Print & Make workshop with Nikki McWilliams at West Elm

Earlier this month I bought myself a ticket to the Print & Make workshop with Nikki McWilliams at West Elm. I’m sure you’ve heard of Nikki McWilliams but just in case you haven’t, she is a cool designer who creates all things biscuit-y. I first heard about her when I saw her Tunnocks’ inspired cushions.

The workshop was to learn how to craft your own Biscuit Clutch bag which sounded intriguing. I waited for my husband to come home from work before handing over the kids and taking the  tube into the West End. I love a trip into town and arrived a little early for a smooch around Flying Tiger and Foyles where I bought myself a copy of Poppy Chancellor’s Cut It Out (to be reviewed here soon!).

I arrived at West Elm (check out their fun workshops here) and was greeted by Nikki who was just as lovely as I thought she would be. Two tables were laid out with the most amazing iced biscuits from Biscuiteers for us.

The tables were also laid with colourful foam sheets and some exciting looking supplies. When everyone had arrived Nikki explained what we were making.

The idea was to make our own biscuit-inspired clutch bag. We could get creative and design our own templates, then use simple printing techniques to make your own cloth before learning how to stitch and finish the bag.

First of all I designed the front of my clutch. I wanted to print the name of my daughter alongside her favourite iced gems. Nikki helped me with the iced gem, based on her enamel pin design.

I transferred my paper templates to foam and glued them to cardboard so I would have something to hold on to when I printed with them.

When I had all my pieces ready I laid them all out. I had a quick practice to make sure I knew what I was doing.

I taped my fabric to the table and started to print. I covered each piece with a generous amount of paint then pressed it down on to the fabric.

I used some pretty pastel shades for my iced gems and a light blue for my daughters’ name, her favourite colour.

The paint dried pretty quickly and I was able to stiffen the pouch with a layer of card before hand stitching the hems and finishing off my clutch. You can see everyone made something completely different. The time passed really quickly and I had a lovely evening trying something new. Luckily my daughter loves her new bag too!

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