The Urban Craft Center is bringing some classy crafting to Food & Wine’s Taste of Beverly Hills. Put on by KCRW, this delicious extravaganza is a series of events, tastings and talks starting on Thursday and continuing through Sunday. We at the UCC are going to be making our crafty contribution in the form of five handmade aprons made from fabric in our studio.

Pics to come!

A few weekends ago, one of our favorite customers Amber came in sporting this adorable bag she whipped up with Alexander Henry Willow Berries fabric. I love the drawstring and envelope closure!


Also made from Willow Berries are these yummy reversible kids placemats, handcrafted by our esteemed member Shannon Kors.

You can support a local artisan by picking up a set of these babies here in our shop for only $35! Here at the UCC we look at these beautiful fabrics every day, but always on the bolt. It’s so inspiring when you guys bring in the wonderful things you make with it! Have a beautiful day :))) luv ucc

This weekend, students got to make simple, adorable baby gifts in Shannon Richards’ Bibs and Burpees class. These patterns are great to experiment with pattern matching and practicing sewing binding to projects. I love the fabric pairings everyone came up with, don’t you?

In a timeless tale of skill against skill, there is a competition a-brewing here at the Urban Craft Center.

It’s happened to all of us. We see our friends breaking out their most impressive projects and we feel the need to show off our own skills. Occasionally bragging will ensure, and sometimes a dare or two will slip into an otherwise civil conversation. Last night when Amy brought out her new quilt project, she discovered Rhea also had a quilt project in the works. Two crafters, two projects, both at the same stage of completion. What began with a few harmless jokes ended in a challenge; a race to see who would finish their quilt first.

The odds are difficult to judge. While Rhea’s quilt is certainly bigger, Amy is trying a new sort of binding on this quilt and may run into a few problems while mastering the new technique. With the outcome so uncertain, excitement is definitely in the air at the UCC.

Prepare for the throngs of seamstresses ready to take LA by storm! Between Christine Haynes’ Intro to Sewing classes and Shannon Richards’ Pleated Clutch and Cosmetic Bag classes, dozens of crafters are now roaming the streets with handmade accessories and pillows for their homes!

On the second Thursday of every month the UCC hosts the American Sewing Guild, a meeting of the creative minds of several seamstresses in the Los Angeles area. At this month’s meeting on August 12th, we’re lucky enough to have Stefanie Girard, a local author/blogger and crafter extraordinaire come and be our special guest speaker. Armed with her die cutter and a few recycled wool sweaters, Stefanie is prepared to demo some of the techniques from her book Sweater Surgery that have made her such a dynamic part of the LA crafting community.

Kids Craft Camp came to a close a couple of weeks ago but we can’t stop talking about how much fun we had with our 13 campers every day. All of these exceptionally talented young ladies, ages 8-12, learned new skills and took their projects far beyond what we anticipated. Workshops in sewing, embroidery, zines and comics, mixed media art journaling and jewelry making kept everyone busy no matter what their skill levels were. We’ve had lots of requests for another session in August (which is just a bit too soon for us to plan), but don’t fret, we are already planning for a Winter Break craft camp with more information to come!

Congratulations ladies on all of your super crafty achievements!!

Last night we held our FIRST EVER sock monkey class at the Urban Craft Center! Each participant brought with them a pair of socks that were transformed into these kitschy little creatures. The studio space was full of creative energy and conversation as we worked into the evening. Everyone in the class went home with a new friend and the know-how to create their own sock monkey in the future! Be sure to join in on our next sock monkey making madness on August 25th from 5-9 pm!