It seems that the economic downturn is in full flow, high street stores are closing down all around us, and everyone is watching their pennies.  Crafting can be an expensive business, but fear not, Glasgow Craft Mafia is on hand with some hints and tips.

1. plunder your stash

Round up all your crafty materials, those buttons you forgot you had, that supply of zips that weren’t quite what you were expecting when you hit ‘buy now’ on eBay, the odds and ends of yarn left over from finished projects, and offcuts of fabrics that you were saving ‘just in case’.  Have a good long stare at them over a cup of something warm, and surprise yourself at what you can make.

1. swap supplies with like-minded folk

Check out the supply swap section of the Glasgow Craft Mafia forum, or get together with your crafty pals and arrange a ‘bring and swap’ evening.  You and your friends could even collaborate on a group project.

1. sign up to freecycle.org

You can often find crafting materials and equipment being offered for free via your local freecycle group.  You need to register with Yahoo to join up, and it’s good form to offer something you no longer need before you agree to take items off other folks’ hands.  Created to keep unwanted, but still useful, items out of landfill, you can often find people offering wool, fabric and sewing machines that they no longer need.

1. think about upcycling

Upcycling is the step between reusing and recycling – it’s taking something you have, repurposing it and making it even better than it used to be.  Like my tweed cushion, that used to be a skirt, or the throw my friend Russ made out of (well-washed) beer towels rescued from his aunt’s pub.  You can use scraps of yarn, wool and waste paper in card-making, collage and mixed media art, or make a duvet cover out of those band t-shirts you’d cringe to wear in public, but can’t bear to throw away.

1. join us at a Glasgow Craft Mafia event

Join us at a market or social, we don’t charge entry fees and we welcome everyone with an interest in craft, no matter how much you have to spend at the stalls.  We’ll also be starting up tutorials this year, where you can learn new skills from Craft Mafiosi, or join in with crafts you’ve always taken an interest in.  Drop in and say hello, we’d love to meet you! 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 at 1:02 pm and is filed under Mafia News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.