Casual Craft Meet

Have you ever been that person who organised a meetup or arranged to get together with people saying “It’s all casual”, then still dressed up for it? Yup, I am now that bitch.

I so regret not taking a selfie at John Lewis. Also, ignore the flyaway hairs, please.

This is probably my favourite portrait closeup of the ones taken at John Lewis. Contemplating all the life choices here!

In my defence, it was imperative that I wear Cinema Doll out as soon as possible. I didn’t want to save this print for whatever arbitrary occasion, that’s how you end up with lots of unworn pieces. I went with the first option that came to my mind after checking the weather forecast (thank goodness that it cooled down enough to even wear lolita), threw in some go-to makeup and hair for styling and voila! Also, can we have a quick appreciation for the fact that not only I managed to tie my waist ties entirely by myself, but also that I succeeded in tying them into a very attractive bow? This is the kind of skills that I need and if I can achieve something similar with corset lacing, I will be unstoppable!

I did watch a video on tying bows as I did mine, but hopefully that knowledge will stay with me!

On Sunday together with a friend we had organised a casual craft meet. As you already know, I completely ignored the casual part, but hey, that’s just me. The point of explicitly calling it casual was so that no-one felt pressured to dress up in anything grand for just sitting down to craft. Also, if anyone wanted to come in other J-fashion, that would’ve been cool too, though I feel like I could’ve made that point more obvious. It’s a Sunday meet, half the people still haven’t rested enough from the previous week, the other half are dreading going back to work on Monday – casual is the best thing to do in situations like this.

While people were welcome to bring their own projects, if they wanted to work on that, we also got a bunch of beads and elastic so that people could make themselves some bracelets. That’s probably the easiest crafting project you can do, yet so often it gets put on the back burner. It’s also a really cheap project, which makes it great when trying to pad out your accessory collection at a budget. Rachel did a great job at finding a wide variety of different beads, from plain single-colour ones to fancier ones like stars, we both a bunch of charms we bought forever ago and never used, so there really was a good variety of things that people could do. Looking back, I kind of regret not taking pictures of what others made, because there were some really cool ones, like a black and white goth bracelet with silver crosses or a white and pink necklace with stars and a doughnut charm thrown in for extra cuteness.

Instead, I was too busy enjoying myself and chatting. And doing my own project. All I’ll say here is that it’s for my tea party outfit for Strike a Pose in the Netherlands this September and that it’s not finished yet. However, I am very pleased with how much I managed to do in roughly three hours at the meet itself, especially given how I’ve never used findings like this. While it’s not complete yet, it’s not far from it, I reckon I’m only a couple pieces away and then all that’s left is gluing some stones on. I’m very excited, both for the finished piece and at how well I’ve done with it . Just don’t look too closely, else you might see some of my messy bits.

Super proud of this unfinished baby, it looks so regal!

A closeup. Don't scrutinise too much though, I know that some links are a bit wonky.

Afterwards we quickly stayed in the wider John Lewis arcade to take advantage of its lovely design and gorgeous lighting to take some pictures. Honestly, arcades like this are unbeatable for lighting, even on rainy, cloudy days like last Sunday they are so bright and airy. So we all indulged in taking way too many photos, prompting the usual responses from the public (staring, asking questions, asking if they can get a picture too). After that we parted ways, with some going for some food, while I and one more person headed to the bus station to go back home.

The pictures ranged from genuinely cute...

... to goofy...

... to plain daft and silly. Don't even ask me what this is supposed to be, caption away at will!

Every time I’m at a craft meet, I think that we need more of those because they’re so fun and productive. And inevitably every time so far it was usually followed with not having one because other ideas. Hopefully though this time round it won’t be quite so long before the next craft meet. Although I guess I better finish what I started first, then I can think about organising something else.

What’s the last thing you have crafted? Is it for a specific outfit and/or occasion or something more generic?