How I made lifelong friends by forming a craft group
“I’ve been healed by the friendships I’ve formed and, of course, by the many crafts I’ve tried out”
Guest post by Mary Elizabeth Andriotis
In May of 2024, I started a craft group, mainly through Bumble BFF’s then-new group chat feature. I had recently gone through an abrupt breakup and I wanted to make new friends and try out new hobbies. For years, I had yearned to forge lasting friendships and meet like-minded people who were intentional about seeking community. Nothing seemed to stick but I wanted to keep trying. As someone who never really had a friend group or a long-term best friend, lasting platonic friendships had always been something I strived toward and hoped I would experience. I was determined to make that happen for myself by using the same determination I had previously mostly applied to work and/or school.
The craft group started when I was on the app Bumble BFF (now just known as BFF), in an attempt to make new friends. I noticed that Bumble had recently introduced a group chat feature on the app, and I would invite anyone I matched with to join the group chat if they were interested in meeting up and crafting. Soon enough, I had to create numerous group chats, as there is a limit to the amount of people per group chat on BFF, so I created a Discord for everyone to communicate in one place. I also invited a few friends I already knew to join, as well as people I met at local craft classes.
So, how does the craft group work? Every month or so, we each bring a craft of our choosing (which is what I call BYOC: bring your own craft) and yap and craft for hours on end until closing time at a local Panera Bread. Crafts that people partake in include junk journaling, embroidery, knitting, crocheting, coloring, drawing, painting, etc. Basically, anything goes.
Throughout the two years since the first craft group meet up, I’ve met fellow crafters along the way at various local craft classes and subsequently invited them to join the craft group Discord in hopes that they would stop by an upcoming meet up. (Reader, it worked!) Today, we have nearly 100 members in our Discord server. (Fortunately for Panera Bread, we do not have this many people at our meet ups 😅) I’ve formed solid friendships with a number of the girls in the craft group and we still craft together on a regular basis, if not at the craft group meet ups then at craft classes, as well as hanging out at antique and thrift stores, the movies, museums, flea markets, and everything in between.
Personally, I wasn’t very crafty in the early stages of our meet ups, so I started off coloring, which is a pretty decent meditative hobby. Soon after, one of my now closest friends got me into junk journaling, and she has subsequently convinced numerous other girls in the craft group to do the same. The night that that friend and I met, I was crying about my recent dating struggles, and I felt lost and hopeless. Since then, I’ve been healed by the friendships I’ve formed and, of course, by the many crafts I’ve tried out.
As we go through adulthood, it becomes harder and harder to consistently find time to be around people with similar hobbies and to get to know those people. Through this craft group, I’ve learned the importance of putting yourself out there, saying yes to hanging out with new people and trying new things, and believing that what you’ve been searching for will find you. And, unsurprisingly, scheduling time for socializing and simply creating art will do wonders for you and your soul, inside and out.
This is all to say, I have been pleasantly surprised at how simple yet transformative it can be to form new friendships in adulthood. A number of us craft group members have visited each other’s homes for Halloween parties, craft nights, New Year’s Eve celebrations; we’ve been there for each other through breakups, parents’ divorces, less-than-pleasant dating app experiences, helping out before a big move; and I’d like to think that we’ll continue to do the same in bigger moments down the line, like housewarming parties, wedding festivities, baby showers, and whatever else our lives may bring.
Mary Elizabeth Andriotis is a freelance writer and editor with nearly a decade of experience. She has written for various publications, including Vogue, Galerie, House Beautiful, Artnet, Town & Country, Elle Decor, Architectural Digest, Teen Vogue, etc. Mary writes about real estate, historic homes, interior design, art, architecture, travel, pop culture, etc.
