I know I’m lucky to be working from home and doing exactly what I love, upcycling leather coats and jackets into bags but I can’t hide away in my sewing hubb forever wallowing in my pleasure. How will anyone know what I do if I don’t get out there and meet the world and share with them.  All sounds sensible but to me absolutely daunting. For the past decade while my two little ones have been growing up I have pretty much stayed very close to home and being where my family needed me, but as my children become more independent I find my love for sewing and creating really growing into a way of life, I can’t imagine myself doing anything else. My days are fulfilling the orders that come in via Facebook, twitter, and my website which is fab but I wanted to explore more and see what London has to offer me and my line of business. I visited Spitalfields Market some time back and after walking around I got a strong feeling, it felt right to me that it was where I needed to be with my upcycled leather bags business. After applying to be trader at Spitalfields Market I was met with negativity and the market organisers were not keen on taking on “another bag” seller. I felt disappointed that they didn’t get “it” about me. After a couple of nos I decided to bite the bullet and give them a call and ask them where it all went wrong for me securing a stall. I chatted and asked if they had actually checked out my website I was then met with enthusiasm and the comment “you’ve got yourself a stall,when can you start?”, he said, “your product is quirky enough and will fit in well”. I came off the phone and squealled with excitement, I’m on my way to London yippee and then the realisation I am leaving my sewing room to spread my wings yippee…but I couldn’t do it alone…next step a call to my oldest school friend..Clare, “can you come with me to Spitalfields Market I’ve only gone and  got myself a Saturday stall”. Off we went to Spitalfields Market London, excited, apprehensive and really not having blinking clue how I was going to set up my stall when I got there. Missing the turning I was late to meet Xavier, I hate being late,eventually we met the Spitalfields Market Boss Ray, he greeted me tapping his watch, seemed annoyed and wasn’t interested in another Bag Seller, Uh oh , I felt hot and thought we were getting back in the car and heading 3 hours back to Stafford, I had to win him round and wandered off down the stalls with him and explained they were not just any old leather bags they were bags made from vintage leather jackets, suddenly he said ok now you’re making them sound more interesting..set up here and off he went. Clare and I had a giggle setting up a my very amateur table, forgetting to bring anything to cover the table it was pretty sparce! It was a funny old day acclimatising to the market, Ray came back at lunchtime for stall fees, his first words were” crap presentation but great product”..happy with the feedback it spurred on to improve it for next time.