Northern Craft // October 14th 2017

This weekend marks one year since Northern Craft opened the doors to their first ever fair. Put together by dream team Sean Mort and Carley Batley, their fairs have created a much needed benchmark for the Leeds craft fair scene. They celebrated their first birthday by doing what they do best; packing a brewery full of makers, creators and small businesses, putting on sell-out workshops and then ramming it full of shoppers.

Helping out at the Weaving Workshop // Stitch-Up, Leeds

Last weekend I leant a helping hand to Lucy Beggs in her weaving workshop organised by Stitch-Up, held in their wonderful new workshop space right over there even more wonderful shop in Thorntons Arcade in the centre of Leeds.

I had a run through of the weaving process with Lucy a week ahead of the workshop, she taught me the ways of the looms, to know my rya from my pile weave. Lucy was a GREAT teacher; showing thrifty techniques to get yourself weaving without wincing at the cost! Giving amazing tips like using ready made frames and drift-wood hangers scavenged from beaches. Annnnddddd, it is safe to say I am absolutely hooked on weaving.

By the Lock Handmade // Seven-ish Months In

Seven months in, holy crap.

I can hardly remember life before having an etsy shop. 97% of the time I’m thinking about my shop; new things I can make, improvements, orders to pack up or I'm actually sewing. It is amazing and I love it. I can't remember what I used to fill my time with. I thought at six months in it would be a good point to do a little reflection on what I've learnt so far, but then I got side tracked preparing for the Etsy Made Local fair. So here we are, at seven-ish months in, and somethings I have learnt;

Push Yourself! – One of my new years resolutions in 2014 was to open at online shop... and I didn’t do it until May 2015 because I am (or was) really bad at pushing myself! I was great at setting a million goals but not so great at hitting them. Now though, I’ve realised that pushing myself actually works. Push yourself and you can do so much more than you ever thought you could. I am getting so much better at organising myself (with the help of my love, Wunderlists, and many notepads). Setting goals with clear expectations that are measurable and achievable. You’re the only one that can make things happen, and it is such an awesome feeling when you look back and realise that it is you that has made something awesome.

Let your Ideas Evolve - When I first opened my shop I thought I had a solid idea of what I wanted to make and sell, but that has changed so much already. I’ve learnt what works and what doesn’t the natural way. It has been important for me to not be precious about my original ideas; I held onto a few things for a little longer than I should have done. I know that when I look back in a year, two years time I’ll be saying the exact same thing again, but that’s okay, that is how I’m going to improve my products.

Find Support - “I need your opinion on something”, is how a lot of my conversations with Dixon start now. Getting someone elses opinion on something is incredibly helpful, whether it backs up what you were originally thinking or throws something in the mix that you hadn’t even considered. And, this is one of the main reasons I absolutely love our Etsy Team Leeds.

I stumbled upon the Etsy Leeds Team around a week after I opened my shop and I am sooooooooooooo glad I did. They’re an incredibly talented bunch with varying levels of experience and it is really amazing to see everyone supporting each other the way we do. I've been able to ask a huge variety of questions from stuff about tax to where to buy plastic bags. I have learnt so much from them it has been amazing. If you're on Etsy or thinking of opening up, search out your local Etsy Team.

Don't be scared - By far my biggest hold-back has been myself; I constantly think my work isn't good enough, and I compare myself to all these amazing people that are much more successful and awesome than I am. But I'm trying super hard to not do that. There are soooo many makers out there but its not a competition; Do what you love and be proud of doing it. If something doesn't quite work out as you expected so what!? Lesson learnt, move on to the next idea which might be the one that makes you millions.

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Stitch Up: Knit a Snood

A couple of weeks ago Jen from Stitch-Up asked me to come along to a snood knitting workshop she was running, to lend a hand and take some photographs! The workshop was at the newly-relocated Duke Studios which I was incredibly excited to see.

We met all the ladies who had signed up for the class in the wonderful Sheaf St Cafe, crapped a coffee (or tea) and went to the Not-Bored room in Duke Studios which was to be the most beautiful meeting room I have ever seen (look at that wall colour!!). It worked absolutely perfectly for the workshop; a nice community table where Jen could show everyone what to do, and then people could chat, get to know each other and ask questions as they went.

The majority of the workshoppers there were total beginners and Jen did the best job at giving everyone the skills they needed to finish their own snood. We started off with a simple bracelet which taught everyone how to cast on, cast off and the knit stitch. A really simple way to learn the basics and have a practise before starting the main piece. Myself and Kendall (of Trends with Benefits) were on hand to help everyone out, so no-one dropped behind or where left unsure what to do next. I was sooooo impressed with how fast everyone picked it up and how enthusiastic they were to learn more. Jen did an amazing job! I think a few people left with dreams of knitting their own jumpers. 

Everyone that came to the class got their own Knit Kit, which had a tote bag, 15mm needles, the Snood pattern, two balls of yarn (each person choose their own colour too!), yarn needle and, of course, a Stitch Up badge.

Go give Stitch-Up a follow on Facebook or Twitter to keep up to date with future workshops you can get involved in!

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Good as New

I did a bit of a clothing clear out just before we went on holiday. I am awful for keeping clothes that I never wear so I have tried to be brutal with myself. If I never wear it its going into one of two piles; mend it or donate it. I have a few nice dresses with broken zips, that are ill-fitting or that I really love something about but need tweaking. I've got a few posts planned that are all about what I did to re-vamp these clothes. It's an awesome feeling fixing something up yourself. 

The first dress I tackled was this Topshop midi-dress thats in a speckled lilac colour; I bought it three years ago (I posted a photo of it on here when I first got it, otherwise I wouldn't have realised it was that long ago). I have only worn it two or three times at the most since then (one time where I got a grass stain on it too!!). At 5"2' I can hardly ever find mid-length dresses that don't just trail the floor, this one was the so perfect length wise which is the main reason for not getting rid of it, but the colour is not really me at all.

Then why not dye it!? I can't believe I haven't thought of it before;






And, just as luck has it, Dylon sent me three different dye packs to try out. Pretty perfect. I opted to dye it black, because you really can't have enough black clothes. When you're dying fabric, you need to  weigh it first to check the dye you have will give you a good colour coverage. These little Dylon packs will cover around 250g of fabric and my dress was just under that. I followed the instructions, which were incredibly easy and watched my dress change colour.

I was a little worried doing this that I was going to lose the speckled effect, but after a good rinse I could tell the texture was staying. I hung it out to dry, and I honestly couldn't be happier with how it looked!! Way way cooler, and way way more me! I wore it as my breach dress when we were in Barcelona, and out for a meal too. Crazy how much more comfortable you can feel in something with just a little colour change.

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What I Learnt from my First Craft Fair.

My first ever fair is done! I worked incredibly hard getting ready, sat at my sewing machine every night getting ready, panicked the night before, slept like crap and then it all went pretty well. I met a lot of cool people and I actually sold some stuff! Best of all I learnt a lot! I know that next time I will be better prepared and a lot less stressed. So, here is what I learnt:

        - Test run my layout - I played around with everything the night before to give myself an idea of how I wanted it to look. There are a lot of people out there that have shared their stall lay-out pointers, the most repeated tip I saw was 'Add height!!'; I tried super hard to do this although I know I could have done better. I loved my chalk-board signs and my extremely DIY banner. I know now I'm going to always have my eyes open for things I could use as displays on my stalls.

       - And to be open to changing it - On the day I decided to not use a bottom sheet because I loved how the table I was given looked! And I added an extra sign suggesting people take a business card! As well as a basket of pouches to encourage people to have a flick through, which totally worked too. I guess you'll never 100% know where you're going to be positioned so its important to be flexible.

       - Bring along enough stock - What happens when someone buys something, is it going to leave a gap? On the first day I sold two tote bags which left a HUGE gap and made everything look pretty bare. I had to sew more that night when I really wanted to lay down after being on my feet all day. I should have already had a couple spare because they were such a prominent part of my set-up. Giving yourself enough prep-time leading up to a fair plays a huge part here too.

    - Make friends with other stall holders - Although I am incredibly uncomfortable talking to strangers, when I had the chance I had a look around at everyone else's stalls, said hi and picked up a few cards. I met some cool people! (I even bought a couple of things form a cool illustrator). I learnt about some other fairs coming up and some local suppliers too which was super useful. It also meant if I wanted to run for a coffee, to the toilet or to grab something to eat I could ask someone to keep an eye on things!

      - Take Notes and Notice - Everyone loved my knotted headbands and a couple of coin pouches too, so now I know to make more like those! I also noticed the first day that hardly anyone took a business card, so I moved things around and it totally worked. Keep an eye on what people like and what people say, its all useful! I added extra detail onto some price tags, things like "One of a Kind" and "Made with Vintage Fabric". they always got people talking and interested which was super cool to see!

       - Annnnddd, research the event - I should definitely have done this one. Is the event advertised well? Will there be similar stall holders there? The fair I went for was in the Cornexchange, a awesome building full of independently ran shops so I thought it would be perfect! But, the fair was advertised really really badly and there wasn't that many people visiting. I'd be surprised if anyone came specifically for the fair... And some of the other stall holders seemed to be selling for sellings sake, not because they loved the things they were selling, which was a bit of a bummer.

Overall, I had an amazing time, super thankful to everyone that came to see me and say hi and for everyone that bought something I made. I can't wait to do it again! I've enquired about two more later on in the year already. I definitely didn't need to be as nervous as I was. 

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Making it Happen.

It has been kind of quiet around here recently, and that is because I've been busy sewing and making stuff for my shop. I have also signed up for a Craft Fair which is only three weeks away... Not sure if I'm being incredibly optimistic/dumb to sign up to something so soon but its in one of my favourite buildings in Leeds where I always said I'd love to have a stall soooo I did it and signed up anyway. Now I have to get a serious move on to get a bunch of new things ready, which is pretty time consuming.

I've had a few people ask some sewing based questions since I started making my creations public, so a ton of posts are planned to share some tips and ideas for you. If you have anything you'd like me to help you out with or answer, let me know!

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Stitch-Up: Pom Pom Bomb

Last weekend was the Leeds Arts Party! A day to celebrate and promote arts education. There were talks, a market and workshops. I went down to help out Stitch-Up for a day of pom pom making! All the yarn we used was donated, or cast off from producers who would have other wise just thrown it away. It was an awesome, colourful day! We got a whole load of different people coming and learning different techniques. Kids and adults were all super excited to see what their finished pom looked like. We had everyone attach their creations to a giant S U (for Stitch-up!) to make a pom-pom bomb! It looked amazing at the end. There weren't any that were anywhere near alike, everyone had some really cool ideas on what they wanted theirs to look like. A few people couldn't bring themselves to part with theirs, I don't blame them, they were all so good! I don't want to write too much because I think the photos tell it way better!

^ This was one of mine, it was supposed to be a koala. I think its more like a dog?

A poke-ball one of the girls made, so good! v

Stitch-Up is an awesome enterprise that aims to bring communities together and teach them the benefits of yarn crafts! You can find out more about them on twitter, instagram and Facebook! 

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