Hillarys Blinds Country Crafts Competition Entry

When I saw on Craft Blog UK that Hillarys Blinds had launched a competition for craft bloggers, I thought it would be the ideal chance to throw myself into a sewing project for the first time in... well, about a year! The brief was simple - choose a sample from their new Country Retreats fabric range, make an original design, and write a blog post about it.

This beautiful fabric, 'Bird Parade' leapt out at me straight away, especially as it would give me the perfect excuse to make and paint a peacock button to go with it, so all I needed was to decide what to make.

The next day I was at work - I work in a large college - and it was pouring with rain. We sell Pink Pig sketchbooks (made in Huddersfield - I love them), and I was trying to find a large carrier bag for a student, who was upset that her portfolio had not only got wet, but was getting repeatedly bent at the corners from being carried back and forth to college every day. I'd just stocked up on fresh sketchbooks myself the day before, and so it hit me - I'd make an A3 sketchbook folder, to protect my Pink Pig when out and about!

So I used my shiny new Pink Pig to sketch out a design...

...And visited my local market to buy delicious ribbon and cotton thread. As I was waiting to pay I admired a huge carousel of stunning embroidery threads, and it gave me an idea for adding embellishment to the back of the folder.

Using my sketchbook as a guide, I cut my peacock fabric and the inside grey cotton to size. The Hillarys fabric was already nice and thick, so I just added fusible interfacing to the lining fabric, and then used spray starch to give both pieces some extra structure. 

Someone decided to 'help', of course!

Before I could start sewing I needed to add the embellishment to what would become the back of the folder. I settled on a large, sweeping peacock feather design. This is where I was nearly defeated, because it turned from what I thought would be a couple of hours' worth of embroidery into fourteen hours' work over the space of two days! I was worried I wouldn't be able to finish the project before the deadline, but I took my embroidery hoop to work with me and put my lunch breaks to good use.

After that there was lots of pinning, a bit of arm flapping as I got nervous about running the fabric through my sewing machine, and eventually the project came together. I made the button and enjoyed using fluorescent blue paints to give Mr. Peacock a bit of grandeur.

I added a magnetic popper as a fastening, which was interesting as I've never used one before...

I knew I wanted to add quite a bold rosette to the front of the piece to make it look like the feathers on my handmade button were extending outwards. The latest issue of Mollie Makes provided me with an idea for making a rosette out of felt, so with a little improvisation I had what I wanted. 

I gave the finished folder a last spray of starch so it can easily be wiped clean.

Phew! It was great to get stuck into a sewing project for the first time in a while, and it was good to remind myself of the importance of taking my time in ironing and re-ironing my fabrics, measuring, and paying attention to getting nice straight hems - something I've always struggled with! I love using bird and animal motifs in my crafts so using one of my buttons allowed me to add in some extra personality.

Now my beloved Pink Pig sketchbook won't be getting wet and bent next time I'm on the move!

You can see the other fabrics that were available to choose from for the competition here. 

Have a crafty week!

Book Review: Vintage Home by Sarah Moore

I'm a little bit in love with Sarah Moore. 

I bought her first book, Homemade Gifts Vintage Style two years ago, (reviewed here), and it's now become a bit of a chicken and egg situation, because I honestly couldn't tell you whether my own vintage styling and love of thrifting has developed as a direct result of that book, or whether I love her style so much because it matches my own so closely. All I know is that when I heard that her latest volume was to hit the shelves, I had to own it, so own it I do. 

Like many others I thoroughly enjoyed watching Sarah on the recent series The Great Interior Design Challenge, (she's also a regular columnist for Country Living magazine doesn't one know) and was doing a little happy bounce around my room when she scooped the big prize. I feel she has won something for all those clever people out there who turn their backs on consumerist mass production and use good old-fashioned crafting skills and a new perspective to turn something unwanted into something practical and homely.

Vintage Home contains over fifty project ideas. It's presented in a similar way to Homemade Gifts, Vintage Style but I think Sarah somehow delivers this one with more confidence, and more self belief behind her words. The book contains stunning photographs...

It's a brave challenge to take on writing a book based on using thrifted materials, because of course it's not as easy as popping out to B&Q or Hobbycraft and stocking up on all the materials you need. There's serendipity involved, patience, and a little, well... luck. It could be months before you track down that perfect fabric for reupholstering one's pouffe or that picture frame worthy of being made into an abacus. But I think this gives the book longevity. Even two years later I still walk around car boot sales and charity shops, spot the perfect tartan wool blanket for converting into a notebook cover, and scurry home with my prize to make the how-to from Sarah's first book. It's the thrill of the chase that's almost as delicious as the finished result.

Whether it's style inspiration you're after or some practical ideas for your home, I'd say Vintage Home fits the bill. I picked up my copy from The Works for a bargainous £6, but I know it'll become a much flicked through favourite on my craft book shelf.

Do you own either of Sarah's books? What did you think?

Happy Birthday #PostCircle!

Hooray, #PostCircle is one today! What a year it's been. Just think how many thousands of letters must have crossed the world in the last year, how many smiles we have raised and how many friendships we have formed.

By now you'll know that tonight we're having a party on Twitter to celebrate. Join us using the #PostCircle hashtag between 8 and 10pm and you can expect the following:

• Special discount offers from some wonderful shops, including my friend Claireabellemakes, gorgeous craft supplies and stationery shop rikyandnina and Jessica Hogarth Designs. I'm mad about Jessica's coastal stationery range.
• A #PostCircle Awards ceremony
• Giveaways... including the below book by Liz Williams. Make sure you're using the #PostCircle tag to be automatically entered.
• Happy post chat from the biggest gathering of #PostCircle members ever.
• Tunes!
• Imaginary cheese and pineapple on sticks. What?

I fully expect to get banned for tweeting too much tonight - I suppose it's the equivalent of Twitter binge drinking. Binge tweeting.

See you there!

PS: All the offers tweeted during the party will be summed up on my Facebook page just after 10pm, to help you keep track. But they will only be valid for 24 hours!

My Top Ten Crafting Disasters

In the latest post in my Creative Life series I wrote about the joy of failure in crafting, and how it can teach us so much. As a light start to the week here, as promised, are my top ten crafting/homemade fails:

1. This mouse. When these sweet little linen mice featured on the cover of Mollie Makes issue eleven I knew I had to make them. The first one, see above, looks like he is suffering from some sort of overactive bladder. The other two continue to resemble the opening scene of the first episode of Game of Thrones. Grisly.
2. My first ever pompom. I made it in the traditional way, with cardboard rings I'd carefully made from a cardboard box. Except I made the rings rather large, the pompom turned out to be a monster, and it moulted all over the place. Finally, it went bald like a sad little ageing pompom, and had to be consigned to the bin. Poor pompom.
3. Buttons. Yes, I make buttons and sell them in my Etsy shop, but it wasn't always plain sailing. The first buttons I ever made were wonky, too thick and clumsy, and fell apart when you tried to, y'know, use them as buttons. I very nearly gave up button-making as a bad job.
4. This peg bag. Oh, how well fell out during the making process. 
5. A lavender heart. Thinking it would be rather lovely to hang handmade lavender hearts on all the coat hangers in my wardrobe, I made a job lot a couple of years back. Except I neglected to sew up one of them up properly and it leaked dried lavender all over my wardrobe. I was picking bits out of my shoes for weeks, but did feel strangely relaxed when it came to choosing what to wear each morning.
6. A batch of mojitos. I love a good cocktail, and when I once attempted to treat friends to a fresh pitcher of one of my favourites, I was surprised when it was suggested I make a career change to dentistry. It seems I'd managed to make mouthwash. Very poky mouthwash.
7. This cushion. A gift for my nan, who happens to have been a very talented sewer in her day, it turned out all baggy on one corner and I still can't for the life of me fathom why. Not good when you know it's going to be shown off to one's grandmother's bemused friends.
8. Pretty much everything I ever tried to knit that isn't a scarf. I love knitting scarves. Scarves are safe. But each time I try to knit anything more sophisticated I end up running to my mum for help. She and, again, my nan, are excellent knitters so I really do feel I'm letting the side down. (Don't worry, I've decided crochet will be my thing, or it will be once I've finished my first crocheted... er, scarf. ...what?)
9. Teacup candles. Ah, what a messy weekend that turned out to be. I bought dye for the soya wax, thinking I'd make my candles tea-coloured and give them as gifts to my friends. Let's just say I overdid it and had to tell everyone it was meant to be hot chocolate. Then they'd sniff the candles to smell the gorgeous chocolate scent, and I'd be forced to admit I'd forgotten that bit too... Oops. 
10. A few weeks ago I made the below fairycakes as a joke birthday present for a work colleague. I tried to make the icing look as as garish as possible, but think I succeeded a little too much. 

So come on, do tell, what's been your worst crafting disaster?

#PostCircle Star of the Month: January

I'm not very good at getting this out on time, am I? Must try harder. Anyway, without further ado, it's time to announce the #PostCircle Star of the Month and the #PostCircle Team of the Month.

Ready?

Congratulations to Claire of Clairabellemakes!

I got a lovely email from fellow #TeamRabbit member Jo, telling me how Claire sends delightful letters, and had even taught Jo to knit by letter. I love a bit of snail mail skill sharing! Well done Claire, we of the happy post world salute you.

And the team taking the trophy this month? (There is no trophy, but hey, we can pretend)...

It's #TeamSparrow! I've been watching you guys on social media and it's been lovely to see the appreciate tweets among you. Well done!

That's it for another month - remember, it doesn't matter how new a group you are, how short your letters are or whether you post first class or second, we're looking for lovely, thoughtful post that makes a difference to those who receive it.

Happy posting,

The Creative Life Series: On Failure

It seems almost unnecessary to write a post to creative types on the subject of failure. Creatives are by their very nature experimental, and experimenting is by its very nature about trial and error. Creatives have an innate thirst for trying lots of new techniques and crafts and methods. Inevitably, sometimes they will work out brilliantly, and other times, not so.

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Crafters in particular understand failure. Oh, we really do. While a musician might play one or two instruments really well, a dancer might have a specialism in one discipline, or an artist might favour oil over acrylic, hobby crafters tend to be multi-crafters. Serial crafters. I have a theory that if you find you are good at one particular craft, you are likely to be equally talented in a number of other, related crafts. For example, a jewellery maker might be good at wire work. A cake decorator might be good at polymer clay modelling. Because of our multi-tackle method of our hobby, though, we naturally experience more failure, because we try lots of things and so there is lots more that can go wrong. And I sometimes wonder if this gets some of us a bit down in the mouth.

Is it failure though? I think there are two types of so-called failure. One is wonderful, while the other is a tragedy.

The "I tried making something and it went wrong" failure:

I have lost count of how many craft projects I've attempted that have gone wrong. In fact, in mulling over this subject I wrote some of them down and amused myself so much that I'm going to share the list with you next week. But did I actually fail every time a project went wrong? Of course I didn't! As Edision would say, I'd simply discovered yet another way of how not to do something next time. I learn so much every time something goes wrong. Sure, it's frustrating, and disheartening - expensive even - when a craft project doesn't turn out like I pictured in my head, or, worse, as it looked on Pinterest (oh, Pinterest, you cruel, mocking mistress!) but making something that no one in the history of the universe has ever made before should involve a certain amount of trial and error. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it, and it would be neither fun or special.

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The great thing about crafting is that there are so many gazillions of projects to make that one failure can teach you a lesson you can apply to many hundreds of other projects in the future. The important thing is that you have fun, and keep on crafting, (there's a bumper sticker right there). The Ancient Greeks used to purposefully put one imperfection into every pot they made as a reminder that no human is perfect. You can tell that story stuck with me because I tell it often, but it's become almost a mantra for my own creativity too, and indeed every other task I take on in life. Strive for excellence, not perfection. Flaws in our work and projects not working out can be one of the best things about crafting, really, because those failures are the moments when we learn so much about our craft, about how materials work, and most importantly, we learn about ourselves.

Every man made item that has ever been is the result of man failing and trying again, failing and trying again. As crafters we have the privilege of being creators, bringing into existence items that have never existed before, and never will again. The failures between starting a project and a finished article we are pleased with are what makes that item unique. There will never be another.

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The "I tried that craft once, but I was crap at it" failure:

Of course, the real failure comes not in ending up with a wonky, er, 'breathable' jumper that only your mother could love. The failure comes in the curse of the multi-crafter, which is this:

Getting over-excited and wanting to try loads of crafts is one of the best things about being a crafter. But all too often it can mean we try a craft, struggle, decide it's not for us, and then declare that we are 'a knitter, not a crocheter' or are rubbish at sewing... and we close ourselves off to the beauty of trying again and getting better and instead rush off to try something else. And then something else...

The only failure in crafting comes in abandoning a project halfway through, and therefore never getting to know it in all its complete, wonky glory, or trying something, deciding we're just not cut out for the world of flower arranging, or glass etching, or embroidery, and giving up entirely. 

And I've done that a fair few times too. In fact, if it wasn't for the amount of times I've gone crying for help to my patient mum or a crafty friend, I'd have plenty of abandoned craft hobbies on my list. But the last few years have brought me a sort of confidence when it comes to giving new crafts a go, and an understanding that the true value comes in having fun trying, not necessarily in being good at it. In other words, a sort of bloody mindedness and devil may care attitude. It's my job to explore and learn!

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You could put the boot on the other foot and say that we have to give lots of crafts a go before we find the one or two that we excel at, and that is certainly true. We can't all be good at every craft, or indeed enjoy every craft. But when it comes to failure, I say we don't sweat the makes that don't work out as planned, and we don't ever utter the words, "I'm not good at xyz" unless we've given ourselves the time and patience to really find out.

The words you're looking for are, "I'm not good at xyz... yet." And you can apply that to every new thing you try in life.

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Crafting. It's clever stuff, ain't it?






P.S: You can read the first six installments of the Creative Life series here.

A Chat With a Creative Business: Zoe of Craft Candy

Last weekend I was able to share some news with you on Twitter and Facebook that I've been hinting at for some time. I'm really excited to be the new Chief Writer (someone make me a hat!) at Craft Candy.  It's a company that had been on my radar for a while, having read about it in various magazines, and I had downloaded their app as soon as it was released, so the chance to work for such a forward-thinking, creative business while writing to my heart's content makes me a happy Anna indeed.

For 2014 I thought I'd bring back the 'Chat With a Creative Business' series as I know I take a lot of inspiration from noseying at how creative businesses work, and where better to start than with Zoe Arch, Craft Candy's founder?

Hi Boss! So we already know I’m sold on the idea of Craft Candy. Can you tell us how you started it and what it’s all about?

Hi! Well, before I started Craft Candy I wasn’t interested in owning my own business. I had a job I loved, things had started to fall into place and I was content with work and life in general. I started to get an itch to learn something new, but finding something, anything creative to do in my community was hard work and very frustrating.  I now know there was loads going on but unless you knew the right person, followed the right blog, picked up the local newspaper at the right time, then it was pretty hard to find these events, so I started blogging about the events I could find. And so Craft Candy was born!

Today Craft Candy is a platform, a website and app (fitted with GPS) to list creative events from across the UK. Craft Candy is about making local creative events accessible to more people.  We are working hard to make sure that every creative event i.e. workshops, classes, markets and clubs listed on our site are searchable online. Sure, many creative events are free to join, take part in or visit but with limited budgets for marketing how will all of these great activities and events be found & ultimately visited? This is where we come in. Craft Candy has a growing community of followers across a number of social media platforms, we market these events across our social platforms so they are easily accessible to our creative community and the events are listed on our app. The GPS in the app lists the events in mile radius from where you are standing, so you can decide if it is local enough for you to visit or too far away.

What do you love most about running your own creative business?

I'm still learning, having a start-up is incredibly hard work! However what keeps me going is how reactive it is, we have the capacity to talk about something today and implement it tomorrow, which is very cool and suits my personality. The other things I love about running my own business are that I get to meet lots and lots of interesting people. Those people really get Craft Candy and what we are trying to achieve.

What’s your social media of choice?

Well if you know of any self-help groups for excessive pinners, please ‘pin’ me in that direction!? Shopping is now on the backburner, I've noticed my house has become considerably untidy since Pinterest entered my life,  generally I can't leave the site until I find and pin that last amazing image to my Craft Candy projectboards, it’s an early morning, late night…  actually, anytime of the day addiction! 

But on a serious note, if Pinterest was around many moons ago when I was at university having to carry tons of magazines & scraps of newspaper cuttings for my projects, it would have been a life saver, a website full of inspirational images from over the world, which I could pin and add them neatly to one place which is accessible anywhere. So now I’m making up for lost time!

We’ve talked a lot about how Craft Candy is growing to incorporate all sorts of creative events, as well as crafts, such as photography and gardening. Where else do you see Craft Candy heading?

I started as a blogger and as you know bloggers are very good at harnessing their own communities. With two bloggers now on the team, we want to use our blogging knowledge to grow the Craft Candy community. Our aim is to grow a fabulous creative and interactive community of like-minded lovelies, with whom we talk to, build relations and share relevant information  such as creative news, offers, discounts, the latest blog posts, fabulous images and of course your local classes and events information. We aim to build relationships different and better to other companies, treating everyone as individuals and having fun conversations.

One of my first jobs as Chief Writer was to accompany Zoe to the Renegade Craft Fair. It's a hard knock life.

What’s been your greatest business triumph so far?

Having a start-up business often means there are weekly business triumphs and I’ve learnt to appreciate everything from featuring in a magazine to hitting key milestones. I've also met some amazing people who have become great friends along the way, so there is never just one achievement I can pinpoint.

Greatest challenge?

There have been a quite a few challenges on the Craft Candy journey, and remember we are still very much at the beginning of it. If I had to pick one I'd say funding, a challenge familiar with all start-up businesses but starting with no money makes a business very resourceful and puts us in a great situation for our future plans and funding prospects.

And finally, where do you go for creative inspiration?

I live in London and it’s not possible to walk anywhere in the city with your eyes closed, nothing goes unnoticed, it’s an inspiring city and I like to think I find creative inspiration everywhere. You'll always find a notebook & pen in my handbag ready to take notes, sketch ideas and take down information.  But saying that, I spend hours on the internet researching websites, blogs, reading news articles, planning my next imaginary holiday, the internet really has made the world more accessible.

Thanks Zoe! You can see that the boot was placed on the other foot when I was interviewed for Craft Candy here.