Mollie Makes is a lifestyle magazine for those who live creatively. They bring you the latest crafting trends in easy-to-follow how-tos, encouraging you to adapt and share your own crafty spin on things. They celebrate creative industries and give up-and-coming designers their first platform. They discuss hot topics in the design world with lots of insider tips. And above all, Mollie Makes aims to inspire you to live your best, artful life.

The latest issue puts the focus on our own creator, maker & designer, Tasha Chapman. The magazine is on sale today May 26 2016, in the UK.

Creative endeavours are more than a day job for the Mollie Makes team. From choosing gorgeous indie cushions and prints for interiors pages to learning how to take beautiful photos for the website and Instagram feeds; customising their clothes to making gifts for friends, MM is crafting along with us. They love trying new things and being inspired by what you’re creating, wearing and blogging about too.
The Mollie Makes community is supportive, lively and full of crafty knowledge and like-minded people. 

Readers can subscribe here: http://www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/stitch-craft/mollie-makes-magazine-subscription/
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Download the iPad version here: http://goo.gl/qzprk
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And keep up-to-date with the blog here: www.molliemakes.com

We love to see our customers using our bags and gear around the world. Here are a few shots we rounded up from the last few months on Instagram.

Want to be included in the next round up?
​Send your photos in or tag them @chapmanatsea #chapmanatsea. 

Northcore™ is a British based European surf & board riding company that's all about innovation and design. They offer fresh, practical, quality products designed to meet a need for surfers and adventure sports. Northcore also strives to maintain a socially responsible company ethos, with the long term support of environmental and recycling initiatives central to its outlook.

Of course it's always a good time working with like-minded people and companies so not only were we flattered by the invite but we were more than happy to jump on board. For The Northcore Collective Chapman at Sea has created two board bags. They're modeled after our best selling bag, The Sailor, but in a special selection of colors and with a few details exclusive to this collaboration. There's also a bit of hand drawn artwork on each bag.

Like every Chapman at Sea board bag, these are designed to last a long time. They're available through Northcore only in both classic shortboard and retro shapes and they should be out for the 2015 holiday season. Visit Northcore for more info and while you're there check out all of their beautiful photos and films as well.

A new surfboard bag design in clean black and white. This bag falls somewhere in between The Lover and El Shorty Señor. It's done in our retro shape to fit just about any short board. Like the Lover it's made entirely of fabric, so there's no need to feel bad about using leather.  Like The Shorty Señor it's monochromatic and has a cozy striped blanket section in between black and natural washed cotton canvas.

The plan was to make a super simple modern bag but then at the last minute Tasha decided to draw anchors all over it. So this bag has a little of the Scribbs in it as well with hand drawn artwork, all over the top. It makes it a bit more interesting and gives The Mate it's name. This bag is one of a kind and will fit any board up to 6'2". 

A few photos, taken over the summer, that we felt like sharing.

We're happy to announce that we've been selected out of over 5,000 applicants to travel to Etsy headquarters in Brooklyn and join in on the Etsy Open Call!

Etsy launched Etsy Wholesale Open Call to help Etsy Wholesale designers land retail spots at big-name stores. Through this program, we will have the chance to showcase and sell our products at five retailers: Nordstrom, Lou & Grey, Clementine, the Walker Art Center's Walker Shop and The Land of Nod.  It's such a cool opportunity and we can't wait to meet all the retailers and other shop owners in person.

Read more about the Open Call here.  Also check out Refinery29's announcement of the event and see the other 30 shops we get to go with.

Recently we've been spending a lot of time in the wood shop. It was Joe's idea. He has something pretty sweet that he's going to be sharing soon, but for now we're going to share a little side project that came along by way of that other big secret project.

Joe knows a bit about building things. He comes from a family of contractors. They builds thing, big things, like houses. It's been a little while since he's really done much with that for fun though, so when he came up with the idea of making some wooden things it sounded like a great idea

Of course the first thing I thought was let's make some skateboards. And then we came across the perfect piece of walnut here and I thought, yes! I want to ride that.

So after a long weekend of carving & sanding, here is the finished, (and very first) Chapman at Sea longboard. It came out even better than I'd hoped. Just the plain piece of wood was gorgeous before I did anything to it, so I had a pretty good chance of it looking nice no matter what I did. That wood grain is beautiful and I added just our logo to the bottom, painted on by hand.

That worked out so well that I went back for more and came out with this shorter, fat board.  Never wanting to waste anything, it was made from the piece of walnut that was left after making the longboard.

This board 's shaped a little like a boat - flat on top with a "hull" shape in front and a flat tail. Shorter boards are more fun to me and I'm so stoked over this little guy. We've been spending a lot of time together. He doesn't really follow the rules - what's with those super wide downhill trucks? - but he's a good little guy.

There will most likely be more skateboards to come in the future. It's been good times getting into some woodworking. It's another side of our favorite pastimes - just hanging out & making things.

by Tasha Chapman

Last Sunday was a beautiful sunny day with smooth mini waves rolling in.  It was the perfect day to try something new that I'd been looking forward to trying for awhile - the Ho Stevie mouth mount.

It had been years since I used a GoPro to film my surfing. I had the mount on my board when the GoPro first showed up, but I pulled it off pretty quickly because I felt like it took the natural fun out of the experience.  I didn't like always worrying about it, turning it on and off, watching the waves knock it around, only to end up with some awkward videos of me just kind of standing there and wiggling around. It wasn't worth the bother.

I gave up on the board mount, but still liked the idea of catching some of my surfing on film. So I came across this month mount, really liked the idea of filming the actual experience instead of just myself, and went out to test it out. Here's how it went on my very first try...

So what do I think of the Ho Stevie mount mount? The quick answer - I like it!

It took a little getting used to.  At first I didn't know what to do with it. I wasn't wearing a wetsuit so there wasn't anyplace to use the clip it comes with. So how to hang on to it? Basically you just put it in your mouth. Comfort wise it's not too bad, and I should mention that I have the OLD original GoPro... The biggest and heaviest of them all, with a big underwater lense on it. So if you happen to actually have a modern GoPro I'd bet you hardly notice it at all.

My favorite thing about it? Being able to watch my ride as many times as I want! Filming from this angle means later when you get home you can relive all the fun of the day again, from the actual angle you experienced it in the first place. It's awesome! As a side note, it was also good for my surfing. I have the bad habit of looking at my feet but with this it made me want to keep my head up and watch the wave. Bonus!

When you come off a great ride and then get to relive it again afterwards, you'll be hooked. Ho Stevie lets you customize the colors too, ships super quickly, and the bolt they use is really high quality - better than GoPros. I'd very much recommend giving it a try like I did! I'm sure you'll find lots of uses for it too. I'm taking mine skating next.

by Tasha Chapman

I've never been 100% comfortable with using leather in my creations.  I do it because leather is such a durable material. Since I'm making bags that I want to be around for ages, it's the natural choice.  Still, I'm very focused on using it responsibly and making the most out of every bit.  I often think about the animal who provided the material and definitely respect its sacrifice.  This means that even my scraps are never thrown away.  I'm a little obsessive about it. Every bit gets used. Somehow, someway. No waste.

It was this feeling that made me want to create "The Lover."  It's a new surf bag made without any leather at all, only fabrics, and it got it's name because it was designed with the animal lover in mind.  It also earned that name because on the very first bag made (pictured here) an upside down heart appeared on the fabric during the dyeing process.

Meet the Lover...

This bag has several features that are different from the classic surfboard bags. It's made of 100% linen with an ombre fade that was created in house. No two Lovers are the same. 

It was important to me that this bag be just as durable as the leather-nosed variety. So The Lover is fully lined with plush black felt. It's basically the equivalent of wrapping your board in a soft quilt. The felt itself is eco-friendly, being made in part from recycled plastic bottles. Also unlike traditional wool felt, this felt handles water just fine and dries quickly.

Even through you'll never see the interior seams (because the lining hides them) I still used high quality french seams on the linen to give it extra durability. It has a large lower logo patch, a bottom rope drawstring and brass hardware.