I know that this is not quite sewing related, but I want to share with you the amazing experience I had going to a charity lunch.

In recent years, as I have grown as a person I started thinking more about doing something to help those who are not a lucky as me. I thought of starting with doing things that are fun the same time while I am searching for something more substantial that I could do to help. But, in the meantime, I go to events such as SewUpNorth.  Recently I stumbled on an advert for a Charity ladies lunch.  As I’ve never been to one of these events, I was curious to know what happens during one. I could imagine obviously, but I wanted to just go and see for myself (you know that thing about learning by doing).  As a result, I booked myself a ticket to the Fashion & Fizz Ladies Lunch on Friday organised by Cash for Kids in Manchester.

Since I’ve never been to an event like this, I had no idea what to expect. I knew it will be fun as it was presented by lovely Sheree Murphy ( you can check out what she’s up to on Instagram: @shereemurphy) and Mike Toolan ( Instagram: @toolyboy) both of whom I’ve been listening on the radio for the last couple of months. And if it turned out not to be that great, at least it was for a good cause.

We were entertained as well by lovely Scarlett Quigley who’s version of ‘Time to Say Goodbye’ was so lovely.

It seems I have an arm that moves without me and gets me into trouble.  Even though I left the table when the auction started, I managed to join in and won one of the packages offered. Really, I think I have to have my right arm checked, it went up without me!  Honestly, my mind was saying ‘no, mind your own business, you already got some raffle tickets that’s enough’, my right arm went up, not once, but twice! I was off the hook the first time. The second time, I was only trying to raise the bid so they get more money for the charity. But seems, I’ve got some cool things out of it. Yes, it was a bit of an expensive afternoon, but when I think it will help some children who really need it, it no longer matters.

I’ve made some new friends along the way as well, which is great. I love meeting new people and this afternoon was one of those times. Hey! I even got an invitation to go to Christmasy Dinner. In my book, that means I’ve done well.

Did you know that they have a massage therapist at this sort of events?! Well, for this one they had one. It was fun having one, especially since I was wearing the corset top, I could get a pretty good one. If it were up to me, I would have stayed in the chair all day.

Now to the sewing bit of this post.
We were told to ‘dress to impress’. Well, that gave me a bit of trouble because I could interpret that in a few ways and not all in a good way. I mean I would definitely impress showing up in a Playboy bunny outfit. No kidding I did consider it for a whole of 10 minutes. But then my serious side came through and ended up wearing an all me made outfit. I wore a corset I made using a pattern from the Great British Sewing Bee – series 3 I think by Claire-Louise Hardy (here is a link to my post about it). The trousers are view C of Simplicity 8264 ( my August make for MinervaCrafts blogger network – link to my post is here ). The Kimono top is a NewLook 6072 (I made it using a fabric I was testing for MinervaCrafts which soon will be on their website- I’ll be posting a link once my post goes live on their website).

All in all, it was an amazing experience and I think I’ll do this sort of thing again. It’s fun, one gets to meet some amazing people and help others not as fortunate as me at the same time.