Bazaar Bizarre & Swap-O-Rama

FELT CLUB and SWAP-​O-​RAMA at the Shrine Sunday November 16^th.
Not sure where to put this review but here seems fine. Went to the Felt Club and Swap-​o-​rama event this last Sunday. Went there for the Swap and the Felt Club craft fair was just icing on the cake I thought.
Swap o Rama is GREAT /​Fun /​and inspirational. I’m not so very crafty /​can’t sew you still get into it.
What you do is bring a bag of clothes (they should be in good condition and not something you’d throw away —- BUT if there is torn clothing that has cool fabric, buttons, lace –bring it. Accessories too) The idea is everyone brings in clothes to trade. And you can do that. BUT the REAL deal is that they have stations set up to take clothing and alter it and turn it into something new /​different. You can do it yourself with some help /​or there are a (very few) people who will actually do it FOR you. They also have things to do to your items /​to embellish —- like silkscreen (on shirts /​jeans and whatever), and felting (don’t know how to describe but It decorative)
Also they had stations to take fabric from clothes cut it up and make a Christmas stocking and purses
I took a shirt and a skirt, cut em up and rearrange them into a VERY cute new peasant top. (I didn’t do it — a VERY nice and patient volunteer clothing designer there did it for me with my input) —then I got a silkscreen of owls on it. CUTE
SO you’ve got to plan a strategy to get the most out of the even.
First — get there early. Also bring in some clothes that are NOT to SWAP but your own clothing to embellish yourself /​for stuff that’s quicker and easy. That way you have some T-​shirts or Jeans you KNOW fit (Can’t really try on stuff there easily) and you can get cool silkscreens and stuff on them. There are not enough clothes yet early to pick from and at the same time it’s not busy at any of the stations so while people are looking for clothes and there are no long lines so you can swoop in and get some stuff done right away.
After that you can start sorting through clothes — by that time there are more there. You will have a much better selection and and you may find great stuff AS-​IS /​or pick some stuff for more projects there.
It gets really busy and crowded later so plan to do some stuff quick and early to get the most out of it. Bring a BIG bag to use to hold your stuff /​projects /​and new old clothes! Make it easier on yourself.
I got there way early but it was good because by the time they opened the doors the line was very long. It seems most of the people went into felt club at opening so the swap was slow early. Would have been PERFECT to get stuff done quick — like silkscreens.
The felt club was the «event» that day /​and the swap-​o-​rama was upstairs. I knew the swap would cost $ 5 with clothes to swap and $ 10 without to get in.
The felt club did NOT make it clear the door was for felt club, there was no entrance fee and they were «accepting donations”— I THOUGHT I was paying for Swap-​O-​Rama. Then they send you upstairs and there is a table set up for swap-​o-​rama entrance and you have to pay for that THERE. SO FELT club RIPPED ME OFF — that sucked. It was not at all cool. Was not there for it — was there for the swap.
And about felt club … Had a chance to walk through it after I was done with the swap.
Eh.
SO there was stuff you won’t really find at other events and fairs /​that’s true. But it seemed like vendor after vendor had the SAME STUFF. Lots of Baby clothes and stuff. Lots of little stuffed toys — Not a great variety. It could have been a lot better and more interesting if it was set up better. It would have probably been better for the vendors too as they would have sold more if they didn’t have 20 other booths selling the same stuff. Also a lot of the stuff was overpriced for what it was.
So SWAP-​O-​RAMA: good /​fun, be prepared. TOTALLY worth it.
It’s also great for kids /​people of ALL sizes and even guys. Yes guys.
Felt Club or Other Event with it — make sure you don’t get ripped off.

A friend of mine, who has somehow made a living out of creating felt-​crafted human organs told told me to go. «You, of all people, will love it.» Never being sure what that means, as that sort of thing gets told to me frequently, I went anyway.
Oh joy and rapture, I wanted to spend all my money and more on such greatness as Cthulhu christmas ornaments, purses made out of vintage pulp fiction hardcovers (Hell Cats Of The Gutters!), bowls made from old vinyl records, barrettes with squirrels and mushrooms!
A great place to shop for gifts.
FYI — not all Bazaar Bizarres are created equal. As there wasn’t one in LA this past year we headed up to the one in San Francisco. A few cool things but not nearly as high on the scale of excellent as LA.

felt club is free and bazaar bizarre is $ 2.
the bazaar was HUGE! we arrived 2 hours before closing and missed out on all the fun games, food and crafts but there was still alot to see, do and buy!
it was very fun and i loved looking at all the one of a kind items and neat things people sell… can’t wait till the next one!

Never much been a lover of craft fairs, until now. This is how to do it. THIS is fun, kitchy, cool and trendy all wrapped up into one. This is young and vibrant not old and… stained wood name carvings and needlepoint Jesus sayings.
Sorry Mom, Sorry God.
Kiki and I ended up here by first deciding to go to the Swap-​O-​Rama. This was an event held upstairs at the Shrine where you bring a bag of old clothes, clothes you’ve never worn, and any scraps of material. Then you go through other people’s cast-​offs, pick some out and try to come up with ways to fancy it up for yourself. They had seamstresses galore here to help, embroiderers and one little lone guy doing screen printing. It looked like everyone was having a ball sifting through clothing, and patching things together to make something unique. Since it takes awhile to sew, screen print or embroider, the wait for these stations could take awhile, which is why Kiki and I only got some items screen-​printed and one item each embroidered.
I think I had my hopes up for something a little bit more for the swap, but I was quickly overwhelmed with glee when we went downstairs to the Bazaar Bizarre. There was an insane number of booths where funky crafters displayed their inexpensive wares. They had everything from clothing, to jewlery, to wall art. When was the last time you went to a craft fair that had Ghetto Sock Monkeys, HellaGood Bath products, This is not your Grandma’s Quilt, and a booth called Cunt Factory with T’s that celebrate the vulva?
Sorry Mom. Sorry God.
(Well, sorry Mom, anyway.)