Renegade Craft Fair

On Sunday, Dan and I went to the Renegade Craft Fair in San Francisco. This fair was started by a woman in Chicago and this was the first time they held a fair in San Francisco. Most (maybe all) of the vendors are craftspeople who sell their stuff on Etsy. The woman who started the group sponsors these fairs and has recently opened a shop in Chicago. There were a couple hundred vendors there and a lot of really nice crafts. Compared to other craft shows, this one was young people, and very creative ideas, most of which were definitely hand crafted, smaller items. So the booths were small and most people had relatively few different items for sale. I liked this one booth - the woman was selling vintage-style aprons, and she was standing in the booth giving out cookies from a cookie sheet! There were a lot of tote bags, made from every possible material, from fabric to vinyl and leather, to plastic, including old plastic grocery bags cut and sewn together in layers! There was quite a bit of jewelry, too, and I liked some of this jewelry made from vintage buttons and buckles - perhaps ideas for my extensive button stash! There were lots of really nice letterpress cards and stationery, beautiful yarn and knitted items - gorgeous hand-dyed yarns that were hard to resist. As you'd expect, there was also an emphasis on recycled materials and re-using vintage fabrics and items - like the typewriter-key jewelry. I always think of Mom when I see that, because she loved typing! There were a few quilters, mostly baby quilts. One of the quilters was a young woman whose quilts were mostly black and used fabrics printed with skulls and beer motifs - her business is called "Don't Quilt the Day Job". There were also a couple traditional sewing companies there, Janome was promoting their sewing machines, and Burda was publicizing their online site where you can download patterns for free.

Overall, it was a fun and inspiring show!