A gorgeous new craft workshop space called Homemade London has just opened in Portman Village. Last night I popped along and learned how to make a fully lined designer tote bag, made new friends, and did a vanishing trick with a piece of gooey chocolate cake.

Everyone was having so much fun that friendly passers by kept popping in to see what we were up to, admire our bags and find out how they could sign up for the next class!

The class includes tuition, fabric (vintage and designer – my bag above is made from a Marimekko print) and, bliss, a light supper, which is very welcome when you’ve just dashed from work to a class and won’t get home till late.

Homemade London has plenty of sewing machines and space for creating. You can learn how to sew bags and lingerie, make jewellery or sniff out your perfect perfume.

As well as classes, Homemade London also offer a sewing café – you can rent a sewing machine or overlocker from £10 an hour during the day or evening and work on your own projects. And if that wasn’t enough, it’s worth a visit just to see the astonishing sewing machine wallpaper!

Even the location is perfect, if you’ve been shopping on Oxford Street all day and found nothing but inspiration, you can pop round the corner and whip up your perfect accessory!

Classes from £99, Sewing Cafe from £10.
www.homemadelondon.com

On Tuesday night, I popped along to a festival event – Flaming Nora’s corsage making class in the Earl Ferrers pub. The class was a roaring success – more and more people arrived and soon the entire pub was full of over-excited sewers rummaging in boxes of fabric and producing amazing floral creations!

Nora is running a second fun workshop for the festival week – making scary sock monsters, this one is for kids over the age of 5.

The Streatham festival runs to the 11th July and there are talks, walks, quizzes, photography and more. (We think Shakespeare in the Rookery looks brilliant!)

Streatham Festival 3 – 11 July 2010. www.streathamfestival.com