Highlights: It's A London Thing Craft Night

Maybe it's because we're Londoners? Or maybe it's because we all love craft? When our It's A London Thing craft night was threatened by a tube strike we were worried no one would turn up but we were so wrong! You made an effort to come and support us and in return we offered you FIVE incredible free workshops led by some very special guests.

Sewing Oystercard holders with Crafternoon Cabaret

The amazing Hannah who runs a monthly craft event at the swanky Hospital Club joined us to run a stitching your own oyster card holder session. Crafternoon Cabaret have just turned 1! Check them out as they have some very fun workshops AND live cabaret guests. Momtaz went along to its old home in an Islington pub. See what she made here.

And here's what you got up to. WOW!

Probably the most glamorous oyster card holder in London!

Making 3D Cityscapes with City Pop Outs

Matt from City Pop Outs is a regular Make Escaper & had previously run our live stage drawing sessions but this was his first workshop and it was so much fun!

Participants made their own incredible London landscapes inspired by Matt's own artwork...which was also on sale at our Maker's Market.

Designing peg dolls with Use It Up Wear It Out

How sweet is this little chappie?

Karen and Jo who are experts in up-cycling showed us what to do with our left over red and black fabric scraps...turn them into queen's guards or course! These ones smile more than the real thing!

Embroidering buildings with Purple Claire

Claire brought along pieces of coffee sack which made the ideal base to embroidery London's finest landmarks. It was the most popular workshop of the night!

Bridges were especially popular!

Knit & Knatter

Resident knitting guru Beryl was on hand to teach newbies how to knit and as ever we had some people pick up needles for the first time.

Collage Corner

We also plied you with inspiration to do your own London themed collaging and modelling.

Music

Finally we'd like to say a huge thank you to our ever fabulous DJs - we were joined by 2/3 of The Spinning Yarns and the city soundtrack was spectacular - they thought of everything!

Join us on May 27th for our 2nd BIRTHDAY! Woop! Woop!

Our humble little craft night is turning 2 and we have a mega prized filled event planned. Same time, same place, same free entry, lots of fun new workshops! Full event details coming soon! 

January's Nifty New Year Craft Night Highlights

At January's craft night, we had boys learning to knit with help from a lovely lady...

and girl's learning to cross-stitch with help from a rather fine gentleman.

While over in the Collage Corner we had boys AND girls cutting,sticking, drawing, pasting, designing and glittering...just how we like it!

Our special guests this month were stitch guru Mr X Stitch and Material Girl Perri Lewis, pictured here with The Make Escape's Momtaz and Becky. 

For the uninitiated, Perri is one of the most exciting, inspiring and influential crafters currently in the UK. Her book Material World features gorgeous and unique projects like stamp covered shoes and she's also written countless craft articles in the mainstream press ensuring the word of craft gets the recognition it deserves. 
Her blog is recommended by Channel 4 and you may even have spotted her guesting on daytime TV. Perri brought along a huge pile of fabrics, and ran a session in sewing keyrings that use up scrap, odds and ends to prove you don't need money to make stuff.

And here is one of her workshoppers with her final creation, made from actual Liberty print fabric! Wow!

Meanwhile at the other end of the room, Make Escape records were being broken. At one point celebrity man embroiderer Mr X Stitch had 25 people stitching his motifs at once - the most popular session we've ever had! 

He travelled into London just to be with us and did he get some loving in return or what?!

The girls were mesmerised! Here are some of the proud workshoppers with their stitchy masterpieces.

Regular Make Escape fans Ponting, Zak, Aiyaz, Delwar and Nasrin swapped their usual collaging to also try some needle action.

While newbie Make Escapees got deep in sparkly papers and felt tip pens, collaging like crazy.

Our Collage Corner is legendary! It's stocked with papercrafts goodies and anyone who comes to The Make Escape has free reign to make whatever they want with the materials.

We also ask that if you've got spare stuff at home like used wrapping paper, unwanted sweet wrappers, foil etc, you bring it along to add into the mix!

Suzi, whose just joined our crafty collective of Make Escape volunteers created a beautiful fish. She's going to help us ensure our night stays great and keeps getting better and better, YAY!

Elsewhere on the table, this masterpiece was created but it was anonymous & left behind. 

We're looking after it, if it's yours come back and get it this month!

 

Now this really was impressive stuff, actually jewellery was made in the Collage Corner - gorgeous shiny bangles made from card, fabric and gems.

Plus some ribbon weaving. This is what our free craft night is about, giving people a chance to get in touch with their creative side. Once you start, you never know what you'll come up with!

We like to think of The Make Escape as an Open Craft Night, in other words you can come along and do whatever you like, whether that's using our materials and doing a workshop or bringing something from home to do. This month two jewellery designers joined us, both who had some projects to do that they never quite get around to doing. 
This lovely girl brought along her broken jewellery to fix.

We also had our first birthday do! Teanne chose to celebrate her 30th by crafting! Hip hip hooray! 
(And made a rather snazzy hairband!)
We are also pleased to announce that we now have a regular Knit & Knatter spot where we'll have experts every month who will show you how to knit. All you need to do is turn up and say hello to them - we have the needles, yarns and everything!

Here's two more of the Knit & Knatter tutors!

The Make Escape is run on a voluntary basis so we're always after any support we can get. We were delighted that Zoe from Craft Candy who supports us by listing our nights for free on their amazing website was able to finally drop by and say hello.

If you've not heard of or visited Craft Candy it's a resource everyone should know about. It's the only site in the UK that lists craft activities, workshops, groups etc so wherever you are you can find something to do. Their app is coming soon, we'll keep you updated, in the meantime check out the site!

Our resident DJs Spinning Yarns (who were missing 1 member for some of the night, i.e. when this photo was taken!) treated us to some top tunage. 

If you've ever wondered what our Craft Night sounds like, check out their You Tube playlist.

  Finally here's some really amazing news that we are so excited to share. Our first proper press coverage, a little article about us in local newspaper Hackney Today. 

 YAY!

Thank you to everyone who came to our January Craft Night. 

SEE YOU ON FEBRUARY 26th FOR NEXT EVENT: OUR FIRST EVER

 'DROP-IN & DRAW'