Kirstie Allsopp's Handmade Christmas Fair Giveaway

Hey Readers, I have a great opportunity for one of you to win a pair of entry only tickets in association with Mollie Makes to Kirstie Allsopp's Christmas Handmade Fair! in Manchester Central, November 20-22. 

Grand Group Makes all together

Wonderful stalls and shopping!

You can choose which day you want to attend, there are masterclasses, talks, brilliant stalls and some great Christmas inspiration. 

The fair features appearances from some crafting heroes and heroines of mine: 

Annie Sloan, Kitten Grayson, Zeena Shah, Jane Means, The Ministry of Craft, Lucy from Attic 4, Corrie’s Martin Platt (Sean Wilson) who is now a cheesemaker - and Kirstie of course! 

Beautiful details and design across the fair!

If you want to be in with a chance of winning the tickets to this brilliant Christmas event, just tweet me @harrietdewinton using the hashtag #harrietschristmasgiveaway and share your favourite Christmas Craft Project. 

The winner will have their name drawn out of the pom pom hat on Friday 6th November. I will contact you over Twitter to arrange your prize!

Here's a great Christmas Craft project of my own to get you in the mood. I know Kirstie loves pompoms,  so this will be right up her street.

Kirstie and the world record breaking pompoms!

As a contributor to the Mollie Makes Christmas Issue, I am thrilled to be able to offer a reader two entry only tickets to the Handmade Christmas Fair in Manchester 20-22 November at Manchester Central.

This is a cute take on the classic bobble hat, I've seen them all over the place on the highstreet but thought it was a prime opportunity to teach you all how to make pom poms or…just to jog your memory from Junior School.

Do you remember making pompom robin Christmas decorations at primary school? You’d bring it home and your parents would have to feign joy at their little cherubs effort and then hang it on their Christmas tree for the next 15 years. 

This is a classic black and white combo, but why not mix it up and add more pompoms!

You will need:  

• Ball of black wool
• white plain beanie
• Cardboard (a cereal packet will suffice) 
• Knitting hook  
• Scissors
• Needle and thread to attach finished pompoms 

How to:

1. Draw and cut out 2 cardboard rings.  Follow our pattern as a guide. 
2. Cut a length of wool about 2 metres long and fold in half.
3. Tie the2 cardboard rings together with the length of wool and continue wrapping this length of wool around the 2 rings. Feed the wool through the hole in the middle of both rings each time. 
4. Continue this process, cutting new lengths of wool as the last runs out.  Use the knitting hook to pull the wool though as the hole becomes full.
5. Once you cannot pull any more wool through the centre of the ring, cut all the way around the outer edge of the ring.
6. Wrap a length of wool between the 2 cardboard rings and tie a few tight knots. These will secure all the wool in place.
7. Tear the 2 cardboard rings to remove them from the centre of the pompom.
8. Trim the pompom to size.

Good luck!

Alice in Wonderland Shoot for Specsavers Kids

All those rather mysterious Alice in Wonderland themed projects can finally be unmasked in the shape of the latest Supersavers Kids magazine. I styled and illustrated the cover and main set piece for the Spring Summer 2015 issue.

The first job was to design the looks for Alice, the Queen of Hearts, Mad Hatter and White Rabbit. We have 4 fantastic 6/7 year  old models who had a great time on the day. Our Alice outfit was a particular favourite as I thought a bit outside the box and came up with this slightly dreamy floral dress from John Lewis.

The brief was to dress them in clothes they would want to wear; looking clearly like the character without looking like fancy dress.

The Queen of Hearts' outfit was largely from H&M and Doc Martins from John Lewis. Her crown headband was a particular favourite with the adults on the shoot!

on the shoot with Milo and Oli.

Can you spot the playing card bow tie and collar from previous blog posts? Alice's hair bow also makes an appearance.

We set up the shoot the night before which gave us lots of time to play with flamingoes and cupcakes!

Then came the illustration part. After settling on handpainted watercolour style (which is obviously my favourite!) I created a wonderland esque backdrop for both the cover and double page spread.

White Rabbit late for an important date

starting to add colour to the double page spread

adding in flamingoes all over the place. 

 The Magazine is out in the shops now. The project was managed by Specialist UK

Photoshoot: Fair Isle and Nordic Knits

Last Summer I styled the photoshoots for the craft book Fair Isle and Nordic Knits. Although our model sizzled a bit in her knitwear in high summer, we managed to create a really cool skandi feel to the shoots and here is a tiny sample of what we came up with.

The Author; "Nicki Trench is one of the leading figures in the revival and promotion of home crafts. As well as teaching, lecturing, and feature writing on knitting, crochet, sewing, cake decorating, and hen keeping, she is the founder of Laughing Hens, the UK’s leading online yarn store, and Rooster Yarns. Some of her books include Geek Chic Crochet, Cute & Easy Crocheted" 

(http://www.rylandpeters.com/US/ourshop/craft/fair-isle-nordic-knits)

The book is available from April 30th, 2014

Out of the Dark

I've just stumbled over Out of the Dark's website. An inspirational company set up to salvage and restore vintage furniture whilst educating and training young people. I know I would have jumped at a chance to learn such skills. 

I particularly like them because they worked on the interior of Fabrications, an independent gallery, shop and studio dedicated to contemporary textile practise and design, with a particular interest in upcycling and eco design run by Barley Massey, who I have had the pleasure of interviewing for Cloth magazine as well as participating in an awesome fascinator making Hen Party this time last year. 

I love it when you see great people with good ideas get along in life.

Home is where the art is: wooden box restoration

A large number of the items in my flat are the result of upcycling projects and pieces I found in skips, and tips in need of a good home. I felt it would make perfect sense to add these projects to the blog. 

I found this box in a skip in a rather affluent area of town. As well as the box, I acquired a printed wine box, a wooden sewing box complete with full vintage sewing kit, and two ornate terracotta planters. Having a van is a curse as well as a gift, as you have no excuse not to pick these things up and breathe new life into them!

What particularly drew me to this box was it's rather odd curved hinged lid. 

You will need:

• Sand paper
• Wood paint (satin finish)
• Primer in complimentary colour
• Paint brushes
• White spirit if paint is oil based
• Wall paper/lining paper
• Spray mount
• Clear varnish
• Pencil
• Tape measure
• Scissors
• Felt to cover the base
• All purpose glue
• Fixtures and fittings for the box: Hinges, safety latches, handles. I chose ornate brass ones
• Drill for adding fixtures and fittings.

How to do it:

1. Clean and sand the box inside and out. I also removed the rusty hinges and cleaned the area.
2. Paint two coats of primer, leaving to dry in between each coat.
3. Paint two coats of Wood paint, leaving to dry in between each coat.
4. line the inside of the box by carefully measuring each face, cut out your pieces of paper, spray mount and glue in place.
5. trim excess edges. 
6. Seal the lining paper by adding a coat of varnish over the top
7. Measure, mark out and add your fixtures and fittings.

Materials Details

Wood Primer from B&Q: Colour 'Grey'

Satin Base Wood and Metal Paint from Valspar (supplied and mixed by B&Q): Colour 'A Night at Ice Castle'

Wallpaper from B&Q

All fixtures and fittings from B&Q

Felt from Fabricland