Renegade London 2015

About a month ago I headed to East London for one of my favourite autumn/winter events: the Renegade Craft Fair.

Renegade is always amazing (though not for my bank balance!) They have hundreds of designers, makers and artists selling their wonderful wares and I discover lots of new-to-me awesomeness every year.

As with any good craft fair it's great being able to buy from sellers in person, to chat to them about their work and say hi to people whose paths I've crossed online. I've bought lots of Christmas gifts at Renegade in the past but this year I mostly just stocked up on an assortment of gorgeous birthday and other cards to send to friends in the coming months.

Here are some of the stalls that caught my eye at November's fair...

Happy, colourful cards and prints from Cactus Club:

Fabulous textiles by Georgia Bosson:

Illustrated cuteness from Jo Clark Design:

Papercut gorgeousness from Sarah Louise Matthews:

Homewares and stationery decorated with bugs, birds, dinosaurs, butterflies and more at Chá com Letras:

Quirky stationery and gifts from Oh Squirrel:

Striking porcelain jewellery by Alice Shields:

Cards and prints with a folk feel from Dorry Spikes:

Mega cuteness by Revestreker:

 

Incredible embroidery by Sarah K Benning:

Prints and stationery from Charlotte Farmer (who also designs delightful homewares for New House Textiles):

Charming brooches from And Smile, creator of a secret society for stationery addicts:

Gorgeously detailed linocut prints by Jeremy Wills:

And last but by no means least, magical miniature worlds by Isobel Cortese:

 

So much creative goodness!

Giveaway: Goodies from Laurafallulah

It's time for a lovely giveaway - two bundles of handmade goodness from my crafty chum Laura, aka Laurafallulah.

 

Laurafallulah is Laura Harris - a weaving graduate who, after a lightbulb moment, knew she had to swap her life in retail for setting up her own business making the most of her creativity and promoting that of others. Working from her home in South East London, Laura takes inspiration from her surroundings. Her love of vintage design combined with an eye for bold colours and stylised motifs help her create fun individual accessories for the young at heart. A proper grown-up treat. 

 

In Laura's shop you'll find pretty, vintage-inspired jewellery plus lavender sachets, purses, paper confetti and gift tags. 

Click here to visit her shop! You'll also find her on Twitter and Instagram.

There are two sets of Laurafallulah treats up for grabs - one pink...

... and one blue:

 

The pink set includes: 

A pink and white jumbo gingham 6" zipper purse with hand stitched felt red rose design and added floating hearts.

A large pink rose brooch with hand stitched red petal detail and two little green leaves, and a green felt leaf brooch with hand stitched vein pattern.

 

And a set of 4 pink abstract floral vintage barkcloth covered buttons.

 

The blue set includes:

A cornflower 6" zipper purse with rose and ribbon appliqué design, lined with a sweet cream and blue ditsy floral print fabric.

 

A mixed felt and fabric circle brooch with stitched detail and cute gingham button, and a pale pink and pale blue flower brooch with fuchsia stitched details.

 

And a set of 4 vintage rose print fabric covered buttons.

 

Laura is happy to ship the bundles internationally so anyone can enter! Yay!

For your chance to win, leave a comment on this blog post letting me know which set you'd like (pink or blue).... or (because I know commenting can be a bit of a faff) you can tweet your entry. 

Leave your comment (or send me a tweet) before 10pm on Tuesday 15th July, and I'll pick the two winners at random on Wednesday 16th July. I'll then pass the winners' details on to Laura so she can send the parcels. One tweet and/or comment entry per person, please! (e.g. if you tweet the link 5 times you're not gonna get 5 entries... just the one).

If you're entering via a blog comment, please make sure you leave a name or pseudonym (no totally anonymous comments please!) and leave a blog link, Twitter username, Etsy username or email address so I can contact you.

If I'm unable to contact the winners within a week, I will pick someone else. If you're leaving a comment with your Blogger profile, please remember that you need to have your profile and email address set to public / visible contact info on your blog for me to be able to get in touch with you. If you're entering via Twitter, remember your account needs to be public or I won't see your tweet in my notifications.

UPDATE: This giveaway is now closed.

Postal Hiccups and a Wonderful Parcel

The Christmas post this year has been just awful.

Lots of my customers are still waiting on parcels, and I've heard from many of my fellow online-sellers that they're in the same boat. Packages to the USA seem to have been particularly affected (apparently there's been a big increase in security at customs?) but the bad weather we had here in the UK in the run up to Christmas seems to have caused delays all over the place.

I have my fingers very tightly crossed everything will arrive at its destination... and that this won't happen again next year :(

I've also experienced my own postal hiccup recently as a package I ordered from the lovely Lisa at lil fish studios got lost for 3 weeks in my local delivery office. I paid the customs charge on it, and then it just vanished! I knew it existed but no-one seemed able to find it...

Luckily they found it eventually, and the postie delivered it yesterday (hurrah!). There's nothing quite like thinking a parcel has been lost forever to make you giddy with excitement to actually be opening it!

And it was well worth the wait - just look at these gorgeous sewing-pattern-wrapped bundles...


... and the woollen goodness within!


I've been a fan of Lisa's work for years and I thought it was high time I bought some of her ornaments for my Christmas tree! I'm very glad I did. These lovelies will be taking pride of place and may have to be displayed somewhere in the meantime as I don't think I can bear packing them away for another 11 months.

More sale shopping

I may have done some more sale shopping this week... shh, don't tell the boyfriend!


After much umming and ahhing over the loveliness in Joanna Rutter's shop I eventually settled on two wooden badges which will look very snazzy on my sweaters this autumn. They arrived this morning and they're just gorgeous:


Joanna's summer sale runs until Friday 13th August.

Things in my workbox #2

After making my fancy cocktail hat I adapted the design slightly to make some "statement" necklaces using some lovely shades of 100% wool felt and there's a whole pile of them sitting half-finished in my workbox:Each necklace will be one-of-a-kind, some light summery shades on white backgrounds and some richer jewel colours on black backgrounds. The flowers all need lots of beads added for a bit of sparkle, which should keep me busy for a while.

A (Not Quite) January Sale!

I'm having a big sale over in my Etsy shop to help make room for all the new things I've got planned for 2010.

Bargains galore, including some discounted Christmas stock and lots of old designs that I'm discontinuing like this violets brooch...
... this tea addict brooch...
... and my range of orange poppy designs:
I'm also having smaller sales on my website, & in my Folksy and DaWanda shops.

Please note I'm still technically on holiday until 11th January (catching up on some much needed sleep!) but all orders will ship asap once I return to work.

Custom Birdies

I've been sewing lots of bird brooches this weekend, including a special set for a customer who wanted them facing in the other direction:
I'm also making some bird ornaments like this set I made last year:I hope to have the ornaments in my shops soon, but if you'd like to pre-order one please do get in touch!

Thursday Things

Lots of things to mention today... first up: Royal Mail just announced that the postal strikes here in the UK have been postponed until after Christmas! Woohoo!

As someone whose income pretty much entirely relies upon having a reliable postal service, I'm sure you can imagine how relieved I am to hear this news. But please don't let this put you off shopping early for Christmas ;)

I've been working really hard over the last few months trying to get my shops looking their best "in time for Christmas" and listing all the finished bits and pieces I've got sitting about the place in boxes. There are always more things that need doing, and it can be quite a challenge taking photos on these dark autumnal days, but I'm getting there slowly.

Among the recent additions are new colourways of my butterfly flower brooches & hairbands - pretty lilac and bright yellow:
And in other news - my felt bunting tutorial has made a guest appearance over at Or so she says... a blog jam-packed with giveaways, home, style & parenting tips, and (of course) lots of crafty projects. I originally made the bunting as a summer project (way back when it was still warm and sunny!) but in Christmas colours it would be a lovely addition to your holiday decor. I may have to make some myself...

New Colours + A Short Break

I've almost run out of the blue and pink butterflies for my butterfly flower brooches & hairbands (I must remember to order some more) and while searching for the last few butterflies I discovered unopened packs of red and yellow ones, sitting neglected in my supplies stash. Gosh, I am so disorganised sometimes!

So today I'm working on some new colourways for the butterfly flowers - red and yellow, and yellow and lilac. Better late than never, eh?On a totally unrelated note - I wanted to mention that I'm taking a holiday next week. I'll still be making things and blogging but after a busy couple of months I really need a break from the daily routine of running my shops.

I'll be on my hols from Tuesday 20th October to Monday 2nd November, and all items purchased from my shops between those dates will be posted on my return.

Hello Tiger!

Thanks to the sheer awesomeness that is Tiger-print felt, you can now buy Tiger masks in my shop:Also, thanks to a mistake I made while sewing - forgetting to sew on the ear details - you can grab a bargain tiger mask HERE.

I haven't had a chance to model this design yet, but it's similar to the leopard.... GRR!Ah, the ridiculous faces I pull in the name of crafting!

How To: Make a Button Bib Necklace from Felt

You know when you get that sudden urge to make something? Well, I got that urge this weekend and made LOTs of things... all destined to be fun tutorials, coming to this here blog very soon. Woop!

First up: a key accessory in fashion this autumn, the statement bib (or collar) necklace. I am becoming increasingly obsessed with these - they seem like such a bold fun way to jazz up the most simple outfit. A plain dress (or jeans & a tshirt) plus a bib necklace equals POW!

To make your own necklace you will need:
A paper template (see the bottom of this post), or you could draw your own shape
Thick felt (because of the weight of the buttons). Quality wool felt, or that thick (and wonderfully cheap!) synthetic stuff you get in sheets in stores like Hobbycraft. I used black to make the other colours really pop.
Matching thread, sewing needle, scissors, and pins.
Matching wide ribbon to make the ties
Buttons - I used a mix of bright colours for mine, but you could use any colour palette you fancy, perhaps an assortment of shapes in one colour? All black buttons on a grey background would look particularly chic. For some extra bling, you could add sequins, beads, and any other shiny doodads you can lay your hands on.

1. Pin the paper template to your felt, and cut around it. Do this twice, so you have a pair of matching felt shapes. One of these will be the decorated front of your necklace and the other the back.

2. Lay out your buttons on one of the felt pieces and play around with them until you get an arrangement you're happy with. This piece will become the back of your necklace.

3. With the back piece (covered in buttons) on the table in front of you serving as a guide to where to place them, gradually sew the buttons one by one onto the other (front) piece of felt. Make sure you stitch the buttons on securely, using a double thickness of thread and several stitches per button.

 

4. Cut two lengths of ribbon, long enough so you can easily tie a bow to fasten your necklace (I cut mine to each be 14 inches long so I can wear the necklace low or high). Cut the ends at an angle to help prevent fraying.

5. Place one piece of ribbon at the top left of the back felt piece, so half an inch or an inch of the ribbon overlaps the felt. If your ribbon has a "right" and a "wrong" side, make sure that the "right" side is face up on the felt so it will be visible when you wear the necklace. Sew the ribbon in place securely. Repeat this for the other piece of ribbon on the other side of the necklace.

6. Now place the front and back pieces of your necklace together, so that the buttons are facing outwards and the stitched ends of your ribbon are sandwiched between the felt pieces. Pin the felt pieces together carefully. Finally, use a whip stitch to sew all around the edges and finish your stitches at the back of the necklace where they won't be visible.

7. Wear your necklace immediately and feel fabulous!

Double click the template below to to view it full size and print out.
If you print at 100% your necklace will be the same as mine, just change the % to make it smaller or larger.
This tutorial is for non commercial use only: you can use it for as many necklaces as you like for yourself or as gifts for friends but please don't make any for sale. Please feel free to borrow photos if you want to blog about this project, but remember to credit me and link back to the original source, and do not reproduce my entire tutorial on your site. Thanks!

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