Coming up: Go Green! Craft Night Jan 26th 2016

Designed by Sal Hughson

Put your hands up if you've just got too much stuff lying round? Forget sales shopping, January is a time to reassess what you own, pile up the things you no longer want or need, and decide how to give them a new life, whether that's by giving them away to a charity shop, selling them or crafting with them!

We start 2016 with an eco-conscious craft night where we're emphasising on re-using and recycling, making stuff from unwanted materials like scrap fabrics and even old maps.

We have some amazing Craft Expert tutors lined up to show you how to and give you plenty of ideas and encouragement. So put Tuesday 26th January at The Hackney Attic in your diary now, this is going to be a fun night and we'd hate you to miss out on some making!

Workshops

Customising with fabric

Join Sewing & Customising Expert and You Tube Sensation Tree from Stitchless TV. Tree's channel is a wealth of sewing wisdom, suitable for beginners and has received over 3m views. 
She'll be assisting on two sessions with her handy pink sewing machine:

*Bring along an item of clothing to customise
*Make something using fabric offcuts recently donated to us by a local fabric manufacturer

Recycled map crafts

Ever since the invention of Sat Nav....maps have become redundant...but they are so pretty to look at. Artist Purple Claire Textiles shows you some novel ways to use up those unwanted maps on your bookshelf in this fun workshop as part of our Collage Corner. 

Turn t-shirts into coasters

The perfect craft for anyone who thinks they are uncrafty, join local Textile Artist Alison Beadnell in this fantastic session where she'll be showing you how to use old t-shirts to make coasters. This is a craft you'll master immediately and go home and want to try again.

Plus you can learn to knit or bring along your wn projects and knit with us in our Knit & Knatter corner or simply just come along, grab a drink from the bar and chill out while listening to the sounds of our resident DJs The Spinning Yarns. 

Doors open 7.30pm, entrance and workshops are free but you'll nee to collect a ticket from the cinema box office to get access. See you there!

Hackney Attic, 5th floor, Hackney Picturehouse Cinema, 270 Mare Street, Hackney. E8. 

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. 

COMING UP: FROST FAIR CRAFT NIGHT 24th November 2015

Designed by Sally Hughson

Our last Craft Night of the year has a wintery theme - come join our Frost Fair! Workshops involve, wool, glitter and other seasonal themes...

Xmas Cards with Shimelle Laine

Make a start on your Xmas cards with help from Celebrity Craft Expert Shimelle Laine, using her own special brand of papers! WOW!

Eco decorations with Karen Shand

Try your hand at making Christmas decorations with natural and found objects including twigs and yummy smelling fern with recycling expert and one half of Use It Up Wear It Out, Karen Shand.

Paper decorations with Debbie Michener

Join local designer Debbie in this addictive workshop using collage materials and magazines.

Knit & knatter
Learn to knit or crochet or come and join us to work on your own projects. Help on hand from a number of knitting experts including Sheree Robinson. 

All workshops are drop in - no need to book, just turn up. See you there! We are very friendly so come on your own or bring people!

Frost Fair Craft Night, 24th November, 7.30pm til 11pm, Hackney Attic, 5th floor Hackney Picturehouse Cinema, 270 Mare Street, London, E8

Highlights: Carnival Couture Craft Night

You came, you crafted and you got into the carnival spirit! Here are some snaps from our most stylish craft night yet!

Tree from Stitchless TV showed us how to sew zips in to make-up bags using specially designed Carnival Couture fabric printed just for us by Bags Of Love. (WOW!) 

Momtaz & Tree

Well you can't have a carnival without masks - (ok maybe not sleep masks but they will come in use for post carnival recovery)

Knit & Knatter - guest tutor & knitting princess Louise Walker taught newbies like lovely Zahra how to knit

Over in the Collage Corner there was musical instrument making and lots of colouring, cutting & sticking, just how we like it!

Want more? Our next Craft Night is our Frost Fair on Tuesday 24th November 2015 at The Hackney Attic. See you there! 

Our resident DJs The Spinning Yarns

Keep up-to-date by checking our Twitter account!

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