Bar Crafts At Allegheny Wine Mixer

Have you ever thought to yourself, “I really wish there was a place where I could combine my love for fine wines with my passion for arts and crafts?”

First of all, YAY THERE ARE TWO OF US! And second of all, on the first Sunday of every month, Allegheny Wine Mixer has you covered!

Bar Crafts began a Superbowl Sunday past, when staff members, acknowledging they didn’t have a TV, realized they didn’t really care about either of the teams playing in the game anyway. What would other like-minded individuals want to do at the bar instead? “Make really cool arts and crafts using re-purposed materials” was the obvious answer, so they partnered with the fabulous folks of the Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse, and Bar Crafts was born.

It was such a hit that it now occurs on the first Sunday of each month from 6-9pm.

It’s easy to participate in Bar Crafts: show up with $5.00 cash, choose the art project that speaks the most to your soul, exchange the $5.00 for one of these paper bags, then go to your seat, order a round, and get crafting!

On our latest visit, Michael chose the ‘Special Place Map’ for his craft of the night. His bag included some old maps, a placard upon which to paste them, some scissors and glue.

I, on the other hand, chose what ultimately turned out to be the most difficult and time-consuming of the projects, “Funky Hanging Prettiness.” I got a bunch of fabric scraps (one of my favorite things from childhood, lucky me), thread, and scissors.

It was time to get to work.

Thankfully, in addition to the great wine and snacks, we had awesome music to keep us motivated. We went to Bar Crafts on Easter, or as AWM referred to it, ‘Superstar Sunday’! Yes, that’s right, we listened to several different versions of Jesus Christ Superstar and even got to watch the movie!!

First step for Michael’s project: choose the map pieces he wanted to use. As you can see, he went Full Nerd with this one, selecting two cities where Google has major hubs.

My first step: chop up all the fabric into tiny, perfect squares. This was the part where I told myself, ‘see, you didn’t choose a ridiculously complicated project after all!’

After selecting his map pieces, Michael set to work pasting them onto the placard in the perfect way.

And then he let the glue dry, and ta-da, a perfect map picture!

And then there was my project. I found it easiest to cut all the pieces first, and then begin the handstitching. But cutting was definitely the easiest part…

Pro tip: when making Funky Hanging Prettiness, please be careful not to let any of the squares tangle up with their friends. Otherwise, you will be the girl on the floor of the bar trying to sort out an art project.

But at last (maybe 2 hours after Michael finished his project and probably right up until the point when the Center for Creative Reuse girls were wondering if I would ever give back their scissors), it was complete!! I haven’t yet found a place to hang it, but I am really excited to do so!

Allegheny Wine Mixer is located at 5326 Butler St, Pittsburgh, PA 15201. Visit between 6pm-9pm on the first Sunday of every month for Bar Crafts!