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| Crafters arriving at Hampton Court Palace for the Handmade Fair |
As you may have noticed I haven't written a post recently. This is mainly because of time constraints – I just simply haven't had time to make anything crafty recently, let alone blog about it. However, a trip to the Handmade Fair yesterday has reignited my love of craft and I have come away with loads of ideas for things to make! Plus I am moving house in a month and I am determined that this time I am going to fill it with home-made delights!
For any of you not lucky enough to get to the Handmade Fair this weekend, don't worry I took lots of pictures for you to browse! Basically it was a giant craft fair in the grounds of Hampton Court Palace in London, organised by Kirstie Allsopp (love her!) and Mollie Makes (great magazine!). There were workshops to get involved in and lots of stalls selling handmade goodies, and all the fabric/ribbon/patterns/paint... any crafter could need.
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| It's Kirstie Allsopp! |
I went with my mum who is also a keen crafter (in fact, it was her who taught me to sew) and the journey involved catching a train at 7am on a Saturday – committed or what?! We arrived just in time for our first event of the day which was a 'Mollie Makes Mash up' introduced by the one and only Kirstie Allsop (so exciting!).
"What is a Mollie Makes Mash up?" I hear you ask. Well, it was a head-to-head between Lisa Comfort (owner of the
Sew Over It cafe in London) and knitter Benjamin Wilson. They were each given a plain white t-shirt and asked to transform it into something amazing. Lisa chopped it up, added a waistband and a skirt and turned it into a super-cute dress. Benjamin dyed it and slashed some holes to turn it into a purple tie-died grunge top. Lisa won the head-to-head.
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| Benjamin vs Lisa on the stage |
Next we had a bit of a wander around the stalls (I was very restrained even though I could probably have bought something at every stall!). Some of the things that really caught my eye were a roller to paint a pattern onto plain fabric or furniture from The
Painted House (genius!), patterns for Lisa Comfort's cute dresses and metres of fabric and ribbons.
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| Just a few of the craft stalls |
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| Lisa Comfort's Sew Over It stand |
Our workshop was for
Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, led by the woman herself. We got to paint and wax a candlestick before rubbing down some of the edges to reveal the colour underneath. Unfortunately my candlestick was orange underneath and dark blue on top – not my favourite combination. But it was really interesting to hear the different ways you could use the paint and it has given me lots of ideas. The independent shops that stock Annie Sloan Chalk Paint run workshops on using the paint and luckily there is one quite near home so I think I will be signing up for one of those!
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| My attempt at chalk painting! |
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| Annie Sloan talking about her chalk paint |
Our other workshop was in gift wrapping which sounded really interesting but sadly it was only 30 minutes and there wasn't much time to learn much except how to tie a bow. So the recipients of Christmas presents from me this year can look forward to lots of bows and ribbon on their presents!
Talking to some other visitors on the train back it sounded like we missed a few of the free workshops which all sounded really good but all in all it was a fun day and I now feel fully inspired to get my sewing machine and paintbrush back out. So watch this space!
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| Tilly and the Buttons (Sewing Bee contestant last year) giving a sewing masterclass |
