On top of that we're being joined by a special guest make-up artist Gina B who'll be giving glittery makeovers....PLUS lots of other surprises, special guests and prizes.
At our Craft Tropicana the crafts were free! As August and summer draws to an end, we hotted things up at The Make Escape craft night, providing an evening of totally tropical activities!
With all the 'sunshine' details you'd expect..
Like tropical fish collaging...
...and the finest beachtastic sound track ever, thanks to our favourite DJ, Isabel, Alice and Dan.
Infact Momtaz couldn't keep herself away from the dancefloor. Here she is sporting her hula headband and dancing to Was Not Was's Do The Dinosaur.
The Make Escape's Rebecca took charge of the Bunting Challenge where we asked everyone to pitch in and help us make as many metres of bunting we could possibly do in three hours for our friends at The Cally Fest, a community festival in North London taking place on 16th September. If you're heading there, make sure you look out for all the hand-stitched colourful flags!
We were delighted that some new faces came along to discover the night including Oliver who mastered the art of sewing in a mere evening!
Due to popular demand Jo and Karen from Use It Up Wear It Out ran one of there fabulous Surreal Sunglasses workshops where ordinary shades where transformed into things of beauty, using an assortment of enticing materials like chains, beads and broken jewellery.
Amazing stitch queen Tilly from the popular sewing blog Tilly and The Buttons joined us to run an embroidery circle...
where cocktails and biknis were the most popular pattern of choice. (more pics on her blog!)
All the materials were generously donated by the online store The Village Habedashery. (Need anything to do with sewing? From needles to fabric they have everything you could possibly desire so do pay them a visit next time you need supplies! )
At The Make Escape you're also welcome to bring along the projects you're working on at home and do them somewhere different. We've got the tables, bar and music, just bring you materials! This month crafters brought along drawing...
and knitting (this girl was knitting two socks at once! wow!)
See you next month, when we'll be hosting a special glittery festival to celebrate the launch of the new book by Make Escape founder Momtaz Begum-Hossain,101+ Things To Do With Glitter, Tuesday 25th September, 7.30, Hackney Attic. Can't wait!
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 28th 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 (5th floor of The Hackney Picturehouse Cinema), 270
Mare Street, E8 1HE.
July's Make Escape Craft Night at The Hackney Attic was a feast for all the senses. We were joined by The Craftivists (pictured - there are three Sarahs in this photo!) whose founder Sarah Corbett (left) gave an inspiring and honest talk about how she became a Craftivist and how craftivism & activisim has spread all over the world. Food for thought for every single crafter in the room.
Sounds were taken care of by our fabulous DJs: Isabel, Dan & Alice who played tunes that quite simply were made for crafting too.
Taste buds were given a treat via the scrumptious tomato jam sandwiches the Craftivists brought along for everyone to try.
We were extremely excited to invite Rebecca Woods to join The Make Escape team, who's commitment to crafting is an inspiration! Find out more about her and her biscuit icing skills on her blog.
Felt queen Susanna Wallis led the most popular workshop we've ever had - needle felting where she showed people how to turn 'tops' into works of art simply but using a needle and washing up sponge.
In our Maker's Market , Use It Up Wear It Out sold their unique collection of one-off Surreal Sunglasses. If you'd like to make your own pair, the girls are running their own workshop on August 20th at The Book Club, or come to this month's Make Escape and join them for an accessory making workshop.
As well as her excellent presentation, Sarah also debuted the Craftivists latest movie on the big screen backdrop of the Attic, which you can watch here:
In it you'll find out more about their Tomato Jam/Oxfam Grow campaign and how you can get involved.
Afterwards, everyone was invited to have a go at stitching their own jam jar cover with a special message of their choice. Messages stitched on the night included:
'It's not what u gather but what u scatter that tells the kind of life u have led'.
Over in the felting corner as well as the chance to felt your own teddy, there was lots of yummy stuff being made like this delicious pear and pink mushroom.
And a rather tempting looking Oreo.
Finally we were proud to host the visitor who's travelled the furthest ever to get here! Jeanette (pictured with The Make Escape's Momtaz) flew all the way from Kenya to come to our craft night....ok. A slight lie. She came over for the Olympics but whilst soaking up the sporting spirit popped in & got her craft on in our Collage Corner.
Next month's event takes place on Tuesday 28th August and has a super summery Club Tropicana theme. We'll be joined by sewing blogger Tilly from Tilly & The Buttons who'll be running an embroidery circle, the fabulous girls from Use It Up Wear It Out with whom you can make beach themed accessories with and we invite you to help making the longest bunting in history for next month's CallyFest.
As London and the world goes Olympic crazy we're creating our own indoor craft oasis; away from the crowds. An alfesco themed craft event where you can stitch jam jar lids that could help save the world, and take home your own hand-made, needle felted teddy bear.
Meet the Craftivists You may have heard about the Craftivists, or seen one of their works in situ...or perhaps they're new on your radar? One thing's for sure, as soon as you meet their amazing founder Sarah Corbett you will feel inspired to join them on their mission to raise awareness through craft: as their saying going:a spoonful of CRAFT helps the ACTIVISM go down. Read about some of the important campaigns they've been involved in here.
We are absolutely delighted that Craftivists will be joining us to lead a very special session. Sarah will be talking about their work and you'll then have an opportunity to take part in their Craftivist Jam Project which is part of OXFAM's GROW Campaign AND taste test a very special tomato jam recipe. This really will be a very unique event so don't miss it!
Give Bear a Home
Needle felting is one of those 'wow' 'miracle' crafts where it's hard to believe you have actually created a masterpiece using a needle and ball of fluff...without any sewing whatsoever. Our session is led by the incredibly talented felt artist Susanna Wallis who has written several books on felting and needle felting - she really knows her stuff. Susanna will be showing you how to make your own mini teddy bear (like the cutie above) or other cuddly toy of your choice or a felted tea cup like this fine specimen:
Maker's Market We're delighted to be joined by two wonderful maker/designers who will be selling their work and running drop-in workshops.
Elizabeth Oniriis a quilter who makes stunning textile art using a patchwork of unique fabrics. She will be selling her unique handmade teacloths and leading a session on stitching your own postcard.
We're also really lucky to have the wonderful jewellery designer Emma Slaterwho makes one-off, antiquey and quirky pieces including earrings, pendants and necklaces. Emma is only in London for the summer so come and meet her and buy her work while you can! She will also be running a jewellery making workshop.
Stars of last month's Stitched Not Stirred James Bond Craft night, the amazing Use It Up Wear It Outwill be selling their spectacular hand crafted collection of Surreal Sunglasses. Don't miss the opportunity to own a pair!
Collage Crazy As usual our collage corner will be brimming with scissors, glue and collage materials galore - it's where you can let loose and make whatever you like. Card for a friend? Picture for your wall? Or even some paper art? Warning: it may give you flash backs to nursery school and everything you loved about it!
Listen Up! We are also delighted to invite back our fabulous DJ trio Dan, Alice & Isabel who'll be providing the soundtrack to the night.
Momtaz with Barney who met Wenlock during the Torch Relay
Teddy Bear's Picnic Finally some public places aren't pet friendly but our craft nights are Ted friendly so bring your cuddly friends along and have a go at stitching some new clothes for them. Stacks of fabric, needle & threads supplied.
If you're worried about getting to Hackney during the Olympics please don't, we reckon it won't be anywhere near as bad as they claim so don't let that put you off coming!
As usual the event is free, it kicks off at 7.30 but you can pop in whenever you want.
The Craftivists talk kicks off at 8.30 so try and arrive by then!
Hope to see you there!
TEDDY BEAR PICNIC IMAGE FROM WWW.G-WIZZ.GROUP.ORG.UK
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.
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!
