Our new sewing project for charity: Pillowcase Dresses for Dress a Girl Around The World

Our involvement with the ‘Big Knit’ campaign last August/ September went so well that when Victoria suggested that we should get involved with making pillowcase dresses for Dress a Girl Around The World charity we thought it would be a perfect follow up for our next big community charity project.

“It believes that every little girl should own a pretty dress”

The ‘Dress a Girl Around the World’ charity, which was founded in America and is part of Hope 4 Women International, encourages people that can sew to make simple ‘pillowcase’ dresses which are then distributed to girls living in poverty in developing countries like India, Malawi, Uganda, Ghana, Kenya etc.  It believes that every little girl should own at least one pretty dress. They have more recently started making shorts for boys too.

 

Louise Horler from ‘Sew Scrumptious’ is the UK Co-ordinator and has now collected over 3,000 dresses from all over the UK and Ireland. Louise joined up after reading about the charity in Sewing Magazine last year. If you haven’t heard of this project, then check out the US website here, and Louise’s page on her blog about it here or on her facebook page here.

So what are the details?

Monday 28^th January 2013            7.30pm – 9.30pm

in the Main Hall of the Brighton Road Baptist Church, entrance is in New Street

Cost: FREE, however we would really appreciate a donation of at least £3 to cover basic costs such as bias binding/ thread/ elastic/ postage etc.

Please tell all your friends about it, share this on facebook, let’s see how many dresses we can make in one evening, the more the merrier!

But I can’t sew?

No problem, there are plenty of jobs to get involved with just come along and chose which part you’d like to get involved with. Plenty of tea making skills are needed as well as ironing, cutting  out the patterns, making fabric flowers to go onto the dresses, cutting lengths of elastic and bias binding.

Want to get involved?

Just follow these simple steps….

1. Mark the date in your diary
2. Let us know that you are thinking of coming in the comments section or via email (makehorsham@yahoo.co.uk), just so we can make sure we have room for everyone.
3. Find an old pillowcase (or more) that is clean, without marks or stains and not too see-through. If you haven’t got any some charity shops still sell them I know that Horsham Matters sell lots in their upstairs section. Alternatively please bring some fabric, 1m plus.
4. Please bring your own sewing machine and fabric scissors if you have them.

You can also look at it this way……. why not come and learn how to make a simple dress for your daughter or shorts for you son whilst doing something good for our community? And all for only £3 plus free tea or coffee and plenty of cake not to mention fabulous company!

November and December Update

The last 2 months have been primarily taken up with our Homemade Christmas program of workshops, 9 workshops to be precise. A total of 126 places were filled by 78 people resulting in a lot of Homemade Christmasses in Horsham this year with a lot of new crafts being learnt. Here are a few glimpses of the workshops.

Block Printing Cards

Christmas Cake Pops

Crochet snowflakes

Sewing Felt Decorations

Making Wire Angels

Needle felting  Christmas Decorations

Wreath making

The last workshop, Making a Wreath, saw us using our new home, the Main Hall at the back of Brighton Road Baptist Church which will mean that we can extend the range of workshops we can offer you in 2013.

Sadly December saw the last of the Craft at The Crown evenings, still not sure why it didn’t work but I suppose it was just one of those things? Some people have expressed an interest in a morning craft get together so if you are interested then please get in touch to register your interest and we’ll see what we can arrange.

We’re now busy planning all the workshops for January, February and March which will be unveiled soon. The first workshop after the Christmas break will be on 28^th January and will be our big charity event for making Pillowcase dresses – more information to come soon.

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and happy crafting!

 

Getting into the festive spirit with Wreath Making

The Christmas wreath workshop on Monday night turned out to be a very successful evening and also probably one of the messiest workshops we’ve had so far! It was a workshop in a new craft to us, Floristry, and in our new venue The Brighton Road Baptist Church. Everyone got into the Christmas spirit, I spotted some Christmas tree earings and glitter antlers that someone was wearing! A big thank you to Kay and Karen who brought along lots of home baked biscuits, cupcakes and yule log for us to enjoy with warmed apple juice with spices. Another huge thank you must go to Kate who spent the whole day gathering plenty of wonderful foliage for everyone to make their wreaths from.

 

The last, but by no means least, thank you must of course go to Alice from Blossom Flowers for sharing her knowledge with us. Alice led a very professional workshop and led us through it stage by stage giving everyone the benefit of her expertise. Do visit her gorgeous shop next to Waitrose in Piries Place should you need anything in future in the floristry department – it’s well worth a visit.

 

 

New Crochet for beginners sessions in January

Following on from our past successful workshops run by Michelle from Owl & Slipper she will be running a series of beginner crochet sessions for us at MAKE after christmas.  These would be on Monday evenings on 28th January, 11th and 25th February. So who would like to join us? She will be doing small classes with only around 5 people so that everyone gets top quality tuition. Also please do let us know what you would like to learn how to make during these sessions. We love to hear feedback!

Its looking a lot like Christmas…..

Last Monday saw the last Make event at the Park Barn and was the largest to date. As we had 2 workshops going on at the same time we had a total of 32 people! Jay Kendall from Knitwit Originals came from Lewes to show a keen group how to needle felt some Christmas decorations………

 

 

Then some wonderful angels, fairies and ‘frangels’ were made during the Wire Angel workshop complete with some undergarments!

 

 

Our new venue for workshops

Last Monday saw the last of our workshops at The Park Barn as next week we will be moving all our events to the Brighton Road Baptist Church – Main Hall. We will be in the main hall which is just inside the back door to the left. There is a private car park just outside the back entrance, which is off New Street. As well as the hall we are hiring the main kitchen which means that we can extend the workshops in the New Year to include chocolate making and soap making!

Brighton Road Baptist Church, Horsham, West Sussex RH13 5BD

Look forward to seeing you all at an event here soon.

 

Workshop 8 – Homemade Christmas

Mon 3rd Dec       MAKE A CHRISTMAS WREATH                                           

£15 with Blossoms Florist

7.30-9.30pm at Brighton Road Baptist Church,  Horsham

 

Create a basic small Christmas wreath (8” or 10″ in diameter) or circular table arrangement using traditional methods with Alice  from Blossom Florist in Horsham. The £15 covers the making of a basic wreath (with no decoration) made from foliage like fir, ivy and holly. Alice will be bringing along decorations such as orange slices, cinnamon sticks and ribbon if you wish to purchase these on the evening to decorate your wreath or candles for your table arrangement. The photo shows the basic wreath with some of the added extras that Alice will be bringing to sell.

Details:

Suitable for: All abilities

Materials included in the cost of the workshop:  Foliage (such as fir, ivy, holly, mistletoe) and a wire wreath base and 1 roll of reel wire.

You will need to bring: Please bring secateurs and gardening gloves if you have some, an apron and anything with which you would like to particularly decorate or customize your basic wreath, especially if you have a particular theme in mind – special ribbon, baubles, etc.

 

***Please notice the change of venue for this workshop. ‘Making a Christmas Wreath’ will be at Brighton Road Baptist Church and not The Park Barn. *******

 

Email us at makehorsham@yahoo.co.uk for more information on this workshop.

 

Workshop 7 – Homemade Christmas

Mon 26th Nov NEEDLE FELTING SNOWMAN/ CHRISTMAS PUDDING                 

£15        with Jay Kendal from KnitWit Originals

7.30-9.30pm at The Park Barn Horsham

 

Learn dry needlefelting techniques with Jay Kendall from Knitwit Originals and create two products –  3-dimensional Christmas decorations to decorate your Christmas tree. Choose from baubles or a snowman (only suitable if you have needle felted before) or a Christmas pudding. Click here if you’d like to see more details about the workshop and what needle felting actually is.

 

Details:

Suitable for all Abilities

Materials included in the cost of the workshop: All materials are included.

You will need to bring: just yourselves

There will be additional packs of materials and equipment to purchase if you wanted to make more at home.

Email us at makehorsham@yahoo.co.uk to go on the waiting list for this workshop.

 

Workshop 6 – Homemade Christmas

Mon 26th Nov    WIRE ANGELS OR FAIRIES                                         

£15                        with Magdalen Tyler-Whittle

7.30-9.30pm at The Park Barn Horsham

This is a Mixed Media workshop using wire, various adhesives and fabric techniques to create a sculpture which will then be dressed using scraps of vintage material and trimmings. Glass beads, old music paper and gold masking tape will be used to make wings, halos and crowns. Your main body will stand to be approx 20cm.

During this workshop you will create your own Angel or Fairy that will make you smile year after year. Your vision of prettiness will be hand-finished with scraps of delicate vintage fabrics, lace, beads and other vintage delights.

 

Details:

Suitable for: All abilities

Materials included in the cost of the workshop: Materials for the basic body, vintage bits of fabric and lace for the clothing.

You will need to bring: Any treasured or special fabrics or trimmings that you would like to include in the making or your angel or fairy.

There will be additional materials available to purchase if you’d like to make more than one at a later date.

Email us at makehorsham@yahoo.co.uk to go on the waiting list for this workshop.

More Christmas workshops – review of workshops

Last Monday saw the first of our evenings with two mini workshops ‘Crochet a snowflake garland’ and ‘Felt decorations’ which was reminiscence of a game of musical chairs for some! Both Michelle and Sarah have run workshops for us before so it all ran smoothly and ensured a fun evening for all involved.