A couple of crafty friends and I started a podcast last spring called the Very Serious Crafts Podcast. Every other week, you can listen to Mollie, Haley and I talk about everything from translating knitting gauge into graph paper to shameful tales of crafts gone wrong. Nine months into this adventure, we managed to book and sell out (!) our first live show. Since the show took place a month ago and the recording is officially available in our podcast feed (season 2, episode 4 to be specific), I figured it’s about time I shared a bit from that fun and somewhat terrifying day!
Part 1: Live Recording
First up, shout out to Chicago Public Library (And Librarian Amanda especially) for having us! Our show was at the Harold Washington Library Center, a.k.a. the main branch of Chicago Public Library, on Saturday 1/26. The first hour of our program consisted of a live recording of an episode (which you can listen to here). Mollie, Haley & were all a little intimidated, but we had so much fun. We kicked off the episode by discussing & passing around our favorite weird vintage craft items. As a nod to our venue, we next shared some of the craft books that informed our development as makers. Then we wound things up with a round of our beloved Train of Shame series, which basically consists of sharing stories about crafty failures (think perpetually unfinished projects, disastrous outcomes – that sort of thing).
Part 2: Serious crafting with our audience
When we brainstormed what exactly a Very Serious Crafts live show would look like, it was important to all 3 of us to include some sort of make and take craft project. In retrospect we were probably a little ambitious to tackle recording an episode PLUS three separate crafting tables at a single live show, but it was fun! We are all craft designers, so we each came up with something that could be sewn or appliquèd onto a felt coffee sleeve.
Mollie not only made all the sleeves everyone got to work with and take home, but she designed an embroidery transfer in the Very Serious Crafts font. It’s SO GOOD!
Just for fun, I wondered if it would be possible to make latch hook a very cozy coffee sleeve. It is! 😉 Some day my latch hook evangelizing will make everyone as excited about making shag rugs as I am, haha!
And Haley, being a whiz with English paper piecing, designed a cute coffee sleeve featuring appliquè hexagons. Her corner of the room was a rainbow fabric lover’s dream!
Truly, it’s been a whirlwind month since the Very Serious Crafts live show in Chicago, and I can hardly believe it happened at all! Thank you so much if you were able to come out on that cold day. Hopefully we can do one again soon. <3
Don’t forget to listen to the live show! And check out our show notes for the live show to see pictures of our vintage crafts and find links to the crafty books that made us!
