Review: The Old School Club

A few weeks ago we visited Battersea in South London to catch up with Inma at The Old School Club.  You may remember we did a The space behind the creative feature with her when she was in the process of moving into new premises and now she is in, so we thought it was about time we went to have a look!

We went to check out the Craft Night and had so much fun chatting away with Inma that we went on for much longer than is usual for a craft night! ooops.  There are loads of different workshops though as well as the craft night, so do check out their website for more information.

The Old School Club is based in some industrial units just off the main road and there are lots of independent businesses as well as designer/makers who are based there, making a nice atmosphere to work in.  We were there for the Craft Night and so most of them had gone home but it was a nice relaxing space all the same.

We started off with a tour of the venue - great for our nosey selves!

There is a big open space for the huge crafting table in the centre.  Inma's husband has been hunting on Ebay to get all the furniture that is in the venue and he has definitely come up trumps - very envious.  The crafting table holds the craft nights and some of the other workshops that do not require lots of space.  As you can fit quite a few people around the table it gives a real homely feel to the workshops.

There is a bank of sewing machines on your right as you walk in, which is always nice to see.  So alongside hand-sewing you can learn some new machine sewing skills too.  We really wanted to get our hands on them, but not this time!

There is a corner nook with sofas and magazines to read which can also be used for knitting or crochet workshops or just for somewhere to have a comfy sit down.

There is a creche which has been lovingly decorated by Nicola from BB-Berkeley with a Peter Rabbit Theme.  Parents can bring their children and let them play in the creche or there are plenty of workshops for children too!  The Spanish lessons and sewing school are always a winner with kids of all ages right up to teenagers, amongst many other workshops of course, have a look.

There is a second floor which at the moment is dedicated to studio for hire space and storage.  You can hire this space as a studio or office (they call it Cocrafting, cute), have a look at the rates here if you are a company nearby and need a bit of extra space.  Well needed for all those work-from-home companies I would have thought!

Once we had finished taking a look at the venue it was down to Craft Night! yey.  It was nice for us to take part in one for a change, rather than run it!

We were going to be embroidering a linen handkerchief with an initial.  So first thing first was to blind stitch the edge to make it nice and neat.  It had been a while since I (H) had done this and so Inma's instruction came in very handy.  Then it was over to choosing the text style we wanted the initial in.  Inma photocopied us some pages from her mum's very lovely collection of font styles.  Then it was over to transferring it onto the linen to start embroidering using plenty of different stitches.

It was really nice to sit down and chat with some biscuits and a drink - You can get drinks or biscuts throughout the time you are there.  Also it was lovely to do something a bit different than we would be doing at home.

Do let us know if you get to go, it really is a little oasis space in the middle of Battersea and so really central to London for a different night.  What's your favourite workshop space?  Let us know if there is anywhere you think we should check out?  We are always on the hunt for new workshops or places to visit.

Love it

H

Link for the week: Crafty Subscription Boxes

Currently there are lots of boxes of craft goodies that are on a monthly subscription or one off buys. These are a great way to kerb your crafty spending - let's face it we could all do with a bit of tightening our belts at the moment!

So I thought this week's link could show off a few boxes for you to take a look at and see what could be winging its way through your door once a month.

http://www.craftycreatives.com - this one is a rolling contract and you can order here

http://www.theoldschoolclub.co.uk - there current boxes are sold out but you can start a new subscription for May to September in which you get 4 boxes.  You can buy them here.

http://www.studiocalico.com - these ones come from America and you can buy 1 month or a subscription with them, more information here.

So with the rest of your Long weekend you can have a look around and see what's on offer, there are plenty more of these box offers around and so these are by no means endorsed by us but a flavour of the types of boxes you can buy.

So, which one will you go for?  Let us know if you already have a subscription box and how you find it?  Sammy is already a Studio Calico addict and so I am sure she can tell you more about that one if you want more information, just ask a question below.

Love it 

H

Live it: Craft Candy App Launch Party

This week we were lucky enough to get invited by Zoe of Craft Candy to the launch for their new phone app so we thought we would tell you all about it.

If you haven't heard of Craft Candy, then you should definitely check it out. It's a website and now app where you can find your nearest and most relevant craft workshop. It is now nationwide and so you can find workshops not just in London but further afield - including all of our workshops. You can find by location or by Craft such as paper or jewellery, amongst many others. We had a ball at the launch in London!

Firstly we were greeted by a lovely goodie bag which we managed to wait until afterwards to check out! -albeit only to the nearest pret for a drink and a cheeky look through!

There was Gin provided by Jensen, who are a south London brand and as H loves Gin, it was a very lovely treat.

Then onto the cupcakes by The Teas Knees and I think by now you will know we are a cake fan! They had Red Velvet, Banoffee Pie and Lime & Coconut flavours and we tried a bit of them all! Well, you can't review without testing all the goods!

Lets take a moment to appreciate the Gingerbread twitter tree! What's that I hear you ask? We were intrigued too! The lovely lady from Maid of Gingerbread was writing all the tweets about the launch as they were happening and then adding them to the tree. People could then take away a gingerbread speech bubble to eat and it was lovely gingerbread!

We realised we had made it, as we got our name in icing on the gingerbread twitter tree!

The lovely Zoe gave a brief talk about the app and then left us to enjoy more delights from the night.

We then went over to Stars and Scars to make a shrink plastic charm! H decided on an anchor with the blog brand name on it, which is now a delightful necklace to be worn on blog outings and more!

Throughout the night we got chatting to many different crafty people; we saw Inma from The Old School Club; met some of the Shoreditch sisters, Charlotte who had the most amazing Liberty print satchel and Louise who is an avid reader of our blog - hello; and we said hello again to The Make Escape crew (check out the sparkly shoes below). There were plenty of people we didn't catch up with though, so do come say hello here on the blog or at the next event!  We are very friendly, honest.

I couldn't end this post without showing you what we got in the goodie bag!  It would just be unfair really wouldn't it!  So, here goes: Jensen Gin cocktails recipes, DMC cross stitch kits, Crafty Pint needle case and information, a reel of decorative tape, iPhone cross stitch case, Mini Urban 'Naughty word' cross stitch, business cards from all the sponsors and a Craft Candy button card and Bow Tie.

That should keep us busy for a while!

Big Thanks go again to Zoe at Craft Candy, we had a fab night and we wish you all the best with the app and of course the website.  Looking forward to the next catch-up.

H & Sammy

Live it.  Love it.  Make it