Stars and Buttons Go Screen Printing

The Boy in action

Ever since Stars and Buttons started, I've wanted to create unique and special designs that make my stuff stand out. Drawing is not my strong point but luckily my other half trained as an Animator and spent some time working as a Storyboard Artist. He's got a great quirky style and is always doodling so I've been trying to get him involved and turn his promises of help into some actual final designs that I can use.

The Boy's dog design

Finding the time with busy day jobs has been a challenge, so I decided to enrol us both in a screen printing course to inspire us. Last week, we both fought hard to leave our office jobs a bit early to race over to Islington and spend the evening at the wonderful Make Lounge. 

This is my third craft course at The Make Lounge and I can't recommend it enough. The classes are always friendly and well organised. After only a few hours (and a few glasses of wine) you leave with not only some completed projects but a life skill that you get to keep forever.

My fruit tea towels

I kept my designs super simple and tried to focus on learning all about the paper stencil technique. The teacher Helen Rawlinson, who is an acclaimed lighting and textile designer, was a brilliant teacher. She shared lots of top tips and kept us focused throughout the session. It was great fun and soon memories of messy afternoons screen printing at school came flooding back. I forgot how satisfying squeegees can be! I printed some fruit shapes on tea towels and created a couple of special Stars and Buttons tote bags to use at my sewing workshops this summer. (Pictures to follow once I've added some finishing touches.)


The Boy created some much better designs, including a dog and wiggly worm and flower combo, which he printed on a couple of tea towels along with some T-shirts that came out really well. (He's a perfectionist so insists these are not the 'final' designs!)

The Boy's worm & flower (and yes we're trying not to mention that it looks a bit phallic!)

I think it's safe to say we both now have the screen printing bug and are trying to find a space we can hire for short printing sessions in London.


Next stop is our own designed, printed and hand made products. Exciting times!



Visit The Make Lounge website for more information about their classes.

Find out more about Helen Rawlinson by checking out her blog.

Stepping out for supplies...

After a scramble last week to get enough stock ready to launch my Etsy shop, I've been out buying up more fabric. Luckily, I live in an area of London with lots of great independent fabric shops and new places seem to be opening all the time as the craft movement gains momentum.

Soya Teacup candles (Photo from themakelounge.com)

Firstly, I want to tell you about the marvelous Make Lounge and I'll fill you in on some of the other great stores over the next few weeks. I want to start with The Make Lounge as, in a way, it's been one of the catalysts for me setting up Stars and Buttons. They run contemporary craft workshops and the first one I did was the soya teacup candle making course. It was only one evening but I rediscovered the joy of making something physical (rather than the virtual online creations of my day job). And the best bit...there was wine and snacks! My kinda place. The experience totally inspired me to get back into making things, something I hadn't done regularly since school. I started sewing again, got a machine, did another course at The Make Lounge to brush up on my sewing skills and I've been sewing ever since.

Cake Pops (Photo from themakelounge.com)

 Anyway enough about me - The Make Lounge is in Islington, North London and runs contemporary craft workshops in everything from knitting, sewing and screen printing to making soap, lampshades and the newly added Cake Pops (which looks ace!). And the shop is amazing; full of fabulous fabrics, brilliant books and all manner of crafty bits and bobs. Somehow I always end up spending about three times more than I intend to! I don't know why I bother pretending I have a budget because I can't help buying up the super cute Michael Miller fabrics as they are perfect for the baby gifts I make. I also bought lots of lovely antique style purse frames for all the birthday presents I'm planning to make this month too.

Michael Miller Fabric I use for my bibs.

And one last thing, The Make Lounge also does bespoke parties for kids and adults and even hen parties - which I think is a great idea if you're trying to organise something fun and different that doesn't involve pink L-plates!

Find out more about The Make Lounge workshops on their website.

Read about Michael Miller fabrics on the Make It Fun blog.