FREE African Charity Craft Night Tuesday 27th September

Come and make African fabric earrings with Karen Arthur

YAY! After a summer break we're back with an Autumn, African themed Craft Night AND it's also our FIRST EVER CHARITY event. We're supporting a new fundraising project by mental health charity MIND who are encouraging people to hold Mind Crafternoons, events where you can get together, craft and make a small charity donation. So this month while entry, workshops & craft materials remain FREE we ask you to bring a donation (around £3) to donate directly to MIND.

Never been to our Craft Night before? Here's a recap...

The Make Escape is a voluntary run, London based Craft Night which takes place bi-monthly at The Hackney Attic. It's aimed at adults (making stuff isn't just for kids) and it's a chance to take a break from normal life, work stress etc and have some chill out time using your hands whether that's for knitting, sewing, drawing, collaging or doodling. 

But don't worry, it's nothing formal or like going to school. 

We have a fully stocked bar and DJs and all the craft materials you need, all you're required to do is bring yourself. 

We usually have 2-3 tutor-led workshops, a knitting area where you can learn to knit (this month it's led by Alison Beadnell) and a collage corner where you can do what you like. 

For our Art Of Africa night we're planning sessions in jewellery making, mask making and instruments and we're super excited that we have Special Guest Tutor Karen Arthur from Reddskin lined up to run a fabric earring workshop.

We're also delighted to be joined by Jewellery Designer Elizabeth Joseph who'll be showing you how to make an African pendant necklace. 

The night and workshops are drop in so turn up when you can, but we recommend coming by 8.30 in order to be able to finish something that you can take home with you. 

The Essentials:

Date: Tuesday 27th September

Time: 7.30pm-10.30pm

Location: Hackney Attic, 5th floor Hackney Picturehouse Cinema, 270 Mare Street, London, E8

Entry: FREE but collect a ticket from the box office when you arrive to get in and don't forget you donation for MIND - hopefully you'll get inspired to maybe even run your own Crafternoon too!

See you there! Come alone or with friends!

DUE TO UNFORSEEN CIRCUMSTANCES THE BATIK SESSION WILL NO LONGER BE RUNNING BUT THERE'S STILL PLENTY MORE GOING ON SO COME ON DOWN!

Coming up: Carnival Couture Craft Night 29th Sep 2015

Artwork: Sal Hughson

Come feel the crafty rhythm at our colourful craft night that celebrates all things Carnivalesque.

Make Venetian masks, musical instruments (before joining in our Attic musical parade), plus learn to knit and sew and have fun in our collage corner making carnival flags.

Our Craft Night is free to take part in and materials are provided but if you have any snazzy off cuts or fabrics or card or other collagey bits then we will always give it a home by letting everyone there use them.

As ever the night is drop in and we kick off at 7.30pm and craft through until around 10.30pm, so turn up when you can!

This month's guest tutors are Sincerely Louise (one of our regular crafty experts) and we are very excited to welcome Tree from You Tube Sewing Channel Stitchless TV.

Tree's channel has over 40,000 subscribers and her videos have been viewed by 2.8 million craft fans so we're honoured to have her join us for a carnival inspired sewing accessory workshop. 

Yo can also bring your own craft projects along to work on in a friendly environment, learn to knit or crochet in our knitting corner and have fun collaging while listening to our in-house DJs The Spinning Yarns while grabbing a drink in the bar. Food is also available.

Come alone or with friends, we look forward to #CarnivalCouture crafting with you.

Carnival Couture Craft Night, Tuesday 29th September 2015, 7.30-11pm, Hackney Attic, 5th floor Hackney Picturehouse Cinema, 270 Mare Street, Hackney, E8

Nearest stations: Hackney Central on London Overground, London Fields on National Rail plus plenty of buses

Us On Telly & Our 2nd Birthday Makerversary

We decided to celebrate our 2nd birthday in style - by being on TV! We invited television channel London Live to come to our event and they agreed, yay!
Journalist Riaz Jugon made a lovely short film about us which if you missed, you can watch now, here: http://www.londonlive.co.uk/news/make-escape

And's here's some photos of the other amazing stuff we got up to on the night:

THANK YOU to everyone who has supported us over the last two years. We are no going bi-monthly - that means we will now be held on the last Tuesday of the month every other month rather than each month. But don't worry we will still be 'London's Best Craft Night'*

Also a special thanks to craft blogger & author Laura aka Bugs and Fishes who came to our Makerversary - read her blog post about her trip here. 

Join us next on July 29th for our Village Fair at Hackney Attic, FREE from 7.30pm. 

*As called on London Live : )

Coming up: Free Summer & Autumn Craft Nights

BIG NEWS at The Make Escape HQ! We are about to turn 2! That means we've been running our amazing craft night for a two whole years!!
We've loved every single one of the events we've held but there are also some changes afoot. After May we are going bi-monthly - which means we'll be on every other month. Still on the last Tuesday,still at the Hackney Attic and still FREE. Get your diaries out & pop these dates in so you don't forget.
Thanks for your continued support & hope to see you soon! : )

FREE Craft Nights In London! Spring 2014

Get our future craft nights in your diaries now!

They all take place at The Hackney Attic, Picturehouse Cinema, 270 Mare Street, Hackney, London.

Time: 7.30pm-11pm Drop in anytime!

Highlights: Winter Wonderland Craft Night

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! It was cold outside! But that didn't stop fans of glitter & glue braving it to our Winter Wonderland Craft Night; together we made it the snuggliest place in town.* 

(*Don't be fooled by DJs Dan and Isabel....they may look like they are wrapped in a scarf, but this is merely for effect!)

To help us stay defrosted, we invited Stitch London to come along and teach newbie knitters the skills they need to whip up a scarf so they can keep warm for the rest of the frosty season.

Also thawing us out was Purple Claire from Purple Claire Textiles who brought along peg-looms and showed us how to create woven masterpieces.

A record number of participants joined in our collage corner ...to the point we nearly ran out of glue. But fear not, we'll be stocked up again in time for our Christmas-Craft-A-Thon on Dec 18th!

At The Make Escape - we are very inclusive, everyone is welcome but sometimes there are divisions...this Man Group for example insisted on having their own table.
Did it help their creativity? Keep reading to find out...

Ooh & very excitingly we were joined by the film crew from a Japanese TV company!

So, onto the workshops. Peg-loom weaving is one of the most satisfying crafts ever. It's easy, you get instant results and it's a fab way ever to use up spare yarn scraps.

Community artist and freeform weaver/knitter Claire runs peg-loom sessions all over London and has been involved in creating several large scale textile pieces with school children. She brought along a stash of looms for people to create their own piece of weaving, or have a go at a larger group piece.

Here's a close up of a loom...

And here are some finished masterpieces! Love the triangular designs on this one.

And this little rug would be perfect for a pet!

Ooh, wonderful wintery shades. Esp loved the white bobbly yarn, this one felt sooooo snug!

Of course you didn't need to keep your weaving flat. Nasrin turned hers into a woven butterfly to accompany the knitted butterfly she made with Stitch London.
Speaking of which...

Stitch London's founder Lauren O'Farrell, stunned the room with her incredible talk about how knitting helped her beat cancer, revealed some secrets about her Guerilla Knitting past and encouraged us all to take part in the next big craze...guerilla crafting.
From sticking button mosaics on walls of public places using blu tak to using bleach to clean and create patterns in walls, or growing your own moss, Lauren's scrapbook of ideas and examples was so exciting some people got to work straight away.
(She didn't end up with the above fortune cookie for no reason!)

Knitting & nattering...how it should be!

Pippa from the Hackney Citizen, also popped down and tried her hand at the knitting needles for the first time ever!

Julie knitted a sheep soon to be released into the wild...

Question is, will this blue one survive out in the wilderness? Look out Londoners, these sheep are knitted and they are ready to surprise you somewhere in the city when you least expect it.

Yes it's TRUE! We made Star Wars snowflakes!

Don't be sad if you missed out...you can download the free templates here and make some at home too!

This flock of feathered friends were also soon to be released into the wild by these lovely ladies.

Check out that fur shrug....it's beautiful!

Guests also tried their hand at Advent boxes. Make 24, fill them with yummy things, hang and untie each day until Christmas!

That Man Table we showed you earlier on? It was Delwar's first ever trip to The Make Escape and he expertly whipped up enough greeting cards to open up a stall!

While Matt went for the paper-cutting theme.....if only it did rain strawberries...then rivers would be made of Strawberry Ribena....and that would just be amazing!

Over in the Makers Market, we welcomed Halima Begum from Tacky Tart whose utterly gorgeous goodies looked good enough to eat!

Our fave pieces were the shimp earring and Barbie shoe bracelets.

Phew! What an evening!
The Make Escape was six months old today and we're so excited that it's getting better every month!
We run the night on a voluntary basis for the sheer pleasure of seeing people making stuff and being happy!

If you've not yet been make sure you come and join us soon - seriously....will you find more friendlier looking hosts than Momtaz and Becky anywhere in London?
We think not!

See you on TUESDAY DEC 18TH, HACKNEY ATTIC, from 7.30pm onwards for our

Christmas Craft-A-Thon

It's one week earlier than usual this month to ensure you have a chance to make your Xmas cards, gift tags, stockings and other last minute essentials in good time!

(p.s The Attic bar also serve amazing hot chocolate at the perfect temperature! Defo recommend this to everyone!)