Once upon a time there was a woman who loved fabric and making things. She collected so much fabric and knew how hard it was to find just the right one, she thought she should help other people find their special fabric and make lovely things. So she opened a magical little shop called Make Me Fabrics and filled it with lovely things.
One day the fabric lady's sister paid her a visit in her special little shop, although there wasn't much room to sit because it was so full of magic. The sisters talked about lots of things, of their children and their husbands, of sealing wax and string and of cabbages and kings. They also listened to the stories of the people who came into the magic little shop and they wrote some of them down in a book. As the pages began to fill, the book began to glow because of the magic of the stories that were filling it. The stories of love, giving and creation were magical themselves.
Into the shop came a young gentleman named Luke, he was learning how to make patterns and had already made lots of beautiful things. He had come into the shop to find some special fabric for a special lady, his Grandmother. He picked some matching fabrics to make a wonderful present, he gave the sisters his story and went on his way.
Then a lady the sisters had known for a long time came into the special little shop, she had been a teacher at their primary school a long, long time ago. The lady must have had some magic herself because she looked exactly the same as when the sisters were little girls. She had been in the little shop before and had come to buy fabric for a friend. She picked some fat quarter bundles for her friend in lovely flowery colours. She also told the sisters about a meeting of crafty ladies on a Friday morning at the local library and told them to visit her and her friends. So she gave the sisters her story and went on her way.
Next a woman came into to shop looking for pretty fabrics to make Halloween wreaths out of. She picked some dress net in orange, black and purple and some scary Halloween fabric. She was making a wreath for herself, her mum and a friend and so she was passing on her magic, which is what happens when you make things with love and give them away. So she paid for her things, gave the sisters her story and went on her way.
Other people came and went, looking for little things, elastic, bobbins and hemming bond. They shared their stories and opened little windows into their lives, they paid for their things and went on their way. One lady was mending a hat she loved, someone was turning up trousers and someone was making a headband, but they all had a little bit of magic about them that comes with doing.
One lady bought some beautiful broderie anglais cotton fabric to make a pram blanket for her daughters friend, so she shared her story with the sisters. But her daughter had shared her magic with someone else as well, the things we make to pass on always have a little magic in them.
Soon it was time for the sisters to part, they put away the book filled with stories for another time. They said goodbye and the older sister went on her way, the younger stayed in her shop to pass on her magic and listen to the stories of the people that came into that special place. The magic in the stories grew as they were passed on, as it always does. The people had touched the lives of the sisters in little ways and they in turn had taken part in the stories of the people who had visited the shop.
Stories are as old as time and have no end, the magic in them grows with the telling and the passing on. We brush through others lives and take part in their stories for the briefest time before moving on. The magic little shop is still there and open on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday every week on South Elmsall Market. If you visit the shop pass on your story and leave a little magic behind yourself as you take away your things to make and do, things for yourself and things to give away.
And so this story ends, far now.......
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