Saturday 21 May 2011

Trialing a craft kit

A crafting friend of mine, Claire from Beautiful Things by Claire Mackaness (look her up on facebook/twitter) has decided to start making craft kits. Before selling them though she asked for volunteers to trial the kits and give her a review so I volunteered to try out her tote bag kit.

I loved coming home on Thursday to find a little pink package on the mat. I know it’s only a small thing but it was the start of feeling like I’d got something special. As soon as I opened it I thought it looked very professional in the packaging and quickly opened the kit.


I have to say that I did find 5 pages of instructions a little daunting and wondered what I’d let myself in for but started to follow them step by step, running up and down the stairs to keep ironing various pieces of fabric, then coming down to sew them together.


It was simple to follow the instructions, so I needn't have been worried, and time flew by.


I also had a little hiccup adding the felt squares that covered the handle joins when it said ‘press the square for 10-15 seconds until the glue melts’. I literally pressed it and nothing happened. As someone who’d never seen sticky backed felt I didn’t realise straight away that it meant to press with an iron, oops! I felt very 'blonde' but I reckon Claire will not amend this before the kits go on sale.


I had another little mishap when my stitching didn't quite go straight- not due to my poor sewing skills obviously, there must've been something going wrong with the machine!!!!  or perhaps I was getting distracted by this going on near my feet.....



Around 75 mins after I started I had a completed, gorgeous tote bag.

So if you were to ask if I’d buy other kits the answer would be yes, as I found it easy and fun to do.  I reckon the kits will be a top seller in no time at all.
Good work Claire :o) Feel free to add a link to your etsy shop in the comments so people can easily buy them.




2 comments:

  1. Well done you! Your bag looks lovely :) Thanks ever so much for your kind comment on my blog x it really does mean a lot to me!

    Have a great weekend :)

    Jo x

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  2. thanks Jo
    I really shoudl check my comments more often oops!
    I love reading your blog, keep it going

    Helen x

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