I’ve wanted to learn how to sew since I was young, but I’ve always shyed away from classes where you need to shell out big bucks to use machines that intimidate the hell out of me… so I say thank goodness for the DC Threads Sewing Lounge.

The DC Threads Sewing Lounge is a free program held on the second Saturday of each month at the North Michigan Recreation Center (1333 Emerson St, NE, Washington, DC 20017) from1-4pm. The first session will be held on October 11th.

Participate in a “sew-n-tell” hour where you can bring projects you are working on to share tips and exchange ideas, followed by guided projects that are fun and beginner-friendly. You’ll need to bring your own supplies, but sewing machines are provided, and best of all… the sessions are FREE!

DC Threads is a great resource for local sewers. Get info on their Lounge and local sewing classes, find out where fabric stores are near you, and lots more at www.dcthreads.org.

CraftStylish is hosting the Make It Pink Challenge, encouraging Crafters to craft towards a cure. October is Breast Cancer Awareness month—pink ribbons are everywhere, all in support of finding a cure for breast cancer.

CraftStylish challenges you to get crafty and make it pink. Whether you sew, make jewelry, knit, crochet, do paper crafts, bead, embroider, or quilt… just make a pink creation and post it in their Make it Pink gallery. For each project posted, CraftStylish will donate one dollar to Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
For more information, visit Make It Pink Challenge.

It’s 11pm on a Friday night. You’re in your piggy pajamas. You’ve got your bunny slippers on. And your ready to shop… wha?? Ok, so the piggy pajamas are my thing, but you can still get your late-night indie shopping on at Dekka!

Dekka is now open Friday and Saturday nights from 9:30pm-Midnight. Come out for live interviews with local artists and designers, interactive video, music, drinks, and of course shopping for your favorite one-of-a-kind wares… cause who can shop properly with all that sunlight in your eyes?

This is possibly DC’s only afterhours shopping experience (as far as we know!?).
Dekka is located at 1338 U St. NW, 2nd Floor.

I always joke that some upcycled products make me worry about a post-apocalyptic future. But these baby shoes made from trash by MoJo Trashion are going to give me nightmares.

They are actually really cute, but they make me think of a future when we all have wear shoes made from noodle wrappers.

The awesome thing about MoJo Trashion’s shop is that she not only sells the shoes for $20, but you can also buy the pattern for just $6.75. That way you can make your own shoes when you no longer have $20 to buy them or when the internet is gone and the cannibals steal your last pair of baby shoes.

Only two days left to apply for vendor space at the Charm City Craft Mafia’s 2nd Annual Holiday Heap craft fair in Baltimore, MD.

Holiday Heap will be held inside St. John’s Church on November 15th from 10am-5pm. The CCCM puts on some of the best shows in the area with lots of shoppers, friendly helpers and plenty of my favorite crafters. I participated in Holiday Heap last year and it was splendid.

Don’t miss out! Submit your application before midnight this Sunday, October 5th.

We will be adding official event photos and video to the site as soon as we can. In the meantime, share you images with and check out what other Crafty enthusiasts saw and bought, on the with the 2008 Crafty Bastards Flickr pool.

To join the Crafty Bastards 2008 Flickr Pool, just follow these easy instructions:

1. Go to the Crafty Bastards 2008 Flickr Group and click “Join this group”.
2. Upload your Crafty photos to your Flickr account and mark them Public.
3. Go to the page of each photo you want to add to the pool, and click “Send to group”.
4. Select “Crafty Bastards 2008″.

Above photos by Geoff Johnson

Wanna share your Crafty Bastards scores? A fun way to do so is to post about it on Twitter. Just use the words Crafty Bastards or @craftybastards in your post and it will show up on the feed on the Crafty Bastards homepage.

If you don’t already follow Crafty Bastards on Twitter, you can do so here.

If I’m lucky during my walks down U Street, somewhere between the dead rat and the bird eating the discarded jumbo slice, I will see one of Anthony Dihle’s rock posters. Known as Dirty Pictures, Anthony has printed posters for all kinds of local as well as international acts. I particularly like this poster for the Secret Pop Band:

We put our silly questions to Anthony and he didn’t even want to talk posters!

1) Is there a specific product that you will be selling at the fair that you would like to talk about?

Yep. The anxiously and long-awaited DIRTY PICTURES T-SHIRT!!!!! HELLYEAH MOFO HELLYEAH!!

2) Does this product have an origin story? Did the idea come to you in a dream or through a portal or other strange way?

This is the first Dirty Pictures t-shirt. I decided not to talk about any of my posters in this Q&A because it felt unfair to the other posters that one be singled out. They’re like my babies, can’t pick one over the others although honestly some should have been aborted.

It just felt appropriate that I make a shirt for my poster company. I’ve made 75+ posters, and some shirts for bands but no Dirty Pictures merchandise. It’s time to get pompous and start with the self-promotionals. I like lightweight cottony tees (think Hanes undershirts), and that is what I’ll be printing these on. I will be printing them in my living room 3 days before Crafty Bastards. They will be 10 dollars each, and in the event they don’t sell I will mark them down to 5 and if they still don’t sell I will give them away with the purchase of a poster.

3) What famous personality (alive or dead, real or imagined) would most likely be found wearing/holding/admiring this product? Why?

Benjamin Franklin. Because he’s our most celebrated dissident, printmaker, inventor, skirt-chaser, bald guy, and diplomat.

4) Convince me that this piece should be one of only 3 things I could take with me to a deserted island!

The lightweight cotton fabric can be used as a makeshift water filter?

You can check out Anthony’s posters and new shirt at the Crafty Bastards Arts & Crafts Fair this Sunday, September 28th from 10am-5pm at the Marie Reed Learning Center in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, DC. He is in booth #25.

Rocks and Salt give their hats real people names, and it’s only fitting as their hats exude personalities of their own. At the Crafty Bastards Festival (tomorrow!), Rocks and Salt will be showcasing their stylin aviator design. Ladies and gentlemen, acquaint yourself with … Amelia!

1. Is there a specific product that you will be selling at the fair that you would like to talk about?

Amelia. That’s our aviator style hat. We’re making it in some really fun wools with furry or sweater lined earflaps.

2. Does this product have an origin story? Did the idea come to you in a dream or through a portal or other strange way?

We like to ride our bikes all winter long and it gets COLD and WINDY. So we designed Amelia to keep our delicate ears happy and warm.

3. What famous personality (alive or dead, real or imagined) would most likely be found wearing/holding/admiring this product? Why?

Amelia Earhart!

4. Convince me that this piece should be one of only 3 things I could take with me to a deserted island!

If that deserted island is in Greenland, you definitely want this hat. Then you can be warm and alone in style.

It seems that the most elusive thing to new crafters or “dabblers” is how to create a product line. How do you go from the early phases of making stuff to give to your friends as gifts to making stuff that you want to sell (and that people want to buy!)?

Here, I put this question to Annie of Imogene, a jeweler who uses mostly sterling silver and traditional metal fabrication techniques to create simple and lovely pieces.

Annie says:

I went to university for jewelry and metalsmithing, but when I graduated, I discovered that I didn’t know how to market these skills or where exactly to go with it. Shortly after school ended, I was offered a job as an assistant to a jeweler. I turned this down because the pay was dismal and offered no health benefits on top of that. Instead I worked as a legal secretary. By the time I left my cubicle, I was earning almost three times what I would have earned as an assistant to this jeweler AND I received health benefits. While working at the law firm, I opened up a little online boutique representing indie designers. I guess this was my own way of keeping craft in my life. I began to sell my own jewelry creations in the store alongside the other work that I carried just to “see what would happen.” I also participated in craft shows as the boutique. I then realized that my work was as marketable as the work of the artists I carried in the shop! The income from my day job and craft shows allowed me to expand my jewelry line and eventually quit my day job. I’ve been selling my work now for about four years and have been self-employed for a little over one year. Now I carry only my jewelry line in the boutique.

My advice to everyone is to believe in yourself, your vision, and your product. You have to push forward with no fear. I’ve been rejected to many shows (even Crafty Bastards!), I’ve encountered criticism, skepticism, you name it, but you just have to pick yourself up and move forward. Constantly work to improve and innovate.

Annie’s comments about fear are really valuable. When asked this same question myself recently, I answered that the real failure is the fear. Many new crafters are afraid of failure and the truth is that as long as you are making something that you are not failing, you are learning and getting closer to your goals.

You can check out Annie’s lovely jewelry at Booth #119 this Sunday, September 28th from 10am-5pm at the Marie Reed Learning Center in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, DC.