New Line - Textile Bundles

I have been busy chop, chop, chopping various fabrics in the shop for the last couple of weeks, so much so that I think I have got RSI from the rotary cutter! The massive textile stash is reducing though and that is a good thing, I have been feeling really weighed down by my possessions lately, like i'm drowning in my accumulated collections, so I have decided to take positive action, really I am never going to use all this stuff so it's time to share with my customers :)

I started off with these mini blanket bundles, they contain six 6" squares of vintage wool blanket in beautiful soft colours, quite a few of these bundles went out in last weeks post and safely arrived at their new homes to join other peoples stashes :)

I can send quite a few of these mini bundles in a small parcel for just £3.25 in the 2nd class post, or one un-bundled will go as a large letter for £1.25. 

I have also made some midi blanket bundles these consist of five 12" pieces of vintage wool blanket.

I must say I have loved making up these bundles and they look so pretty, my blanket stash is really dwindling now and vintage wool blankets get harder and harder to find and more and more expensive to buy these days, so i'm not sure how long I will be able to offer these bundles so get 'em while they're hot! Here's the link to my Etsy shop  VINTAGEhaberdashery

I have cut lots of other fabric bundles this week

these velvet mini bundles consist of six 6" squares of beautifully soft cotton velvet, in gorgeous shades of orange, green and red {pink and blue are next for the chop!}

these tweedy bundles contain six 8" squares of wool/wool mix tweedy fabrics, mostly these are wool but a few may be mixes and i'm not sure on the pink/black tweed.

the wooly bundle contains six 6" squares of wooly fabrics, there are squares of light wool suiting, soft wool scarves and a wool jumper too.

I loved putting this bundle together, it contains seven differing textures in a white/cream colourway, there is a 12" square of dress net, 3 x 12" strips of lace and trim, a 6" blanket square and a 6" square of linen with a embroidery transfer applied and a square hand worked doiley* these may vary from pack to pack, this is a great pack for slow stitching projects which smoothly leads me to the next photo . . .

Our new social stitching club starts in April, this will be a monthly club, just bring along your own slow stitching project, drink tea, eat cake and chat with friends. I will be showing a new technique each month and providing materials to have a go yourself, spaces are limited so if you fancy coming along get in touch here

 slow stitching club

Thank-you for reading - hope you enjoyed seeing my new products  :)

Magpie's Nest Workshops continued . . . & . . . Benton's Menagerie

Carrying on from my previous post . . . . 

After the success of the crochet lessons, I put a call out for craft teachers, looking for people who would be interested in teaching classes in my workshop and luckily for me a very lovely lady called Tracey Benton got in touch - Tracey is a needlefelting wizard and makes the most gorgeous little creatures, have a look at her Facebook page

Benton's Menagerie 

 here she is at the head of the table.

This was the first needlefelting lesson that Tracey taught at the shop, it sold out very quickly and we welcomed six lovely ladies {some of whom had come to the crochet lessons} to make a sweet little bird, the one below was made by Sarah, pretty gorgeous eh?

Many more needlefelting workshops have followed,

 all taught by the lovely Tracey,

 Hares

 Badgers

foxes and more!

Tracey has also taught a couple of full day workshops, which have introduced more advanced techniques and armatures, we have had sheep and moon gazing hares. 

  
Here is one of Tracey's little creatures, a delightfully plump robin gazing out of the workshop window.

  The first class Tracey taught was in March 2016 and not long after she took a unit in the Market Hall but after finding that it didn't quite suit her needs, I offered for her to come and share my unit. For someone who doesn't normally play nicely with others I think this has worked out very well for us with her having her own little workshop upstairs and use of my workshop downstairs when i'm not there. 
   Tracey has been a very good influence on me, she is a proper business lady and has a mind bursting with plans and schemes, it is quite infectious and I have been very busy scheming alongside her with new business ventures and plans for the business. She also has a very naughty sense of humour which makes her classes great fun and sharing my workshop full of fun and laughs. I'm looking forward to lots more classes with Tracey this year, more needlefelting of course but also some brand new crafts to The Magpie's Nest including wet felting and beginners knitting.

The evolution of The Magpie's Nest Workshops

I thought I would talk about some of the wonderful workshops that I have hosted in The Magpie's Nest. It was always my intention to offer craft lessons in the shop and in August 2015, I finally got a shop big enough to do that!

I started off with drop-in crafty sessions for kids and it worked out great with one shop for the retail stock and the other {joining} unit as a workshop. I had been offering kids drop-in workshops in my previous two shops but this was so much better!

Of course I have a selection of lovely little guinea pigs to try out my ideas on, which is a brilliant way to assess whether my ideas can actually be achieved by my target audience and how long the projects will take. I soon realized that I had the most perfect space for workshops and of course I could keep an eye on the shop too.

In September 2015 we introduced crochet lessons with Robin Bray who I had met years previously online. We ran quite a few one off workshops and courses of lessons for about four months and Robin was a fantastic teacher and we added lots of new crocheters to the North Devon area.

I also taught a velvet pumpkin pincushion workshop myself I felt very nervous about teaching adults but once I got started it was okay! It helped that i had such lovely ladies to teach.

to be continued . . . . . . . .

Introducing: Magpie's Nest Crafty Kits

So here i am again as promised!

I have been having great fun in my workshop chopping up my precious textile stash! I have made up some craft kits for you to get creative with, there are no instructions included but there is plenty of inspiration out there and free tutorials on places such as Pinterest in fact i have created a board especially dedicated to the art of Slow Stitching check it out here

 https://uk.pinterest.com/vintageviolet/slow-stitching-club/

             

 Here is a little teaser of the lucky dip goody bags i have made up for the Slow Stitching Workshop we are holding in March.

 These bags are great for people who don't have a stash of vintage textiles or those who are scared of getting scissor happy with their treasured linens! I've been brave and chopped up wool blankets, embroidered cloths, antimacassars and more.

 Any Lucky bags left over after the class will be available to buy from the shop, by mail order or from my Etsy shop after the class. Of course the best way to obtain one would be to come along to the class and get one as part of the workshop fee 

  https://www.facebook.com/TheMagpiesNestBideford/

     

Places are selling fast on this class so if you want to come along, please get in touch via my facebook page, follow the link above.

                        slow stitching - brooch making kit #1 

 This sweet little kit is stuffed full of textile treasure, there are vintage wool blanket pieces, cotton lace and fabric scraps, vintage mother of pearl buttons and two new brooch backs, charms and embroidery thread and more. Contents do vary a little from kit to kit and they contain vintage items which will show signs of age and wear, which of course add to their charm. These little packs are priced at £10 and are available via my facebook page or from my Etsy shop.

                 

     After our fantastic Dorset Button style brooch class we had in the workshop last month, i have made up some little bags of Dorset button making supplies, each little bag contains half a dozen vintage  lightweight brass rings, half a dozen brass coloured safety pins and half a dozen felt circles. 

here are the brooches that were made at last months workshop, we had a lovely three hours making these and a sweet origami box to put them in too.

   Here is the link to a tutorial for traditional Dorset Buttons that i have tried and tested 

http://www.classiceliteyarns.com/WebLetter/Stitches/Dorset/Dorset.php 

of course there are many other tutorials out there, go have fun with google or pinterest.

I hope you have enjoyed hearing all about the classes and new kits i have been making, more to follow soon, thank-you for reading :)