Last weekend I took the long trip to Hampton Court for the Handmade Fair http://www.thehandmadefair.com/, well it's not that far from Birmingham when you stop in Earlsfield en route!
I went a long with my friend Miranda and started our day at the Super Theatre with a Mollie Makes Mashup between Benjamin Wilson http://knityounexttuesday.com/about/ and Sew Over It's Lisa Comfort http://sewoverit.co.uk/. A really entertaining start to the day. Benjamin was making a tie dye slashed tshirt and Lisa was making a dress - both had to make their garments in 45 minutes - no pressure!
We then had a little walk around for 30 minutes and then learnt to make pompoms with the new pompom making contraption (I now want several in different sizes!) and contributed to the guinness book of records attempt for the longest line of pom poms. Rosy Nicholas http://www.rosynicholas.com/ was also very entertaining, especially with her suggestions of what you can use pompoms for!
We had a really delicious lunch and took a little breather. The food on offer really was excellent - very impressed. Had a little wander in the tents, bought tshirt yarn for my huge rug for our hallway and a Sew Over It 50s dress pattern and then watched a pompom making demo on a contraption that looked very similar to a bendy wire hanger - looked a bit advanced for me - I'm still wanting the plastic contraption with the arms we saw in the pom pom making tent.
We kept walking past lots of people I recognised from Mollie Makes Magazine - the Tea and Chat bit.
The afternoon session was our skill workshop - Upcycling furniture. Jay from Out of the dark http://www.outofthedark.org.uk/ was our expert. He taught us how to paint furniture to a high quality and gave us a step by step guide. He not only taught us to paint but gave us great advice on how to do it as economically as possible. I was so inspired by the session that I'm going to upcycle a boring white ikea wardrobe we have in our bedroom. I will paint it (with my hubby's help) with a wallpaper print on the front of the doors and front of the drawers. The wall paper is already on order, I just need to go shopping for paint and I think it will be a bright turquoise.
I had a great day at the Handmade Fair. I came away brimming with ideas. I loved the workshops.
I've been to craft shows before but usually they are a mass of stands with some experts doing talks, but this was really hands on. Everyone who attended had to have a go at trying something. Brilliant idea! The only thing that we were missing - it would have been great to have experts we could go up to with questions as we had a dress pattern problem and didn't find anyone to talk to. Maybe it was there - we just didn't know where to find it with so many things going on.
This really was a great day out, hugely inspiring, really positive vibe, workshops were fantastic - looking forward to next year's fair!
I went a long with my friend Miranda and started our day at the Super Theatre with a Mollie Makes Mashup between Benjamin Wilson http://knityounexttuesday.com/about/ and Sew Over It's Lisa Comfort http://sewoverit.co.uk/. A really entertaining start to the day. Benjamin was making a tie dye slashed tshirt and Lisa was making a dress - both had to make their garments in 45 minutes - no pressure! We then had a little walk around for 30 minutes and then learnt to make pompoms with the new pompom making contraption (I now want several in different sizes!) and contributed to the guinness book of records attempt for the longest line of pom poms. Rosy Nicholas http://www.rosynicholas.com/ was also very entertaining, especially with her suggestions of what you can use pompoms for!
We had a really delicious lunch and took a little breather. The food on offer really was excellent - very impressed. Had a little wander in the tents, bought tshirt yarn for my huge rug for our hallway and a Sew Over It 50s dress pattern and then watched a pompom making demo on a contraption that looked very similar to a bendy wire hanger - looked a bit advanced for me - I'm still wanting the plastic contraption with the arms we saw in the pom pom making tent.
We kept walking past lots of people I recognised from Mollie Makes Magazine - the Tea and Chat bit.
The afternoon session was our skill workshop - Upcycling furniture. Jay from Out of the dark http://www.outofthedark.org.uk/ was our expert. He taught us how to paint furniture to a high quality and gave us a step by step guide. He not only taught us to paint but gave us great advice on how to do it as economically as possible. I was so inspired by the session that I'm going to upcycle a boring white ikea wardrobe we have in our bedroom. I will paint it (with my hubby's help) with a wallpaper print on the front of the doors and front of the drawers. The wall paper is already on order, I just need to go shopping for paint and I think it will be a bright turquoise.
I had a great day at the Handmade Fair. I came away brimming with ideas. I loved the workshops.
I've been to craft shows before but usually they are a mass of stands with some experts doing talks, but this was really hands on. Everyone who attended had to have a go at trying something. Brilliant idea! The only thing that we were missing - it would have been great to have experts we could go up to with questions as we had a dress pattern problem and didn't find anyone to talk to. Maybe it was there - we just didn't know where to find it with so many things going on.
This really was a great day out, hugely inspiring, really positive vibe, workshops were fantastic - looking forward to next year's fair!
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