I had a really wonderful weekend last week at The Handmade Fair in Hampton Court. So much so, I wanted to share the day with all my lovely readers!
I went with my fellow crafty friend the wonderful Mrs D, and the drive - despite detouring through central London on the way home, was surprisingly easy and I was really happy to find the parking ample and stress free.
The sun was out, Hampton Court was a gorgeous setting and there was plenty to see a do- we spent a good 7 hours there and still felt we could have stayed longer.
First things first- a cup of tea.
There was a really cool tent serving tea and cakes in vintage china- and better still, all the china was for sale! I had to show some considerable restrain here. The tent was also decorated with really nice vintage bunting, lampshades, and they had other knick knacks and clothes- including some vintage bloomers! All really pretty and tasteful. We then even had a couple of 1940's style vintage singers come out and treat us to a few Andrew's Sisters songs!
Vintage Tea Tent
Then it was onto our first workshop of the day- "Create a crochet project with Jane Crowfoot". This was an hour long workshop in which you were taught to make what was described as a "quick and easy" crochet flower.
The tent itself looked super cool and crafty and Jane ran the class as best she could. But it turns out that it's near impossible to teach 100 people of completely different abilities how to crochet in an hour!
Crochet Workshop
Both myself and my friend were complete beginners but Mrs D was a complete natural and took to it really well...myself less so. After an hour, some people were even adding pretty little beads to the end of their perfect crochet flowers- Mrs D even had something resembling the middle of the flower..I was less successful- I had spent an hour producing what was basically a fancy knot. Mine's on the right:
On the plus side- the woman of the hour Kirstie Allsop herself turned up at our table out of the blue and started chatting to us about crochet- turns out she's no good at it either- so this cheered me up. Though I do wish I had got a picture, rather than going suddenly mute and cripplingly shy...
Then we had another wander around and poked our noses into a couple of tents- there was a lecture from Etsy about running your own craft business online, and a Hobbycraft tent selling craft kits at a discount.
Then it was onto our pom pom making workshop- after the disaster of the crochet project, I was definitely looking forward to something I knew I could do! Pom poms are super easy, especially if you use a pom pom maker (I have this one from Hobbycraft). The 30 minute workshop was run by a lovely, slightly over-enthusiastic lady who clearly loved pom poms- which is understandable, they are little balls of fluffy satisfaction, especially if you make them yourself! She talked us through what else you could do with pom poms- garlands, decoration etc-(she had loads more ideas than that) and it was a fun little half hour. Apparently we were trying to break a world record of Pom Pom's made in a day...or something.
Pom Pom Making
We then had about two hours to kill before our last event at 4:30 so we got a wonderful lunch from one of the catering vans- a French one, very fancy- I had 16 hour slow cooked beef with rice and veg- it was magnificent. After lunch we spent the rest of the time in the shopping villages, which was equal parts wonderful (look at all the pretty craft stuff! Fabric! Buttons! Craft Kits!) and torture (I cant buy everything!). The exhibitors we're great, friendly, and lots of different crafts and materials being sold- some of the sellers had arranged their space just beautifully as well.
Shopping Village
And then onto our final event of the day in the Super Theatre- it was called the Molly Makes Mash Up. I have to admit, I didn't know what I'd signed up for exactly, but I am a fan of the craft magazine Molly Makes and figured it looked like a nice way to round off the day- and I wasnt dissapointed. It turned out, amazingly, to be what can only be called a Craft BATTLE.
Molly Makes Mash Up
Momtaz Begum-Hossain vs Ellie Jarvis
Two ladies, both experts in sewing but with different specialties BATTLED to make something with just 1 meter of fabric in 45 minutes. It was great fun to watch, and really useful too as I have so many small off cuts and 1m's of fabric around it gave me some inspiration. Ellie made various small no-sew projects like cushions and wraps and Momtaz made a great matching apron and headscarf set- which I will be trying out soon. Then at the end we voted for who we liked best (like Ready, Steady, Cook, but with sewing <3). Momtaz and her apron won, but it was close.
So that was the day, writing it all down it seems like a lot and a long day, but it flew by and I had a blast, cant wait to go next year!
Hayley xxx
