Celebrating Hillarys Jewel Collection with a crafternoon

I was invited to a crafternoon by Hillary's to discover their new sumptuous range, Jewel: The Edit. It was an afternoon of craft in Leeds. I was really looking forward to spending the afternoon creating. It's incredibly rare that I spend time alone making something and it was especially nice to know that I would be able to devote all my time to it.


I ended up taking my daughter with me. We had a wonderful day of craft, Yarndale in the morning and crafting in Leeds in the afternoon. It was fantastic to spend time with her. She is an absolute pleasure at the moment and adores making things, so it was a perfect way to while away a few hours. Our first challenge was to make a jewellery box. We were given all the elements we would need but could choose our own fabrics and decorate it however we wanted to. Jana from The Crafty Hen was wonderful and on hand to help us whenever we struggled!


Here is my finished jewellery box. It was so simple to make but looks really effective and is a great way to store my jewellery collection.


 My daughter spent a huge amount of time making this bird. It ended up with a beak and a tail and it was the judge of our half time running races outside! The amount of concentration and effort she put into this was wonderful. She was perfectly behaved that day and I am incredibly proud to be her mum!


These were the examples of what we could make. They are all so stunning and such lovely ideas.
I had never made Suffolk puffs before and was surprised at how simple they are. I also really enjoyed using a glue gun as I hadn't used one since I was at primary school. For some reason we had one outside our classroom and used to give each other glue gun blisters regularly. Clearly this was before the days of health and safety!


I was genuinely impressed with my efforts. I made a hairband for my daughter and a hairclip for myself. My daughter has been wearing hers to school each day, which is amazing because she usually refuses to wear anything in her hair.


The Hillarys Jewel Collection is gorgeous and I really love the swatches. They are very sumptuous fabrics and would look wonderful in any home. You can read about the other crafternoons here.

My only disappointment from the day was the lack of food and drink. The email said there would be food, so I didn't eat beforehand. I was ravenous by the time it ended at 4pm. Thank goodness for M&S in Leeds station!

Disclosure: I attended this event for the purpose of this post. All opinion is my own and is honest and fair.