Jessie Loves: My Rules For Starting A Craft Club

Doing my favorite thing (crafting) with some of my favorite people, and how you can too. Plus five things I'm loving this week.

I love to make things (I’m the one at the cocktail party knitting a baby sweater while I chitchat). Two years ago, my friend Erin Pollard and I decided to start a craft club with some of our most crafty friends. We meet each month, creating a habit of making things together.

From our first meeting in my kitchen.

We always leave feeling energized, inspired, and closely connected. I’ve realized how important being social is for my mental health and how much I enjoy socializing in settings that don’t revolve around alcohol. (Tennis fits this mold also). We all agree, it’s our favorite way to see friends. Craft club makes me happy without fail, and though there are probably a million ways to do it, I wrote a list of a few things that have made ours successful.

(Ironically, in the midst of writing this very letter, I got a message from a reader asking if I’d share a tutorial for starting a craft club. What perfect timing! If there’s anything you’d like to see me write about in the future, please send me a comment below…)

1. Curate the group

Three things that helped me:

• Keep the group size manageable. It’s incredibly hard to find dates that work for everyone. If the group is too big, it becomes unwieldy and eventually it fades away.

• Ask people you don’t get to see as often as you would like. Mine’s mostly made up of friends who aren’t part of other groups I’m in.

• Look for friends who LOVE crafting and being creative. I wanted to select friends I knew would want to come and could host a session or two, and would be open to teaching a craft.

2. Set a clear framework

Our framework is this: each month one member of the group hosts the club. They come up with the craft, provide the supplies (and refreshments) and teach the craft to the group. The only thing you need to bring to craft club is yourself. When you are host, you can invite other people to join for that event. It’s fun having fresh faces.

3. Just get started.

I started the club with a craft I’d never done before prepping for the meeting. We painted candles. Everyone loved it. It was actually such a simple project. I had some printouts of motifs to get everyone inspired (always a good idea to provide tears or books to get people inspired no matter the craft). The supplies cost next to nothing. It was a big hit. Don’t let fear of not having the perfect craft or not being an expert hold you back.

4. Look for a wide range of crafts

We’ve had so many amazing projects. The most special ones have been very personal to members of the group. One of my favorites was when my friend Tara, who grew up in Hawaii, taught us how to make leis. She brought photos of her ancestors and pictures of her learning the hula as a little girl. She had all kinds of beautiful leaves and flowers for us to work with. I loved especially learning about my dear friend’s history and about a craft that is so personal to her.

Erin taught us all to weave baskets. She mentioned in Vogue that our craft club actually inspired her to start her hugely successful company Underwater Weaving! Something as simple as a craft club can lead to big things! Her craft club meeting was also one of the most visually inspiring. She is such an incredible artist and art director. The flowers by Flower Psycho blew me away.

Flower Psycho arrangement.

Another time we learned natural dyeing from Lucy. She had a beautiful book of all the natural dyes and colors she’s experimented with over the years. We each got to make a scarf to bring home.

5. When in doubt, hire an expert.

You don’t actually have to know everything about the craft you are going to make. One way to do it is to hire someone to come teach the class, as my friend Gisela Guieros did (I love her Substack “Take The Step” and wish I could read Portuguese to enjoy her other newsletter, “Gisela’s Hottest Takes”). Gisela invited

Sara Woster

, who owns The Painting School in Brooklyn — she just started her own Substack, too! Sara taught us all to paint from still life. It was one of the most relaxing meetings we’ve had.

6. Make a date

This is my most important tip: SCHEDULE THE NEXT MEETING BEFORE YOU LEAVE THE CRAFT CLUB. It’s the best time to nail down a date while you have everyone there. It saves ten million texts going back and forth. Make sure you leave craft club with a host and date confirmed for the next meeting.

My group kept up our schedule very regularly for the last two years, taking breaks over the summer. But we’ve sort of fallen out of the habit this past fall. Several of us have kids applying to college and it just felt overwhelming. I want to get back to it regularly! I just hosted for Valentine’s Day with a craft I sort of pulled out of my ass: pressed metal art.

I’m dreaming up a few crafts for the next time I host. Which one would you pick?

The list goes on and on. I’d also love to host a crochet night. I would like to learn how to do this better… Maybe we could make some granny squares to be made into a blanket to donate somewhere.

Once again, I use my Instagram saved folders for ideas. Any time I see a craft I love, I save it in my folder. It’s an endless source of ideas.

I hope you start a craft club too!! Please let me know if you do!

5 things I loved this week:

1. Beata Heuman just launched a paint line called “The Dependables.” It has the best colors. I ordered a paint chart immediately.

2. My friend Erin (and craft club co-founder) from Underwater Weaving published the first issue of her gorgeous magazine which includes an interview with me about my history with crafting. Such an inspiring magazine!

3. Been loving our Pauline blouse. People seem to be going crazy for it. So beautiful and timeless and special.

4. I’m living in our Mary Jane sneaker — the Cooper! Love a shoe I can wear all year round and is comfy when I travel.

5. I’m so inspired by this ruffled curtain by Tori Murphy. I love the idea of using textiles to cover the front door and elegantly keep out drafts. So gorgeous. I dream of having this at my house one day.

And one thing I hate:

I hate hosting because my family is so loud and my dogs are totally insane and bark all the time. And also I stress about what food to serve. Usually I just order catering from Poppy’s. For Galentine’s, I hosted at my office and ordered heart pizzas. I love a good theme.