sewing adventures with me. Nor was there an online sewing community to share ideas with. It didn't take too long to convince myself that I had to go! Well, I wore myself out and came home overloaded with information and stuff. I mistakenly thought I needed to pack my three days at the expo with non-stop activities. Not only that, but I took every handout available only to toss it out months (or years) later when I could no longer remember why I needed it. Since then, I've had the opportunity to attend quite a few sewing expos, not only as a customer, b