A few weeks ago, my younger sister came to visit for her 21st birthday. Truthfully, I wasn’t sure what to do with her since I was broke and she wasn’t turning 21 until Monday. I remembered that Etsy’s Church of Craft would be meeting on Saturday for some arts and crafts fun. Eureka! I mean, what better way for a newly privileged drinker to spend a Saturday?

In case you didn’t know, (or you haven’t been reading the site!), Etsy is an online community where “do-it-yourselfers” can sell handmade goods from their own online store. Once a month, they open up their labs over in downtown Brooklyn and let the public play and every Monday from 6-8 is Craft Night.

Upon entering the Etsy Labs, we were warmly greeted by a roomful of crafters. The space is filled top to bottom with any cut-and-pasters dream come true. There were bins stacked floor to ceiling with your heart’s content of fabric, yarn, sewing machines, paints, scissors, markers, water colors and hot glue guns. After confirming a few more times that everything was in fact F-R-E-E, my sister and I dug in.

I looked for inspiration in the many do-it-yourself books that were sprawled around. I dug through the impressive fabric collection and came out with some nice pieces. While we worked the regulars chatted about all things craft related: different ideas for future projects and difficulties they were currently working on. Advice was shared freely and I even got a tutorial on how to work a glue gun!

In the end, we both left happy-my sister with a construction paper, glitter and ribbon decorated dream catcher and myself with a fabric covered wooden journal. Next month, I plan on rolling up with my own fabric and getting a few of Etsy-ers to help me make some new street beating gear. Wanna come with?

Esty Labs (website)
325 Gold St., 6th floor
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Tel: 718.855.7955
Get There: A/C/F to Jay St. ; B/M/Q/R to Dekalb St.