Fabric Swap, Meet the Women Behind the UpCraft Club & Pattern Giveaway!

http://photos1.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/e/0/b/6/600_446937526.jpeg

Is your fabric stash out of control? Or do you have large leftover pieces of fabric? It's time to go through that stash and see what you'd like to give to another sewist. Bring your leftover yardage, fabric that you know you aren't going to use, or fabric that's the wrong color for you but could be great on someone else.

http://photos2.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/2/4/4/b/600_448389291.jpeg

We'll also have two special guests - Elizabeth, founder of the UpCraft Club (http://upcraftclub.com/), "the first modern sewing association for people who especially love using digital patterns," and Jess, who works with Elizabeth. They'll be discussing working with PDF sewing patterns and the UpCraft Club. (Read more about the UpCraft Club here (http://upcraftclub.com/pages/about-us).) UPDATE: They are also offering Bay Area Sewists a 25% discount off membership to the UpCraft Club! Just use the coupon code MEETUP25 when you check out. The code is good until May 6!

Thanks to Bay Area Sewists member Ali for connecting me with the UpCraft Club!

AGENDA [see below for more details]
SUNDAY, April 24, Berkeley Public Library

1:30 pm to 2:00 pm - Put fabric on tables/browse
2:00 pm to 2:30 pm - Announcements and introductions
2:30 pm to 2:45 pm - Select fabric (put tables away)
2:45 pm - Pattern giveaway drawings and group photo! (set up chairs)
3:00 pm to 3:30 pm - Elizabeth & Jess of the UpCraft Club discuss PDF patterns & their sewing association

Please bring fabric that's at least 1/2 yard long. Before you arrive, please label your fabric, note the yardage and whether it's 100% cotton, wool, rayon, poly, a blend, etc. And sort your fabric by type: wovens, knits, silk, home dec, etc. so you can quickly put them on the appropriate tables.

***NOTE: For each piece of fabric, you will get one entry for the pattern drawing.

If you want to take your fabric back, please label it with your name. All leftovers will be donated to the nonprofit East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse. (http://www.creativereuse.org/) [If you're driving, please let me know if you can help with delivering the leftovers to the Depot. Thanks!]

We'll have a total of four rounds of selections. If you brought at least three pieces of fabric, then you can participate in each round. For the first three rounds, you can only select one piece of fabric. The last round (fourth one) is open to everyone, and you can take as many pieces of fabric as you want!

This meetup is on a SUNDAY, not a Saturday, which has been our usual fabric swap meetup day.

THIS MONTH'S GIVEAWAYS
We'll have two patterns from Kate & Rose (http://kate-and-rose.com/home/) to giveaway: The Giselle Dress Pattern (http://kate-and-rose.com/product/giselle-pattern/), which has a sleeveless and 3/4 sleeve version, and a hot-iron transfer embroidery pattern, Faraway Garden (http://kate-and-rose.com/product/giselle-pattern/), which is aimed at advanced beginners.

http://photos1.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/2/5/1/3/600_448389491.jpeg

Here's what part of the Faraway Garden embroidery pattern looks like. It's the embroidery on the blue dress in the photo above. For more images of the embroidery pattern, go to the Kate & Rose site here (http://kate-and-rose.com/product/faraway-garden-pattern/).

http://photos4.meetupstatic.com/photos/event/2/5/2/1/600_448389505.jpeg

Thank you, Kati for donating your patterns!

PLUS - The UpCraft Club (http://upcraftclub.com/) is giving us TWO $20 gift certificates to the site. You can use the gift certificate towards PDF patterns on the site. Thank you UpCraft Club!

NOTE: If you have already won a giveaway in the past year, please do not enter. Thank you!

All leftover fabric will be donated to the East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse (http://creativereuse.org/) in Oakland. If you have a car and and drop off the fabric, please let me know. Thank you!

All meetup attendees get a 20% discount on regularly priced merchandise (fabric AND patterns!) at Stonemountain & Daughter Fabrics (http://www.stonemountainfabric.com/) (located at 2518 Shattuck Ave. in Berkeley) on meetup days! The store opens at 11 am on Sunday, and closes at 5:30 pm. When you are ready to pay, just tell them that you are a Bay Area Sewists member to get the discount. Thank you Stonemountain & Daughter!

**New members will need to pay their $5 annual membership fee either in advance of this meetup via the meetup page or at the meetup. It's free to join Bay Area Sewists for the first six months but if you want to attend a meetup you'll need to pay your membership fee, which helps cover the cost of using the Meetup platform.

Location: Berkeley Public Library Community Meeting Room, 3rd Floor
2090 Kittredge at Shattuck (near Downtown Berkeley BART station)

Note on Parking: There is metered street parking but it can be tough to find an open spot. You may want to park in a lot. There are a couple within walking distance of the library (for example, lots at 2020 Kittredge St., 2061 Allston Way). Suggestion: You may want to park at MacArthur BART (free parking on weekends) and then take BART to Downtown Berkeley stop. The library is less than two blocks from the Downtown Berkeley BART stop.

Wheelchair accessible. Please refrain from wearing scented products to public programs. PLEASE NOTE: This event is not sponsored by the Berkeley Public Library. Groups and organizations may use meeting rooms when they are not being used for activities sponsored by the Library. Permission to use the meeting rooms does not imply Library endorsement of the goals, policies or activities of any group or organization. For more information on meeting rooms at the Berkeley Public Library, visit www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org.

~Chuleenan