If I work very hard, and I'm very lucky, sometimes I get to combine teaching and crafting. And it's brilliant. Today I was honoured to be asked to run a Hen Crafternoon for a lovely girl I knew from my school days. So armed with a glue gun, fabric, buttons and beads, needles and threads I set off into the Fens...
The bride had requested that her hen party made fabric flowers that would be put together to make her bridal bouquet. No pressure then. Zoe (our Pinterest savvy friend) and I worked up some Pinterest boards, narrowed down the colour scheme and fabrics, then I set to prepping and sourcing materials.
The prep work is also great fun -sourcing the right tones, finishings and trims over the internet and local shops, making up examples and writing up the instruction manuals. Each of the ladies was given a fabric flower as an example (with a handy brooch back to use again as a memento of the day) and instructions...these were in case we didn't make enough during the session and the bride needed to press-gang them into making more before the big day!
Then it was up to me to arrive just before the event started, to set up and make everything look pretty. All I ask for is a space in which to work, preferably a table and a plug! Once all the ladies were ready with fizz in hand, it was a quick demo of the two basic styles and then pitch in...
The ability ranged from non-crafty-but-give-it-a-go (resulting in an amazing lace and pearl representation of the male anatomy) to full blow ex-Costume Design students, so it was important to try and have a range of materials to suit everyone, as well as a basic design that could be adapted and made more complex.
The results? Hopefully the bride likes them -a stack of flowers in yellows, creams and greys with sparkle and pearls all over. I can't wait to see the wedding pictures! xx
