A day of vintage crafting

On Saturday I had a lovely day with Sarah Moore, author of Homemade Gifts Vintage Style. Sarah regularly contributes vintage craft projects to Country Living Magazine and sells her beautiful vintage gifts and craft materials through her website Sarah Moore Vintage.

I was so excited when I found out that she is starting to run vintage craft masterclasses at her local village hall in Northchapel. I love her book and was eager to meet her and try my hand at some crafting.

Although it was a dreary day outside and pouring with rain most of the day, inside the hall, it was warm and cosy, decorated like Sarah's lounge room with beautiful pieces of furniture which she had brought from her home. Sarah created a relaxing environment and encouraged everyone to sit on the chairs, read her lovely books and have a cup of tea if we wanted to take a break from crafting at anytime throughout the day.

We started the day making pinboards decorated in a patchwork pattern with pieces of vintage wallpaper which had been cut into hexagons. Sarah has an enviable collection of beautiful vintage wallpapers to choose from. It took me at least half an hour to decide on which papers i wanted to use. We were really spoilt for choice. Here's how my pinboard turned out....

I couldn't resist taking some close up photos as well for you - all the papers were so pretty.  If you want to make a pinboard you can purchase packets of vintage paper which has already been cut into hexagons on Sarah's website.

After the pinboards were finished, we had a lovely lunch, served on beautiful mismatched vintage crockery. Sarah is not only a craft expert - she is also a trained chef and we were treated to a lovely meze spread.

The afternoon was filled with more lovely little craft projects. First up was a little velvet strawberry filled with lavender....

I was really chuffed with my effort as I'm not a competent sewer. Sarah put me at ease and explained all the steps really clearly so even a novice like me could complete the project quite easily. We also sewed little corsages made from graduating circles of vintage fabric. Sarah sells finished corsages, and the kit to make them if you want to create your own on her website so if you can't make her masterclass you can have a go and make one at home. Here's a photo from her website of the type of corsages you can make with the kit....

 So beautiful.....

To finish the day, we wrapped 6 bars of soap in gorgeous vintage wallpaper and placed them in a tin decorated with stickers which Sarah has designed. The soaps were transformed into little bundles of luxury once they were wrapped up - it's amazing how a little effort can make a common object look so special. Sarah also sells pieces of vintage wallpaper so you can wrap up your own soaps, or use them for scrapbooking etc. Or, you can buy a tin of 6 soaps already wrapped up beautifully if you are looking for a lovely gift for someone. Here are some of Sarah's soaps.....so pretty.

The afternoon also included a beautiful vintage afternoon tea, again served on Sarah's lovely vintage crockery. It was such a nice day, and I'm really looking forward to doing another masterclass with her again soon. If you want to try your hand at vintage crafting you can find out about upcoming courses with Sarah here.