Crafting can change lives

On the morning of Friday March 13th, Red Nose Day, Jane Toft and I received an email from Kerry Lawrence at Immediate Media, the company who owns Mollie Makes, telling us how much had been raised from the sale of The Big Comic Relief Crafternoon magazine, the Mollie Makes special edition we made. I nearly fell off my chair when I read it. 

Dave the guinea pig wearing the stegasaurus g-pig outfit that Jodie designed

The total was just short of £60,000 including the money raised from the crafternoons that had been held around the country. Money is still coming in from the sale of felt guinea pigs, tiny mice with frocks on, Spring posy brooches, felt chicks with jaunty Riverdance moves, floral moustache-making workshops and Rebecca Cobb's Ron the guinea pig illustrations.

This is enough to buy 23,600 malaria nets and is certainly enough to change many many people's lives for the better in both the UK and Africa. 

I confess that when I thought of making a craft magazine to raise money for Comic Relief I hoped we might raise around £20,000- an amount could make a real difference. To triple that seems unreal.

This magazine would not have existed without the astonishing skill, talent, patience and kindness of Jane, Kerry, Monica, Tania, Jodie, Florence, Jamie, Jenny, Lucy, Gretel, Marna, Tif, Lauren, Twinkie, Clare, Rachel, Lynda, Laura, Messyla, Pygmy Cloud, Moose, Zoe, Haafner and Manda.

It would have remained on the shelves and wouldn't have made a penny without the thousands of excellent crafters who bought the magazine. 

The urge to make stuff can achieve truly great things. 

Thankyou so so much. 

Here's a video showing the kinds of projects and people you have helped (it has David Tennant in it).