Highlights: Frost Fair Craft Night

We brought seasonal cheer to the Hackney Attic in November with our Frost Fair themes craft night where you tried your hand at making natural and paper decorations and Christmas cards.

Xmas Cards & décor 

Paper crafter and Scrapbooking Expert Shimelle Laine (who you may have seen on telly on the craft shopping channels!) was our VIP guest this month and not only did she run a workshop, she brought along her own unique papers and motifs, designed by herself, to use in the projects. Here are some of the masterpieces created on the night, some of which required some crafty cutting tech.

Paper decorations
These were made by cutting, rolling and manipulating scrap papers, wrapping paper and print outs and was led by Debbie Michener.

Twig decorations
These were made by tying together twig pieces which were cut to equal lengths, which were then decorated up with ferns, holly, pine, ribbons, berries and sparkly bits, led by guest tutor Karen Shand. There's a full tutorial on how to make them over here. 

Knit & Knatter

Every month we have knitting experts on hand to show you how to knit and we also welcome knitters to simply turn up with their projects and click their needles in a creative environment. Thanks to Larissa and Sheree for being on hand to show us how to make these cute Xmas knits, perfect for hanging on Christmas trees.

We're back in 2016. Join us on 26th January for our Go Green Eco themed craft night - focusing on reusing & recycling. Check the blog nearer the time for all the details. 

Club Tropicana Craft Night: August 28th

Calling Hula Boys & Hula Girls!

Come & holiday at our craft paradise. You don’t need a beach: just the Hackney Attic bar, a summery soundtrack and some fabulous workshops to take part in.

 SEW GOOD

 This month we’re delighted to be joined by the fabulousy stylish sewing blogger Tilly from Tilly & The Buttons. She’ll be running an Embroidery Circle, where you can learn the art of stitch from the queen herself. Tilly’s must-read blog celebrates sewing, offering inspiration, practical tips and discussion to encourage more people to have fun creating their own handmade wardrobe. Because as Tilly says: ‘Sewing is good for you!’ Tilly will show you how to embroider kitsch sea-side motifs like cocktails, shades and bikini babes.

Like all the workshops at The Make Escape, it’s free to take part and we’d like to say a huge THANK You to The Village Haberdashery for donating the materials.

GLAMOUR GIRLS

The ultra cool Jo and Karen from Use It Up Wear It Out are also special guests at the Crafttropicana and will be running one of their incredible accessories making workshops. This is simply not to be missed! The girl’s run workshops all over London inspiring fashionistas and creatives to upcycle – their assortment of materials to pick from is really quite something. Don’t miss this change to meet the duo and make your own individual piece.

COMMUNITY CRAFTING

In a Make Escape first we’re running a craft workshop where we need your help to make a big scale project. This one you won’t get to take home, but you will get a sense of pride for helping a great cause. We need your help to make bunting for The Cally Fest. It’s an eclectic community-boutique street festival, held on Sunday 16th of September - a chance for local businesses and people to meet and enjoy top notch food, hear from local musicians, shop at an indie market selling arts and crafts while celebrating the area's community spirit – it involves local groups, charities and organisations.

To make it look stunning The Cally Fest need 300 metres of bunting and some eager bods to help them . They’ll be supplying the materials (including a huge stash of yummy fabrics) and all they need is some assistance making a flag or two.

We’ll also have our regular collage corner where you can ‘make, take & create’ whatever you fancy and a range of stalls in our Maker’s Market where you can buy handmade goodies direct from the people who made them.

Our Club Tropicana takes place Tuesday 28^th August from 7.30pm-10.30pm.

It’s free entry all night, just drop by when you can and get ready for some creative action.
No experience necessary!

Venue: The Hackney Attic (5^th floor of The Hackney Picturehouse Cinema), 270 Mare Street, E8 1HE.

June Highlights: James Bond Craft Night Stitched Not Stirred

Bond fever is currently spreading through the UK as excitement builds around new movie Skyfall and the opening of the Barbican's new exhibition which celebrates 50 years of the great British spy. But because The Make Escape is the coolest night out in London, we got in their early and hosted the first ever James Bond Craft night. (It's fair to say Google does not suggest there have been any others!) And what a night it was...

We had Bond Girls.....

Crafty ones in the form of Karen & Jo from Use It Up Wear It Out who ran a  stylish Surreal Sunglasses workshop where participants were given their own pair of sunnies to customise.

Here are some they made earlier.

Check out their Tumblr for pictures of the shades make on the night.

More Bond girls in the form of  Amy and Chloe from The Merry Bobbins who ran a session in making the ultimate Bond accessory...

A bow-tie. 

Find out more about their fab workshop in this great blog post by Rebecca from Forget Me Not Crafts who is already wearing her bow tie with pride.

We also had diamond, bejewelled cookies made by the wonderful Amy Angelbabe.

An action-packed soundtrack thanks to Djs Isabel (The Fireworks) and Alice (Cosines).

And Bondtastic visuals to rival any Bond movie opening sequence.

There was no casino, but there were prizes! Tickets to see Skyfall at the Hackney Picturehouse when it's released in October which was awarded to these lovely ladies who designed the most extravagant cocktails in our college corner, run by fashion illustrator  Danielle Meder from Final Fashion who drew the beautiful glass templates.

All the materials to make projects were provided - like these gorgeous boxes of bling! 

In our Maker's Market we had three wonderfully talented craftswomen selling their crafts. First up, jewellery designer Emma Slater.

Quilter Elizabeth Oniri

And felt loveliness from Susanne Wallis.

Oh...AND we had an appearance by the man his self - 007, disguised under the mask of what people could be fooled into thinking was Al from the Hackney Attic.

Thank you to everyone who came to our James Bond Craft Night

Our next event takes place on Tuesday 31st July (from 7.30pm) As ever it's free, you just turn up, grab a drink and make stuff - the perfect night out!

As it's summer (kind of!) we're hosting a Teddy Bear's picnic - so bring your teds and soft toys. We'll be running some alfresco themed crafts projects and will be joined by The Craftivists who will talk about their latest crafty campaign and author Susanne Wallis who will be running a needled felted teddy workshop.

More about the night to follow on this very blog,  in the meantime, get it in your diaries!

Coming up at our James Bond Craft Night June 26th...

The name's Bond...James Bond...if you don't go weak at the knees when hearing these words you're clearly crazy! James Bond is a British institution and this month we celebrate the sauve spy and his Bond Girls, as the man himself celebrates 50 years on screen!! 

2012 marks the 50th anniversary of James Bond and we couldn't let that incredible achievement pass without getting our hands sticky (or stitching) in style. 

We're talking Stitched Not Stirred at our next Make Escape. Skyfall down to the event on Tuesday 26th June at the Hackney Attic...

This month we have two very special guests leading our craft workshops. The magnificent Use It Up Wear It Out (who designed the fab montage at the start of the blog!) will be running a Surreal Sunglasses workshop where you get to decorate your own pair of sunnies AND take them home..... FOR FREE!! (You Only Live Twice but you will want to wear these in this life time).

And the super stylish Merry Bobbins who For Your Eyes Only will help you make your very own shimmering, spangly bow tie.

Because Diamonds Are Forever...The Make Escape's very own Momtaz (who's alter ego - a lesser known fact about her - is 'Barbie Bond Babe'), will be running a 'Make Your Own Cocktail Ring' workshop which are even more BLING than the real thing...

If that wasn't enough, Danielle Meder aka Final Fashion returns to help run our Collage Corner. Above is one of her stunning 'Paper Dolls' - point your Goldfinger at her website to see more, this one was made for a Press Kit. She'll be running a Design your own Dream Cocktail workshop and there are prizes for the best ones!
Plus because every Bond Girl likes to shop we've also got some great designer/makers in our Maker's Market..more on that in a mo. 
First up here's what you need to know about the workshops:

Surreal Sunglasses with Karen Shand & Jo Whelan from 'Use It Up Wear It Out'

Get there EARLY! This session has limited spaces so we suggest you hot foot it there ASAP!  
Use IT Up Wear It Out are a collective of designer makers On Her Majesty's Secret Service promoting sustainability through fashion and craft. Their motto is 'repair, re-purpose, customise' and they'll be showing you how to up-cycle your sunnies with bling and ting. (Also if you're off to a music festival this year these VIP shades are your must take accessory!) 

The Man With The Golden Gun wears one and now you can too - fashion your own bow-tie with the lovely Chloe and Amy from The Merry Bobbins. The Bobbins are crafty bloggers who's crafty generosity keeps Thunderball -ing. They run an assortment of pop-up workshops at events and like everything else at The Make Escape, there's no need to book...just absail in!

Momtaz from The Make Escape is a big fan of the Faberge Eggs that stars in Octopussy and has been running crafty workshops all over the UK for the last 5 years with all sorts of themes. A few summers ago she worked with some bored teens on their summer hols and together they invented these blingtastic rings. Have a go at making your own on Tuesday.

And don't forget to bring some spending money too because quite frankly The World Is Not Enough, you need to own some handmade crafts too. There's also a stocked bar AND some fabulous designers in our Maker's Market who are running some mini workshops too.

We've got: 
Quilter: Elizabeth Oniri Felter: Susanna Wallis & Jewellery designer: Emma Slater


PLUS our very own Bond Girls Isabel (The Fireworks) and Alice (Cosines) will be spinning some Bondtastic tracks as they were at the Casino Royale. Does a free night out in London get any better than this??????? We don't think so!!!!


For one month only we will not be in the usual Hackney Attic space......but the floor below - Floor 4 - the Gallery Bar so we'll see you there from 7.30. Live and Let Die...aka (miss it, miss out!)