Stitches & Craft weekend!

Have you been to the Stitches & Craft Show yet? If you've been doing your nine-to-five all week this weekend is your chance to check it out!

If you can get there early Saturday come meet up in the Incubator section (I'm told it's upstairs) at 10:15 and introduce yourself. You can then pop into the free screening of The September Issue at 10:30, if you can drag yourself away from the indie craft goodness. Plus, every second blogger we know is helping out on an Incubator stall this weekend so you'll have plenty of friends to catch up with, or friends to make.

If you'd like to stand out as a craft blogger, the show organisers are handing out I LOVE STITCHES badges so bloggers can identify themselves to each other. It's totally free, coz Stitches & Craft lurve bloggers.

One warning - camera use is restricted at the Show. It's all about protecting intellectual property and respecting how craftspeople want images of their work reproduced. If you'd like to bring your camera along go ahead - it's not going to be confiscated - but be sure to ask permission before whipping it out. Plenty of stallholders (in the Incubator at least) will be happy to have you promote their businesses on your blog.

If you need any more convincing check out some photos from the Show so far at Jodie Ric Rac's blog. She's the one who made the famous selvedge frock and her softie patterns are to-die-for. Earlier this week she wrote a passionate testimony of why each and every one of you should come check out the Show:

In the craft world, the guys behind Stitches and Craft are the ones out there offering support to little indie businesses. They give us the chance to take part in a HUGE event and gain exposure that most of us couldn't normally afford to do (like not even close)...
I think it's fair to ask people to support Stitches and Craft because they are out there promoting and sharing and getting the word out about craft. Their show helps raise the profile of craft and handmade and that has to be a good thing right? Surely getting craft out there in the world has to have a trickle down effect, more people know about craft, think it's great, are more likely to look for handmade when the need arises. More people get excited by craft and go home and take up knitting or sewing or raffia hat making or whatever fuels them....so our community grows and new exciting stuff happens...
And apart from all that? Maybe one day YOU will want to get a teeny stall in the Incubator and spend five days meeting people and showing off your stuff and having a great time, or maybe your mum will, or one of your blog friends. How sad would it be to say "oh there used to be this great place for little businesses at a craft show- I never went though, I wonder what happened to it?"

Jodie will be at her Incubator stall all week so be sure to say hi, and thank her for taking one giant leap for craftkind. (Photo from Jodie's blog, if you hadn't guessed.)

P.S. On your way to Caulfield Race Course drop in at Malvern Town Hall to check out the first ever Modish Makers Market. Northside Maker organiser Margaret Konstant Kaos has a stall!

Stitches and Craft Show Melbourne 2010

It's only a week until the fabulous Stitches & Craft Show opens at Caulfield Racecourse!

Wednesday 5th May til Sunday 9th May, 10am til 5pm daily
Tickets $10
Heaps of transport by train (Caulfield station), tram (route 3 stop 52), some buses and also carpooling.
You can download a program here for all the exciting details.

To add to the excitement for 2010, two Northside Makers are taking part in the Incubator indie craft market and presenting Craft Labs!

Holly of Two Cheese Please is teaching needle felting and showing participants how to make a bird's nest brooch. Join in on Wednesday and Thursday at 11am, Friday and Saturday at 3:30pm.


Sandra of Pepperberry & Co is teaching almost more Craft Labs than I can list!
Textile Card Creations - Wednesday 11:45, Thursday 11am and Sunday 12:15
Cozy Cushion Cover - Friday 12:30
Custom A5 Notebook Cover - Wednesday 3:15 and Saturday 4pm
Snug As A Bug Baby Blanket - Thursday 12:15 and Saturday 2pm
Living Your Crafty Dream - Friday 11am and Saturday 11am

So, are you excited?

Would you like to be part of a not-really-organised Northside Makers expedition to the Stitches & Craft Show?

If you're able to attend on the Saturday and are a public transport user meet on Flinders Street platform 6 in time to catch the 9:38am train to Caulfield, arriving platform 2 at 9:54am.

If you'd like to offer your services as a carpool driver please raise your hand, nominate your departure point and if you're able to do pickups along the way. If you want to accept a carpool ride please offer to pay for parking!

Public transport users and car travellers can meet up in the Incubator section at approximately 10:15am - and then probably hang around there for the next couple hours because it's so damn exciting to be there! From there it's a full day of Craft Labs, Craft Bars, Make Do & Mend, fashion shows, and then the dozens upon dozens of crafty retailers...

The only thing Stitches & Craft doesn't have is lessons on how to conceal your spending from the rest of your household once you get home!


Photo by Handmaiden

Stitches & Craft Show - Volunteers Wanted!

A year ago I had the most wonderful day out at the Stitches & Craft Show at the Melbourne Showgrounds. I went to a felt doughnut workshop and met Holly Two Cheese Please*, then at a PVC wallet workshop I met Jodie Ric Rac of the selvedge frock, and little did I realise at the time but one of the crafters I sewed next to went on to become Miss Sandra Pepperberry! I was awed by the talent shown in the Incubator section, by far the most out-of-the-box stalls at the show. There was a refashioning zone, skill displays by lacemakers and feltmakers, and sooo much to buy. Looking at 2009 photos on participants' blogs today is getting me excited all over again.


Two Cheese Please's Incubator stall, 2009
I've spent the last twelve months counting down to 2010's Stitches & Craft (and vowing to take along more cash next time). The big event will hit Melbourne from Wednesday 5th to Sunday 9th of May. And I've just found out from Jodie Ric Rac's blog that they're looking for volunteers!


Ric Rac's lifesize selvedge projects via Whip UP
If you can hand sew, crochet or embroider and love to share your skills, the Craft Bars need you! Craft Bar volunteers will teach visitors new skills and have a laugh while doing so**. In return for you hard day's crafting and teaching you'll be rewarded with two free tickets to the show! That means that as well as spending one day at the Craft Bar, you can spend another two attending workshops and shopping! Or if you're feeling altruistic you could give one to your bestie and spend a crafty day together. I advise leaving your kids with a babysitter***.


2009 Craft Bar photographed by The Lark
If you'd like to find out more about this opportunity get in touch with the organisers via enquiries(AT)stitchesandcraft(DOT)com(DOT)au.

* There's an interview with Holly in the latest Mixtape, which you can buy this Saturday at the Northside Makers Collective Table!

** Laughing is mandated. Or I may have made that up.

*** Says the woman who didn't get to see the Handmade Nation doco due to the demands of her friend and herself shepherding a six month old and 19 month old all day long. I did however manage to schedule a breastfeed during a presentation on building a craft business. And the parents room was quite well appointed apart from the lack of a change table.