Live it: Letterpress printing with Inky and the Beast

We are throwing it back a bit now and looking at a workshop we went to in June - seems like such a long time ago - with Inky and the Beast.  The lovely Jen has a lovely big studio at the end of her garden which means she can take people in to learn all about the art of Letterpress printing!  This is something that we both have wanted to do for ages.  Both being Design students when we met, we both get silly excited about paper thickness, print and type!  So this workshop was perfect for us!

Our Craftacular Adventure

Last Sunday H and I took a trip to Bethnal Green to one of our fave handmade fairs Bust Craftacular. This year we were not only there to catch up with the usual suspects, but we were hosting a papercutting banner workshop at the event too.

Make it: Phrase Banner

It's July and so that must mean there are lots of summer parties and fun times ahead right!  The weather here in the UK seems to not be in the party spirit though and so we thought we would make it happen with paper, even if we do have to duck inside when the rain starts!

Paperchase for National Stationery Week

If you LOVE stationery, like we do, you will no doubt have noticed that this week gave us all an excuse to let our inner (and often outer) notebook geek loose as we celebrated National Stationery Week. It was way back in 1997 that H and I made our first ever trip to visit the promised land that is Paperchase Tottenham Court Road flagship store for college supplies and we have been regular worshippers ever since. So when they asked us to come along and hang out for an evening and play with a bunch of stationery goodies you can imagine what our answer was.

If you have never been to any of the larger Paperchase stores they really are worth a visit, they go all out with they merchandising and displays. We started the evening by taking a walk around the store and taking in all the beautiful new ranges and making mental shopping lists of what we were going to be purchasing before we went home!

The super chic Get Organised collection always looks amazing, now with even more added copper accents and Monochrome mixes so well with it.

The newest American Beauty range includes some of my favourite pieces from Ban.do, Kate Spade and American Crafts. Not to mention a Pinterest worthy collection of pastel storage and inspirational foiled notebooks.

Being the planner geek that I am I spent a longer than healthy time at the planner wall, serious planner girl goals right there! Summer vibes were in full force around the store with palm print, flamingos and pineapples all making us wishing the sunshine would hurry up and come to stay!

One of the many reasons I love to come to the TCR store is their selection of handmade papers, they are just amazing and the selection is huge.

Some of our favourite brands are also here including The Makery and MT washi tapes.  How gorgeous is this washi wall!

After a wander it was down to business, the business of flatlay-ing our little hearts out!! The workshop was lead by the the lovely Louise from The What Now Blog and we were given a basket full of gorgeous Paperchase stationery and got to create some amazing flatlay images.

It was honestly so much fun, you know we love a good flatlay photo so it was fun to experiment and work with the other bloggers too! We worked with the gorgeous Carol from Muff and Teacake and met up with our current YouTube girl crush Natasha Nuttal from Graphic Fantastique, and fellow bloggers Jaye Rockett and Emma Jane Palin. Here are just some of our favourite images from the evening.

Thanks so much to the team at Paperchase for having us along to the event and meeting up with other bloggers is always fun! We had such a lovely evening, and yes I ended up making some purchases before we went for dinner, it would have been wrong not too.

What have you been doing to celebrate National Stationery Week?? Link up your Instagrams, twitters and blog posts below so we can head over and take a look!

Have a lovely long weekend
Sammy and H


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Espadrilles with The Makery

Yesterday we got the chance to visit the new workshop space for The Makery in John Lewis, London.  We are big fans of The Makery as you may know from our posts about our visit in 2013 and again in 2014 and so we were so happy when we found out they were opening a workshop space in London and even more excited when we were offered the chance to join a workshop!

We decided to go for the Espadrilles workshop as neither of us have ever made shoes before and so what a great workshop to try.  Also we thought we would let you join in the fun by showing you our photos as well as adding their You tube video as part of this post.  So that you can make your own at home if you can't get to Bath or London for a workshop.

We had to bring our own fabric to the workshop - but luckily we have our own 'little' stashes at home, ahem. I went for rockets and spaceships and Sammy chose colourful chevrons. Although as the workshop space is on the 4th floor in John Lewis, you can always buy a little something from their fabric department if you forget or don't have any to bring.

We started by cutting our fabric using the pattern pieces for the shoe size we are.  We cut 2 pieces of each and then 2 each of the lining fabric. One set is for the front and the other is for the back and sides.

Then, we made sure they were right sides together before sewing around the edge, making sure to leave a gap so that you can pull it through.

Once we had sewn around our pieces,  we cut notches in the curves of the front piece where our toes will be and the bottom of the back piece to make the curve lay flatter when turning them through. 

We then turned them through to the right side and pressed them flat, making sure to have points in the end of the front piece and turning in the gap and pressing down.  You won't need to sew this shut as it will be sewn in place when you construct the shoe.

Now time for sewing your pieces to the soles.  Starting with the back and sides piece, find the middle of the fabric and pin it to the middle of the back of the shoe, you then pin around the edge of the shoe at an angle (so the pin goes into the sole), with the fabric flat to the sole.  I am sure this is where the video above will come in real handy.

Then it's a case of blanket stitching around the edge of the sole, making sure the loops go to the inside of the shoe, not on the edge of the sole - again I am sure the video will explain much better than I can, but you can see below how the stitching sits.

Once all the edges are in place, you need to straight stitch up the side of the back and side piece to the front piece so that it all stays together when you put them on.

Then voila, you are done - new shoes!  I can see how these would be really addictive to make, Sammy has already bought another pair of soles to play with.

What pattern would you choose?  I think if I was going to make another pair,  I might go for classic on the outside and then a fun print inside, or slightly different prints for the back and front pieces.

Thanks again to The Makery for giving us the opportunity to attend the workshop, we had great fun!

H,xxx

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Who's Who: Ragged Life + Review

A couple of weeks ago we were asked along to a workshop at Tea and Crafting with Ragged Life.  We jumped at the chance to play with some fabric on a dreary Sunday morning and to find out more about what Ragged Life is all about.

Firstly we had a chat with Elsie who runs Ragged Life and so that brings us onto this month's Who's who.

Who are you?

Hi everyone, I'm Elspeth Jackson, rag rug designer, maker, teacher and fabric hoarder at Ragged Life.

What do you do?

I design and make rag rug homeware, fashion and art under the "Ragged Life" brand as well as running rag rug workshops in London and Hertfordshire. "Ragged Life" is all about being rough around the edges and unique so every piece I create is handmade using materials sustainably sourced from local charity shops and I love trying our different quirky designs. Over the years I've made everything from traditional rugs, festive Christmas wreaths and bold & bright cushions to rag rug photo frames, handbags and decorative letters - I even rag rugged up a tissue box once!

How did you start?

Every year my school used to put on a recycled fashion show for arts students to take part in. My mum had been making rag rugs for as long as I could remember so one year I bit the bullet and asked her to teach me so I could make a rag rug costume. It took weeks to make and weighed a tonne but I ended up winning a prize, so all was not in vain. From there I just kept on rag rugging and here I am today!

What's Next?

With Christmas coming up I've been keeping myself busy with Rag Rug Wreath workshops and Christmas present commissions. Our large rag rug letters have been really popular so I'll be rag rugging my way through the alphabet over the next few weeks. Longer term I'd really love to get together a whole load of people to embark on a World Record Attempt for the largest rag rug in the world. I just think it would look absolutely stunning. Watch this space!

What advice would you give yourself if you could go back to the beginning?

Think big and act small. All your small actions will get you there in the end.

After our little chat we were able to get down to the fun of the workshop and start rag rugging ourselves. If you have never been down to the Tea and Crafting workshop space, we definitely recommend a visit.

There was a group of us crafters/blogging types to learn the skill of Rag Rugging and Elsie gave us a wreath or cushion to make and so we chose one of each to get us started.  Rag rugging is very simple as all you need is Hessian, spare bits of fabric and a latch hook.

First, Elsie showed us the Looped method.  Using long strips of fabric, roughly around 2cm wide, you hook the tail end to the front of the hessian and push it back and loop it at the front, hence the looped method.

Then it was over to the Shaggy method.  This is more of the traditional method that you see more often and involves smaller strips of fabric.  The handy gauge that Elsie gave us means that you can get all your strips about the same length and get more cut in half the time too.

This method is about getting the fabric hooked through a hole in the hessian, so that it has the two ends of the fabric loose at the front of the fabric.

Both of these methods are very simple and the looped method is more used for particular patterns and the shaggy method good for large expanses and wreaths for example.

Sammy and a few of the other ladies decided to do wreaths, it coming up to Christmas and all and went for the shaggy method.  What's great about this is that it is quicker and you can add all sorts of fabric to make something really striking, you can also use sweet wrappers to get some sparkle! Sammy chose her colours with her Christmas decoration theme in mind, so just wait for that.

A couple of us went for the cushion and I decided to try the looped method on mine, which appeals to my more ordered side!  I wanted to make a pattern in the centre of the cushion and so I decided on an anchor and using blue fabrics - of course!  I may use the shaggy method around the outside of my anchor, but not yet decided.

We had loads of fun at the workshop and met some new crafters, which is always nice.  We are both going to be finishing off our pieces soon and so I am sure we will share them over on our Twitter and Instagram feeds soon, so watch out for that.

Elsie also sells kits so that you can do your rag rugging at home or give it as a present, if going to a workshop isn't your thing, or you are further away from the classes.

The kits include: Latch hook, Hemmed Hessian, Wooden Rag Rug Gauge, Instruction Booklet, Instructional CD with Videos and a Pen.  They cost £9.99 and can be bought in her shop and will shortly be available from Sew Crafty too.

But for those who love a good workshop and are stuck for a present idea then just book yourselves on one of the workshops below: 

Thursday 20th November 2014 – Rag Rug Wreath Introductory Class – 19:00-21:30 @ Tea & Crafting, Camden, London. To book please head over to Tea and Crafting

Sunday 23rd November 2014 – Rag Rug Introductory Class – 10:00-12:30 @ The Coach House, Great Wymondley, Hertfordshire, SG47ER. To book please email raggedlifedesigns@gmail.com

Saturday 6th December 2014 – Rag Rug Introductory Class – 10:00-12:30 @ The Coach House, Great Wymondley, Hertfordshire, SG47ER. To book please email raggedlifedesigns@gmail.com

Sunday 7th December 2014 – Rag Rug Masterclass – 10:00-16:00 @ The Coach House, Great Wymondley, Hertfordshire, SG47ER. To book please email raggedlifedesigns@gmail.com

Wednesday 4th Feb 2015 – Rag Rug Introductory Class – 19:00-21:30 @ Tea & Crafting, Camden, London. To book please head over to Tea and Crafting

Phew, that's alot of information!  We loved our morning with Elsie and have definitely got the rag rugging bug.  Such a great way to use up some fabric supplies and as it uses smaller bits, you can really use up all those tiny bits and pieces that you have left over from projects, especially for the shaggy method.  Elsie recommended keeping old clothes and scouring charity shops for pattern and colours - we can imagine her place is full of fabric!

The patterns and styles that Elsie comes up with our amazing and really help to dispel that myth that rag rugging is for older people and just a bit, well, old fashioned.  Go check out Elsie's work and you can even commission her too!

H


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Live it: Tea and Crafting Workshop

We all love to find a new creative space, right?  and that is just what we did when we got invited to a do a workshop at Tea and Crafting in Camden.  This workshop space is quite a new one and with so much on offer, it has definitely made its mark on the London Craft scene.  Jane, who owns Tea and Crafting is not new to us here, H took a class with her way back in 2012 for the infamous Loom Knitting post over at Craft Central.

But now she has very much branched out on her own in the vibrant area of Camden, inviting along with her a variety of tutors to give people the choice and inspiration that a craft space needs.  The workshop space is in the hub of Camden Market and is only up a flight of stairs - or lift if you prefer from the market entrance near the infamous Camden Lock Bridge.

The space itself is very much themed around all its classes.  There is a sample for everything they do, so that you can have a look at what you next want to do.  Each time they do a workshop the space is laid out differently and so you could never sit in the same place twice!  They run workshops from embroidery and paper cutting to crochet or Millinery, and so plenty of different things to try.

We were invited to try the Machine free motion Embroidery Class, which just happened to be run by another friend of ours, Nic, so good to catch-up at the same time.  I hope this didn't make her more nervous, it definitely didn't show if she was.

We started with a cup of tea and told to help ourselves to cake - they were already onto a winner with us!

Then, Nic explained what we would be doing, which was to applique on some fabrics onto a tea towel and then machine embroider over the applique to make it all pretty.

We had some templates sheets to look through to get an idea of what we wanted to do, you could also do your own idea, which Sammy did.  We then traced/drew onto Bondaweb and chose our fabrics.  I went with a rocket and rainbow theme and Sammy went for cameras.  We then Ironed on our Bondaweb, cut it out and positioned onto our tea towel before the fun could start with Machine embroidery.

We then got down to the serious business of learning how to Machine Embroider.  Nic showed us how to change a foot on a machine and what the foot looks like, so that you can have a little knowledge when you get addicted to it and need to go and buy a foot the very next day - just me then?  

The advice was fast foot, slow hands.  You need to keep the machine running at a fast pace and have smooth slow movements with your hands moving the fabric.  We all had a go on some scrap fabric first so that we didn't go wading into our final piece straight away.  Nic suggested we try and write our names and so we could get a really good feeling for what to do as it was such a recognisable image for us to do.  I was very impressed with my first go and my name was actually legible!

Then, down to the business of going around our image, choosing whether we were going to go once over each shape or over sketch the design.  I like the over sketch design and so chose this for some of my image.  Nic, then took us through some hand embroidery techniques, so that you could have a try at adding those too.  I was off on a machine embroidery whirlwind though and so kept it all on the machine.

What do you think to our efforts?  Sammy had done a bit of machine embroidery before, but I had not and so definitely got the bug for it.

We both really enjoyed the class, there was enough of the fun and informative to keep it really relaxed.  The space is really calming and inspiring, so it could keep you coming back again and again to try something new each time.

We would recommend Tea and Crafting if you are looking for a new workshop to try.  They also run crafty Hen parties and afternoon craft tea parties and so you can go with your friends too.  If you do go, let us know what you think and show us what you made via Instagram or Twitter using #livelovemake.

H & Sammy

Disclaimer:  We were invited to Tea and Crafting to try out one of their classes.  We were not asked to give a positive review, but it just so happens that it was really easy to give one.