The Christmas Crafty Bits - And I Promised Her An Owl

Earlier in the year I helped transform Red Door Studios in East Ham into a mid century market place with the aid of some plywood, wallpaper and container load of vintage furniture and nik-naks.
A few months on and the same space needed to become an Enchanted Christmas Forest as a setting for the crafters who were selling at the Christmas Market.

I worked with Dolores, Red Door's Creative Director and over a few cups of coffee down at the Cafe In Central Park we hammered out a rough plan design concept for the main selling space - twigs and branches, lots of them and birch wallpaper. We had a budget of zilch quid but Dolores had boxes of baubles from past events, Christmas trees bought in last year's sales and miles and miles of Christmas lights. I was happy to re-paper the retro backdrop that had been constructed earlier.

humble beginnings

The courtyard area where hot drinks and cakes were served would become a ski lodge, complete with log cabin made from donated scraps of timber (which I painted into), a found window and working fireplace. People could snuggle up on fleece covered benches to drink their hot chocolate and admire the view of the Mattahorn.

Moving from the rustic reds and greens of the lodge area into the magical silver ice cave of the selling area was quite breathtaking.
Most amazing of all were the Enchanted Forest creatures - Jason whose skills as a carpenter in a team of wonderful helpers that enabled us to pull this whole thing off - made twiggy stags that became stages for sellers to hang the wares from.

And I promised Dolores an Owl.

All the weeks we worked together on the event I reassured Dolores an Owl would appear in the birch trees before we opened.
Two nights before the grand opening I sat in my workspace and looked around me, what could give me an Owl. This is what I love to do - this is why my blog is called Make It Up - this is how I work best.

I plugged in my trusty glue gun and threw Dean Martin on the (virtual) turntable. I'd amassed an old hanging basket, curtain rings, plastic hook, circular bag handles, clothes pegs, fabric, card and buttons. I pulled from the shelf my battered 'Book of Animals', looked up 'Owl' and began to wire bits together.
The next day Dolores had her Owl sitting in the trees.

The Christmas Market would have been a great success even if the sellers had simply turned up with their wares and put out a few tables - there were some fabulous crafted things on sale.

But creating a sympathetic selling space is a nifty bit of ammo to have in your marketing arsenal, it added a wonderful ambiance to our event and made the market more of a happening.

 

It's a good strategy to bare in mind if you're planning an event for the spring - dress the space so that customers feel enchanted, appreciate that extra crafty mile you've gone to and come away with lovely things to say about their visit (hopefully having spent some dosh in the process).

Easter egg anyone?


Photos where indicated were taken by the wonderful Mr Phil Russell, you can find him here.
Red Door Studios in East Ham can be found here.
Thanks to everyone who made the Red Door Studios Christmas Market a huge success!

Quick and Easy Quilted Latte Jacket Tutorial - Handmade Christmas

Whilst a major coffee chain may be avoiding paying taxes in this country, why not craft your own Latte experience by making these sweet little Latte Jackets as Christmas presents?

There are some wonderful seasonal fabrics out there and these jackets take very little yardage - I managed to get 6 jackets sewn together out of 4 contrasting FQs, some wadding and a handful of buttons so it's all quite economical. I bought this fabric from the wonderful Ray Stitch in Angel, a great fabric shopping experience - take a friend and enjoy their wonderful food and coffee served as the fabric is cut and wrapped (beautifully) for you.
I bought the glasses from my local Wilko at £1.75 each but it could be worth scouring the charity shops for similar kinds.

First make a paper pattern from your glass, this can be fiddly - also not all latte glasses are created equal, I made an earlier prototype for a glass that was slightly bigger with the handle more central. It's all trial and error ... so Make It Up.

Use a basic quilting technique of sandwiching wadding between a backing fabric and contrasting top fabric using the paper pattern as your guide. You don't need to worry about adding a seam allowance as the raw edges on the jacket will be finished with 'tape' cut from fabric - or bias binding if you prefer.

I transfered a simple sunburst design onto the top fabric with tailor's chalk as a guide for my quilting - you can of course use a freehand technique which would be great on patterned fabrics following the design - see my phone case tutorial here for inspiration.

I followed the chalk design on my fabric sandwich, this holds the jacket pieces together. 

I cut a length  of contrasting fabric 1 inch wide for edging. I could have cut the fabric on the bias in order to make own bias binding - this makes edging curves a little easier, but the jacket design isn't that intricate and straight tape worked fine.

Sew the tape to the edges of the jacket, right sides together on the top piece - in four strips, don't try and edge the whole quilt with one strip turning corners, it's easier to do it in stages. Fold the edging over to the back side of the quilted jacket and hand sew in place with invisible stitches. Tuck the corners in neatly as you go to finish off.

Choose a couple of buttons and make an elastic loop with some round cord elastic. I simply hooked the elastic loop round the buttons to keep the jacket on the glass.

Now fill the glass with Christmas goodies and parcel up with packet of good coffee for the caffeine addict in your life - or hot chocolate for the younger less wired members of your family!

November Round-Up - OR - I can't stop making handcrafted crochet card boxes!

November has turned into a bit of a making frenzy as I've road-tested a few things as possible Christmas makes.

There was my Big Sister’s birthday crochet card box, I started with some vintage birthday postcards and whipped them into shape.

It's touching that these cards had a series of messages on the reverse inscribed from the past - one beau sent his lover a card regularly over the war years from 1939 onwards, I do hope they got together in the end. 

And if the inside of your box doesn't hold secrets from the past, you can add a touch of vintage interest by recycling old newspapers as I did for this lovely ...

Note picot edging on the lid, my crochet skills are growing. Instructions on how to create these beauties can be found in a post I did a few years back here and guess what, it's my most visited page - people love crochet boxes.

Box made, there was the annual trip to Derbyshire for Big Sister's November 5th birthday bash at Darwin Forest Country Park at Darley Moor. They stage the most amazing bonfire and firework display every year in a beautiful pine forest setting and it does make a change from the old East End.

Door to the Wishing Tree

Wishes tied to the wishing tree

Bib Big Sis carved this beauty

And yes - the trip always ends with a Domino Tournament.

Next up is an idea I've brewing for Latte Jackets, with inspiration from Thimbleanna's beautiful embroidered mug cozy that she blogged about here.

I turned my hand to a Poinsettia corsage as it's one of my favourite plants - a bit of a knit, felt and some beading. Great to pin to a dark winter coat or I may wear it in my hair.

Finally I had to have a go at making a Pom Pom Angel as seen here on Laura's blog SheDraws. Laura's dancing dolly pegs are decently clothed my D pointed out to me - my angel is *naked* up top. I need to draw some boobs or add a corset I think.

Laura has made some lovely wooden decorations this year - check them out on her blog. 

I'm currently gathering together Xmas tat from charity shops with the idea of creating another retro wreath to add to the Pink Flamingos that will be the centrepiece for my garden tub display!