Introducing: Tracey

Tracey is the owner of the Owl and Sewing Cat. She was inspired to open a fabric shop when her teenage daughter started to show an interest in sewing but they struggled to find fun and interesting fabrics that would be easy for her to sew with. She has the enviable job of picking all the fabric, notions and yarn for the shop. She also teaches a number of classes and workshops as well as managing the shop and developing the Owl and Sewing Cat range of patterns. With a family to look after too she is one very busy lady indeed.

When did your love of sewing begin? 
From a very young age. As long as I can remember I would always play with my nan’s ribbon and buttons boxes, as my mum was often sewing. I remember loving going through the fabric boxes and then seeing that fabric transformed into soft toys or clothing.

Do you have a favourite thing to make? 
I love making bags, cushions and bunting, because you can never have too many of them around the house. I wish I had kept a count of how many metres of bunting have been made in our workshops since we began running them.

What inspires you? 
The fabrics and yarns themselves are very inspiring. We can look at all the new collections and buy those that jump out at us, and usually the prints or colours inspire us to make either bags, or a skirt, etc. We also get inspiration from our customers sometimes, as they often have requests for patterns, or like to share their tips and ideas.

What do you like most about sewing? 
Sewing and knitting are very therapeutic; they’re a great hobby to have. There is nothing like hand-making a unique gift as a present. It is lovely to take that bit of ‘me time’ in our busy lives and create something lovely.

Any future plans or aspirations? 
In October, we opened our new shop, offering quality wool, yarn and a new larger area for all our workshops. My long-term aim was that we would be able to expand our teaching program, and in October, much earlier that I had originally thought, we began a large variety of classes, including knitting, patchwork, beginners sewing, dressmaking, crochet, cup cake decorating, making Christmas decorations, a children’s club, and many more. We hope to find even more tutors locally who can come along and share their skills. I will always aspire to get as many people as possible in Eastbourne sewing or knitting.

Tracey is in the shop most days and along with the lovely shop assistants is always happy to give help and advice on picking fabric and different projects you can make.

Happy sewing,

Kelly

Featured: Shop of the month

We are very excited that we are Shop of the Month on the Country days blog this month. Country days is written by the editor and team behind Country Homes and Interiors magazine. What a lovely surprise on a wet and windy Monday morning.

Shop of the Month... Owl and Sewing Cat

New kitchen window display

July seems to be as wet as June was and so our thoughts are still on our home and we have been busy putting together a special window display to show off our new range of kitchen patterns.

To celebrate we have some kitchen themed blog posts planned and a competition to win one of our new patterns as well.

Happy Sewing,

Kelly x

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Introducing: The Owl and Sewing Cat shop

Tucked behind the Grand Hotel on Eastbourne's beautiful sun-drenched (well it is today) seafront is a little shop called The Owl and Sewing Cat. 

Owned by Tracey, the shop is an Aladin's cave of fabric, notions, yarn and so much more. From a fancy sewing machine that can write your name to teeny tiny shell buttons we have everything you need to start and finish a sewing project. And if you really want to make something beautiful but don't know where to start the friendly, knowledgeable staff are there to help you with any question you may have or any help you may need.

Tracey decided to open the Owl and Sewing Cat when her daughter, then aged 12, started to show an interest in sewing but they were struggling to find fun and interesting fabrics that would be easy for her to sew with. And so The Owl and Sewing Cat was born. Originally based in Bexhill we moved to Eastbourne last year and a few months later doubled the shop size by taking on the empty shop next door which gave us space to offer more classes and start stocking lots of new products including sewing kits, wool and yarn.

In order to hold the variety of fabrics we have in the shop, products are shipped in from across the world. Fabric led to sewing lessons and Tracey has built a series of sewing workshops for adults and children to come along and learn various techniques, from beginners, through to patchwork and dressmaking, and now knitting and crochet.

Busy working during an Open Sewing Session

We pride ourselves on friendly service and advice to all, whether a complete beginner or someone with more experience. We offer inspiring ideas, shown in the store and also blogs and free patterns via our website and facebook page. We also offer a free pattern loan service from the shop on our range of patterns that we have designed. And most importantly, it’s a fun place to be, with ever-changing fabrics, yarns and projects. We are really settled in this location and have many regulars that pop in, returning to the classes time and time again and nipping in to show us the progress they have made on a project, or just getting a little advice when needed. Never fear if you are not local however, as we sell fabric and other items online so you can join in the fun.

I hope that you have enjoyed seeing a few pictures of the shop and getting to know us a little bit better.

Happy sewing,

Kelly


This post is one of a series introducing our readers to the Owl and Sewing Cat and the people that work there. Other posts in this series can be seen here.

Fun for the School Holidays

Hello, my name is Bryony, I'm thirteen years old (and will be 14 next week, yipee) and I am lucky enough to be the daughter of Tracey who owns the, Owl and Sewing Cat shop in Eastbourne. She has always encouraged me to do more sewing and be creative, so when my friend and I showed a great interest in sewing last year and were keen to do and learn more it help to inspire her, along with Kirstie Allsopp's Home Made Home programme, to open a shop. She now sells a variety of fun, colourful and new fabrics and holds lots of workshops where you can make patchwork cushions, tote bags, envelope cushions and more in Eastbourne.

With the school holidays upon us I thought would write this blog to give all those young inspiring sewers like me, some ideas to keep busy in the holidays. This is my first ever blog and so I hope you find it helpful. If anyone makes any of these ideas it would be lovely to see some photos, please email to info@owlandsewingcat.com or pop into the Eastbourne shop where we can take a photo for you for our facebook page to share your ideas.

The above picture shows the Beginner Sewing kit that has a different selection of materials, ribbons, threads etc, as well as a lovely sewing box house. This kit can be used as a fun and creative way to spend the Easter holiday, so much can be made from this kit; for example you could make a book cover, brooch, customise clothes and bags and many other basic projects. This great new kit can be brought at the shop for £19.99 includes needle, pins, thread, brooch backs, labels, buttons, felt, various fabrics, ribbons, rik rac, safety pins, pom poms, house sewing box, each kit is individual with different fabrics. 






The Fairy Trinket Box is a great way to enjoy learning to hand stitch as well as making lovely birthday presents. It's really simple to make and suitable for very young sewers. £3.50.

 


This Felt Craft Cushion is avaible in various colours and styles and are excellent for jazzing up your beds or sofas. Everything is included and easy to follow instructions which is also great for the younger sewers and well as adults!! £8.50


Here is another beginner kit but this one is for a felt shoulder bag which again comes in different colours and is a fun way to enjoy and learn how to handstitch. Earlier this year it was my youngest cousin's Birthday and we gave her one of these shoulder bags, she had never sewn before but found this project fun and easy and couldn't wait to do more sewing as soon as she finished. £8.50.



Small felt decorations are sold in shapes of leaves, flowers, bees, houses, deers and hearts. These can easily be stuck, glued or stitched on and can be used to decorate, redesign and style other items, the best thing to attach these to are felt bags as shown above. These bags are perfect for collecting eggs in an Easter Egg Hunt so they are great presents to give children this Easter. Bags from £2.99 and felt decourations 25p each

I often find that I have lots of spare odd buttons that I don't have any use for but there are lots of objects and accesories that can be made and decorated with buttons. They can just simply be sewn onto clothes or you can be more creative and thread them onto ribbon to make a bracelet or neckless. You could thread them onto thin wire and bend it into a shape and hang it off a door handle by some ribbon, as shown above, another way to use up your buttons is to stick them around a photo frame or a note book cover. In owl and sewing cat we have loads of jars of yummy coloured buttons in all various shapes and sizes and costing 10p each so some in and have a good rumage through them and select your favourite.

Using Bond-A-Web is a fantastic way to decorate your clothes. All you need is a cheap plain t-shirt, bond-a-web and some small fabric. Cut a square of fabric and square of bond-a-web the same size and iron togeather. Then cut into your desired shape, peel the back of the bond-a-web and place on t-shirt and iron to fix it in place, this can now be machine washed without any problem. Thats all you need to do to create your own t-shirt, so have some fun and be creative. For a demo just ask in store

Bond-a-web is £2.50/m and great fun.

Cute and cuddly soft toys can be made out of many different materials and old items of clothes including socks which seem to be the most effective way to make stuffed animal toys. I had great fun making the small pig shown above out of two odd socks and a couple of buttons and the book Stray Sock Sewing shows how to make loads of animals out of a couple of socks, it also teaches you various ways and techniques of handstiching. If you dont want to use your socks we do have them in 'owl and sewing cat' for £1 each.

I hope you have fun trying out these new, fun ways of using up your scraps, spare buttons and old clothes, plus trying out new projects and kits. Have a great school Holiday and hope to see you in the Eastbourne shop!

Many thanks, Bryony