WE LOVE MOLLIE MAKES (PART 2) ...THE AWARDS

Pick up an issue of Mollie Makes (43) next month and there's a chance you might just see a couple of familiar faces. 

With June coming to an end, we thought we'd take a moment to reflect on what an amazing day we had earlier this month at the UK's biggest craft magazine's first ever Handmade Awards.

Day Trippers

We got the email a week before the big day - just before Karen and Sophie were heading off to various weddings for the weekend and leaving no time to obsessively prepare as we usually do - that Sewcial had been shortlisted for the Social Enterprise Award. 

We were asked to head down to the Proud Archivist in London to present to some of the top people in the crafting world as one of the final five in our category. Unbelievable! 

The day arrived, and so did our mega early train from Lime Street. We soon took over the table with an explosion of paper, felt, glue, coffee and cosmetics... as a stream of commuters weighed up the pros & cons of disturbing us to claim a seat. Nobody dared.

On arrival at the venue, we were met by a gathering of crafters - the finalists in the five categories. The plan was that we'd all wait our turn and have ten minutes with the judges before the awards presentation at the end of the day. It was a glorious day so we sat outside and spent a lovely time with some of the most talented artists, makers and designers in the country.

It didn't take long before Sophie whipped out a small box of crafty bits and began making felt flowers to pass the time. Before we knew it, we had a whole group of girls joining in... an impromptu Sewcial in the middle of London. Such a simple make, but so pretty - we ended up with a table full of flowers that ended up on name badges, in our hair, anything we could accessorise... We just wish we'd taken more scissors!

Handmade Royalty

Meeting the judges was nerve-wracking, especially with such huge names in the room. We'd like to give a huge thank you to the judging panel:

Lara Watson (Editor of Mollie Makes) 

Matt Doris (Leader of Etsy’s International Community Programmes) 

Vanessa Bowerman (Buyer - Haberdashery, Crafts & Fabrics at John Lewis) 

Emma Jones (Founder of Enterprise Nation) 

Sinead Koehler (Founder of Crafty Fox Market) 

Lisa Comfort (Owner of Sew Over It) 

Lisa Levis (Designer/Founder, Betty & Walter) 

Vicky Pannell (Enterprise Project - NatWest) and

Katherine Raderecht (Publisher of Mollie Makes)

for listening to us, for your advice, ideas and suggestions for our future... we embraced every word and will be taking all of your feedback on board! 

Making Friends
We had such a fun day meeting the most amazingly talented people. It was a huge honour to be sitting alongside them and we made some fabulous new friends, including the gorgeous girls from the Mollie Makes team who were great company to hang out with.

We've kept in touch with a few of the girls since too, chatting online and even doing a #craftswap - you should see the gorgeous parcels coming through the letterbox. Big love to Debbie from Duck & Duffel, Carmen from Crafty Queens, Sarah Jane from Hejsan Goods, Julia Staite, Hannah from Crafternoon Cabaret Club and Katy Fletcher... and all of those girls we haven't mentioned who are equally lovely!

One thing is for sure, it's a day we won't forget for a long time. We may not have come away with the prize, but we made some boss mates and took away a whole world of inspiration.

To celebrate our time at the #HandmadeAwards, we have decided that we'll be opening our doors and welcoming five new members to Neighbourhood Sewcial. If you're a reader of Mollie Makes or passionate about crafting, we want to hear from you. Just drop us an email and we'll tell you how to register your interest. 

So, to Mollie Makes, our fellow shortlisters, the deserving winners, everyone who has supported us along the way, and most importantly - our group of gorgeous Sewcialites who bring such fun, talent and enthusiasm to our Monday nights... thank you.

We love you all. Loads.

xxx

p.s. You'll be able to read all about the Handmade Awards in next months Mollie Makes! If you can't wait that long, take a look at this fantastic video with a few familiar faces.