Cakes and Crafts

Last week I taught 2 groups of enthusiastic sewers how to embroider and construct their own snap frame purses. The classes were organised by Craft Creative Events, and were held at Tavern Co. on Smithdown Rd and Siren at the Womens Organisation on St James Street.

Tavern Co. where we had the top floor to ourselves.

Beautiful light and spacios Siren cafe. And they made their own bunting!

All the threads, fabrics and equipment were provided by us, as well as tea and cake!

Colour coded needle sheets and the BEST fabric glue in the world.

Stranded cotton wound onto old thread reels to make it easier to use.

Delicious selection of cakes from Siren, including a sew appropriate 'Red Velvet' cake.

The Liberty fabrics I picked up at Standfast went down a treat, particularly the William Morris designed Strawberry Thief print (absolute classic). Once everyone got their embroidery going it became very quiet, extreme concentration!

Even though some of the participants had never done any embroidery before they all produced a really beautiful purse, just using the most basic of stitches.

Just lazy daisy stitch but using different lengths and numbers of petals to make a little cluster of flowers.

Lazy daisy cluster for a large flower with satin stitch and french knots in a lovely subtle palette.

Two coloured running stitch to personalise a phone case.

Running stitch, back stitch and 2 purple sequins to make a couple of very dainty flowers, in colours perfectly matching the lining.

Back stitch, french knots and a little bit of couching to make a flower echoing the lining.

A little running stitch bird to match the Strawberry thieves inside.

Lazy daisy and stem stitch to make flowers and butterflies.

Brilliant geometric pattern in simple straight stitches with sparkly gold sequins.

More lazy daisy and running stitch to make a colourful bouquet.

Lazy daisy, french knots and sequins to carry on the colourful flowers from the Kayoko print lining.

A very fuzzy picture of the most dainty embroidery, love the fly stitch grass and tiny prick stitch stems.

A colourful mix of lazy daisy flowers, leaves and french knots, with another stitchy bird.

Chevron blanket stitch, lazy daisy petal, back stitch stems and a buzzy satin stitch bee.

Delicate stem stitch stalks with red lazy daisy petals.

I love that from starting with the exact same materials they all created something really individual!

Print Pilgrimage

Next week I'm going to be leading two workshops with Craft Creative, teaching some eager sewers how to hand embroider and construct their own snap frame purses.

As well as learning some basic embroidery stitches, and how to use and fit metal purse frames, they will have a choice of fabulous Liberty Tana Lawns to line their purses with. Now, I always have a stock of Liberty fabrics in my studio, but recently I've been running a little low. What better time than now to pay a visit to the Standfast Factory shop?

I'd had a few customers and other stall holders at fairs telling me about this wondrous place where Tana lawn is only £5 a metre and they sell scrap bags of all sorts of prints! The shop is attached to the Standfast and Barracks printing company in Lancaster, where they print not only Liberty fabrics, but other big names like Sanderson, Designers Guild, Harlequin and John Lewis' own furnishing fabrics, and all are available in the factory shop.

Printed furnishing silks by Designer's Guild. Far too nice for curtains in my opinion.

The shop itself is small but well stocked, and when I visited this morning it was very busy. Possibly explained by a certain recent BBC series, as when I went to get my fabric cut the sales assistant asked if I was 'a Sewing Bee person?' I think for those in the know this shop has always been a go-to place, scrap bags and Liberty fabric packs are rationed, with a limit per customer, and they were in short supply when I arrived. They did constantly repelnish the shelves while I was there, and all the fabrics they had packaged up were also available off the roll.

The Liberty range was fairly small, but there were a number of classic prints, and some I'd never seen before, plenty were perfect for the workshop though, and I might have bought a little extra for myself ... The shop takes steps to discourage reselling of their fabrics (potentially a VERY profitable exercise), by limiting the amount of fabric you can buy in one length ie. you can have 9m but you have to have it in three 3m pieces. Even if you're making curtains or furnishings this isn't an issue, and at the prices they're offering (generally around £6 - £9 for upholstery types and printed silks) you wouldn't complain!

My haul for the day consisted of these Tana Lawns to add to the collection for the workshops;

Some beautiful Harlequin furnishing cotton for my studio curtains;

A perfect match for my new desk chair and my Nikki McWilliams custard cream cushion.

And this Sanderson cotton sateen, it's meant to be for curtains, but I feel it's headed for dressier things...

The shop recently extended their opening hours, Monday - Friday 9.30 - 3.00, and Saturday 10.00 - 3.30. There are directions here, I took a taxi from Lancaster station for about £4, but walked back into town, it only took 25 minutes or so.

A Year On My Own

It almost slipped by unnoticed but as I was walking to a client's house this morning I remembered that yesterday was an exact year since I was made redundant from my day job and forced to become a full time freelancer! It is in fact the first time since I graduated that I've gone a whole year without being on payroll somewhere and I have to say it feels pretty good. A lot of that has to do with being sat on the sofa in my lovely little flat, in a leafy suburb of South Liverpool, the cats on the balcony, the sun streaming through the windows and me devouring a packet of coconut macaroons. But the rest of the good feeling is to do with being my own boss and deriving my (small) income from purely creative work for the first time ever.

I'm not going to turn this post into some 'You can be a millionaire craftsperson just like me!' piece, beause I'm not, I don't think they exist, and I'm certainly not someone to be telling other people how to do anything (with this exception, I draw your attention to my current position on the sofa stuffing my face with macaroons; this is NOT how you increase sales or drive traffic to your website.)

Whoops.

I am just going to point out that my ability to do this has been made much easier by two things. One is my wonderful boyfriend who has a much more sensible job than me and so keeps us on the right side of the rent every month (thanks!). The other is the wealth of other small and independent businesses operating in Liverpool who provide opportunities for me, and other creatively minded people, to make a living from their practice. One of the virtues of being a relatively small city is that communities of like minded people, be it in craft, music, arts, theatre, food...etc. grow quite naturally and make everything seem much more achievable than they would if you were stuck out on your own trying to make it happen by yourself. And being such a small city word of mouth does a lot of the work for you, friends of friends of friends are an invaluable source of business!

So, just to finish I would like to thank, in no particular order, all the people and businesses who have kept me in baked coconut snacks for the past 365 days;

Open Culture

Made-Here

Really Now

Capstans Bazaar

Kirsty Doyle

Bluebird Tea Co

Craft Creative

Blank Note's Super Summer Fair

The Liverpool Craft and Design Show 

 Also the Merseyside Etsy Team for sharing your knowledge and experience with us all.

And finally anyone who has ever bought anything from me, ta!

Hello March!

Perhaps it's because my birthday sits right in the middle of the month,(and because it's a little on the short side anyway) but February has a habit of whistling right past me, and this year has been no different. But, on the plus side, March is shaping up very nicely indeed!

On  Saturday I'll be taking part in my first fair of the year, at the amazing Camp and Furnace.

The Baltic Arts and Craft Fair before Chrtistmas was a brilliant day, lots of wonderful sellers, brilliant live music, and just a really fantastic atmosphere. I'll be fully stocked with Mother's Day gifts, a basket of half price bargains, and I'll be debuting my new range of Liberty knot jewellery too.

And on Sunday the Made Here shop in the Metquarter are going to be celebrating their First Birthday!

 

A big milestone for this brilliant shop, there's live music,  half price framing on prints all day and there's even going to be cake! If you're in the Liverpool area I really recommend checking it out and supporting your local independents.

Still in Mother's Day mode, Thursday sees me working with Craft Creative again on my sailor tattoo inspired Cushion Workshop.

I'll be showing you how to create your own retro tattoo style design, and teaching you all the stitches you need to adorn your cushion cover, a night out and a gift idea in one! We'll be at Percy Gulliver's Printshop and Social, above the Shipping Forecast, 6:30 - 9:30. All materials and equipment are provided, you don't need any previous experience and you can have a glass of wine while you create! Book tickets by getting in touch with Craft Creative here.

 

And if that isn't enough fun for you there's still Threshold Festival to look forward to! 3 days of live music and events for just £20, from the 8th to the 10th. I can't tell you too much about my involvement in this but if you take a wander round Liverpool's Baltic Triangle next weekend there might be some new additions to the area....

And that's all for now! Do let me know if you get a chance to see any of it, and come and say hi if you're about! Hope you all have a lovely March!

Hen Party Purses

I led my first workshop on Saturday!

  

 I'd been asked by Craft Creative, after helping with a yarnbombing project they organised, to come up with a few workshop ideas for their Christmas events. Craft Creative are an events company who specialise in running crafty parties and workshops, both in Liverpool and Glasgow. Perfect for an alternative night out where you can eat, drink, socialise, and learn a new skill at the same time! One of my ideas was for a hand stitched coin purse, not something I'd ever made to sell myself but I thought it was a fun way to combine basic embroidery with using clasp frames and small enough to complete in a couple of hours. I was lucky enough to be booked by Craft Creative to lead this workshop with the hen party of a very crafty bride.

 I stocked up on Liberty prints so they could make their purses extra special.

 

And while I was planning I had what I think might be the best idea I've ever had. (you have my permission to use it for yourself.)

 The location was great to work in, plenty of room for all the materials we needed and lots of light and space. I'd never taught a group of people before, though I'd done a bit of one to one teaching through my work as a costume designer, but I thought I'd be ok (both my parents are teachers so I was relying on some genetic advantage). I'd done all my prep so we just had to dive in, needless to say it didn't stay this organised...

Much cutting, sewing and glueing (which proved to be the most tricky part) later...

 

 

...everyone had a beautiful, handmade purse!