Tutor profile – Iona Bruce

When we began negotiations with Iona to facilitate our Crafty Creatures craft classes for the 7-12 years age range, we got super-excited. Why? Quite simply because with her background in community arts and her passion for craft, Iona is the perfect person to encourage and excite children & young people when it comes to crafting and DIY. Iona’s website is testament to her creativity & zest for design and her blog brims over with excitement about the various crafty things that she is involved in so to have her tutor our younger friends is a coup for The Life Craft.

Therefore, we’re absolutely delighted to announce that starting on Friday 5th November 2010 at 4pm, Iona will be tutoring a 6 week intro to craft. Places on this class are limited and can be booked by emailing Vonnie or by popping into the shop.

Iona herself says, “i’m so so so excited about this, i have worked with children for as long as i can remember & absolutely love their enthusiasm & imagination. to be able to teach a group of them how to do something i love is like a dream come true ”

So! What will your spawn get for your £65?

All materials are included in Iona’s classes and each participant will have supplies to take away and work with at home, including knitting needles, gorgeous wool, cute embroidery hoops, eco-friendly felt and more. Additionally, a carton of Calypso organic fruit juice and a snack will be provided for the post-school ravenous hordes. The class schedule is as follows:

Week 1 – Hand sewing
1.5 Hours
Felt Xmas decorations
Children will be taught how to sew a basic stitch, how to start & how to finish off & design their own felt Xmas decoration.

Week 2 – Hand sewing
1.5 Hours
Jotter Cozy
Building on the sewing they learnt from the previous class children will develop their skills by making a fabric jotter cozy which will hold a school jotter & have compartments for pens/pencils.

Week 3 – Cross-stitch
1.5 Hours
Cross-stitch Badges
The children will learn a range of different stitches, design & create their own badge & use the badge machine to finish it off.

Week 4 – Knitting
1.5 Hours
Bow Hairbands/Bow Ties
Children will be taught how to cast on, how to knit & purl & how to cast off, which will have them leaving with their own knitted bow hairbands or bow ties.

Week 5 – Knitting
1.5 Hours
Owlets
Recapping on the skills from the previous class, the children will learn some more knitting skills & produce a knitted owlet toy.

Week 6 – Group project

A group project where the children have opportunity to make something together as a group, using all the skills they have learnt over their time in the workshops.

See you there!

Sew cute!

So many of our regulars have been asking about the gorgeous child’s tiered dress hanging from the washing line in our shop – created by our awesome fashion designer extraordinaire Jenny McCreary – and we’re delighted to announce that our “Sew cute – Girls tiered dress” class will be running this Sunday from 2-5pm.

This class is aimed at people who have undertaken a few sewing projects already as this dress includes an invisible zip. Participants are not expected to have previous experience of inserting invisible zips but should be comfortable with fastenings.  The dress you make will have two gathered tiers and tie top sleeves.

Various techniques will be covered in this class including gathering, facing, overlocking and the basics of using patterns. Participants must bring their own fabric to this class (including thread if you require anything other than black or white).  You’re advised to avoid any stretch fabrics, a medium weight cotton or something similar and advice on this will be freely given. Dress sizes start at age 3 up to age 10.

How cute? SEW cute!

Trunk show – Colorimetry

Now, it’s not that we’re here to facilitate your addictions at all but I feel it’s my duty to share with you the beautifully scrumptious range of yarns & fibres that the Colorimetry girls have brought with them to this weekend’s trunk show. There is genuinely something here for every knitter or fibre fan – from supersoft merino 4ply to pencil roving. We even have possum fibre for the spinners out there! Colorimetry’s trunk show is here until tomorrow evening only, featuring brand new and one-off yarns in adorably eyecatching colourways. Get your skates on if you want to get some for your own snuggling!

What’s new at The Life Craft?

It’s October already and we’ve now been open at our Great Western Road shop for two months. It’s hard to believe it has been just two months when we look at everything we’ve accomplished – we’ve got lots more stock in, we have run some fantastic classes with enthusiastic participants and Vonnie has only smashed one saucer!

We sent out our mailing list email last week and if you didn’t receive this I’d heartily encourage you to sign up for it by emailing me and I’ll add you.

So! In our latest mail-out we previewed some of the amazing new classes we have coming up and throughout this week I’m going to tell you more about what you can do. All of our sewing classes are taken by our Fashion honours graduate Jenny McCreary and places in all classes are strictly limited so we encourage you to snap them up quickly!

Wednesday 13th October 2-4pm – Super Students laptop cover class £25
This two hour class will teach you how to make a padded laptop cover to keep your laptop safe and stylish! Participants need to bring their own fabric – you will need 1 metre of heavy weight/upholstery fabric – and the zip & wadding is included in the class price and will be provided for you.
This class is £20 for anyone showing a valid matriculation card, OR if you bring 5 friends with you then you all do the class for £15.

Sunday 17th October 2-5pm – Girls tiered dress class – £35
At this class you will learn how to make a gorgeous little girls dress with two gathered tiers and tie top sleeves. Various techniques will be covered in this class including gathering, facing, overlocking, and the basics of using patterns. We ask participants to bring their own fabric to this class including thread if you require anything other than black or white. A sample of this dress can be seen in our shop if you’d like to view it.

Wednesday 20th October 6-9pm – Fabulous Fascinators – £45
Jill Savage has been making and customising her own accessories and headwear since high school and subsequently studied millinery at North Glasgow college. Participants in this class will leave with a finished fascinator just in time for the Christmas party season! Using sinamay to create a base, you will learn the proper techniques for creating a fascinator to your own design and materials are included.

Saturday 23rd October 2-5pm – Anodised aluminium jewellery – £45
Guest tutor Ruth Hollywood – a Glasgow school of Art graduate and jewellery designer extraordinaire – takes you through the process of designing and creating your own jewellery from super lightweight anodised aluminium. Each participant will leave with a minimum of a pair of earrings and a pendant to show for your efforts.

This is a very quick run-down of just a few of our classes. I heartily encourage you to check out the full list for October.

Hope to see you soon!