Birmingham's Rag Market

Birmingham Rag Market is very old though it has been rebuilt in recent years. It is slap in the middle of the Bullring Shopping Center which is slightly incongruous. There is an outdoor section which is shared with Fruit and Veg stalls and stalls selling freezer paper etc by the mile. Inside the building, there are rows of stalls selling everything needed for sewing, tape, thread, ribbon, buttons, all in a huge assortment. And there are the fabric stalls. Cotton at £1 per metre with the most expensive at £8 per metre. That was Liberty's Tana lawn and I bought some for a shirt. Silk chiffon in rainbow colours at £2 a metre and on and on. Ruth was quite overcome. We inspected everything despite the heavy rain, had a cup of tea and returned to buy what we wanted. Ruth has bought masses of cotton including a lovely border print. I bought cotton and three different colours of lining for three projects. After that, we took the train home, had lunch and Ruth started on her shirt which was the whole point of her visit. She started by trying on the printed pattern pinned together. That with thorough measurement, let her alter the pattern  and make a toile including a sleeve. By this morning the real fabric was cut out and now the body is finished and she is about to do the buttonholes.  Meantime I looked through all my cupboards and discovered a large number of unstarted projects. What have I been doing this year? I finished the donsu and the African trees and made a cotton shirt and that's it. I am hoping to finish the brown handspun before next Friday. I have finished rebinding the Book of Carols.

Outside

Inside. I reused the title and spine from the original cover. Not sure that was not a mistake because the old cover is quite faded.