In this story:
- Paint and sip with Paintvine at the Counting House, Old Town
- Sculpt and sip — clay and cocktails in the same session
- Beginner’s embroidery with Sammy Bishop at Paraffle, St Margaret’s House
- Crochet for complete beginners — Edinburgh’s most-reviewed textile class
- Silver clay jewellery making with Anna Campbell, New Town
- Bookbinding with Will Phoenix — a half-day session near St Margaret’s House
- Upcycling and sustainable sewing with the Edinburgh Sewcial Club
- Glass painting — Edinburgh’s most affordable group craft class
- How to pick a craft class everyone in your group will enjoy
Someone in your group chat is always the one who ends up googling "fun things to do in Edinburgh that aren’t a pub." If that’s you, here’s the actual answer: a craft class — but the right one, because not every workshop works for four to six people with wildly different attention spans, budgets and crafting experience. There’s no shortage of craft classes Edinburgh has to offer, but very few articles actually help you pick between them for a group, rather than just listing options.
These eight all hold up well for a group, and between them they cover most of what a mixed bunch of friends might want from a day out. Some are chatty and drink-led, where you can talk over your shoulder the whole time. Others are quieter and more focused, the kind where conversation happens in bursts between concentrating on what’s in your hands. Knowing which is which before you book saves you from putting six people who want a laugh into a class that needs total silence — or the reverse.
Paint and sip with Paintvine at the Counting House, Old Town
This is the one to book if your group wants a proper night out that happens to involve a paintbrush. Paintvine run their Paint and Sip Class Edinburgh sessions out of the Counting House, a beautiful old building tucked into the heart of the Old Town, and the format is built for groups: everyone follows the same step-by-step painting, there’s a full bar on-site, and nobody’s expected to produce anything gallery-worthy.
You’ll work through a guided piece — pet portraits, abstract art, the odd cheeky Highland cow — while drinks circulate. It’s loud, it’s social, and it’s the kind of class where the bad paintings get just as many laughs as the good ones. One of our crafters, Jake Gilchrist, came along for Valentine’s and said:
Great way to spend Valentines! Everything was easy and fun, the teacher was very helpful and we had an amazing time.
Group size: flexible, from a small group up to large parties
Price: £32–£38 per person
Duration: around 2 hours
Atmosphere: social — chatty, drinks involved, side-by-side
Sculpt and sip — clay and cocktails in the same session
Same venue, same energy, different material. Paintvine also run a Sculpt and Sip Class Edinburgh at the Counting House, swapping the canvas for air-dry clay. You’ll grab a drink at the bar, then spend roughly 90 minutes shaping clay into whatever you fancy — bowls, candle holders, abstract little objects that look better after a glass of wine than they probably should.
No previous experience is needed, and the appeal here is exactly the same as paint and sip: low pressure, high chat. It’s a proper crowd-pleaser for a hen do, a birthday, or just a group who fancy something different from the usual options.
Group size: flexible, easily accommodates 4–6
Price: £32–£38 per person
Duration: around 90 minutes
Atmosphere: social — chatty, drinks involved, side-by-side
Beginner’s embroidery with Sammy Bishop at Paraffle, St Margaret’s House
If your group leans towards "let’s actually concentrate on something for a bit," this is it. Paraffle was founded by Sammy Bishop in 2016, while she was midway through a PhD in Edinburgh and looking for something to do with her hands that wasn’t reading journal articles. She’d been taught to sew by her mum as a child — apparently she told her parents at age seven that she was going to start a business called "Sammy’s Sewing" — and picked embroidery back up properly in her twenties. The name Paraffle is an old Scots word meaning both "embroidery" and "an ostentatious display," which feels about right.
Her Beginners’ Embroidery Workshop Edinburgh runs from her studio in St Margaret’s House and is built around total beginners: you’ll learn the basics of hand stitching and start your own piece, with Sammy on hand throughout. It’s quieter than the sip-and-craft classes — heads down, needles threaded, conversation in fits and starts rather than constant — which suits some groups far better than a loud paint party would.
Group size: 2–5 guests
Price: £45 per person
Duration: 3 hours
Atmosphere: focused — quieter, concentration-led
Crochet for complete beginners — Edinburgh’s most-reviewed textile class
With over a hundred reviews and a perfect score, this Beginner’s Guide to Crochet Edinburgh is the most trusted textile class on this list, and it’s a strong pick for a group where one or two people are nervous about being "bad at crafts." Crochet has a famously gentle learning curve once someone shows you the first few stitches properly, and this class is built entirely around getting beginners there.
It’s a focused class rather than a social one — you’ll be concentrating on tension and stitch count more than you will be chatting freely — but there’s something nice about a small group sitting together quietly making something with their hands. It’s the closest thing on this list to a proper wind-down.
Group size: 1–5 guests
Price: £29 per person
Duration: session-based, ask for exact timing when booking
Atmosphere: focused — quieter, concentration-led
Silver clay jewellery making with Anna Campbell, New Town
This is the splurge option on the list, and it earns the price tag. The Silver Clay Taster Jewellery Class Edinburgh runs from The Arienas Collective, a creative workshop hub set in a beautiful Georgian mews home in Edinburgh’s historic New Town, and you’ll be taught by Anna Campbell, a metal clay jewellery expert based in the city.
You’ll work with silver clay — recycled silver particles bound with an organic binder — moulding it into pendants or earrings before firing it with a butane torch and polishing the finished piece. It’s a proper "watch something transform in front of you" moment, and you’ll walk away with hallmark-quality silver jewellery rather than a craft-table approximation of it. It’s a focused class: the firing and polishing stages need real attention, so this suits a group who want a slower, more absorbing afternoon over a chatty one.
Group size: small groups, ask when booking
Price: £70 per person
Duration: around 3 hours
Atmosphere: focused — quieter, concentration-led
Bookbinding with Will Phoenix — a half-day session near St Margaret’s House
"I don’t call myself a binder," Will Phoenix says of himself. "I simply make books." He’s been doing it for over two decades, and his Beginners Introduction to Book Binding Class Edinburgh, run from his studio near St Margaret’s House, is one of the more unusual, satisfying options on this list — you’ll fold, stitch and bind your own pocketbook from scratch, choosing from leather, tartan or cotton covers, and leave with something that looks properly handmade.
It’s a longer session than most on this list, so it works best for a group who want to make a proper afternoon of it rather than squeeze a class in before dinner. Tea and shortbread are part of the deal, which tells you everything about the pace. Beginners and people with some experience are both well catered for, and kids over ten are welcome too if your group has a wider age range than usual.
Group size: up to 6 guests
Price: £65–£85 per person
Duration: roughly half a day
Atmosphere: focused — quieter, concentration-led
Upcycling and sustainable sewing with the Edinburgh Sewcial Club
A word of warning before this one: it’s brilliant, but it isn’t a true beginner class. The Edinburgh Sewcial Club’s Upcycling Course Edinburgh runs over four evenings and asks that you can already use a sewing machine — if nobody in your group has done so much as hemmed a pair of trousers, this isn’t the place to start (their beginner sewing course is, and it’s worth booking first).
If your group does have some sewing under its belt, though, this is a lovely one to do together. You’ll bring old clothes — charity shop finds, things at the back of the wardrobe — and learn pattern cutting techniques to resize, restyle or completely rebuild them, with one-to-one time from a dressmaker with over twenty years of sewing and pattern-cutting experience. One of our crafters, Catriona Crawford, said:
Enjoyed this course so much and came home with three items that had been languishing in the back of the wardrobe repurposed into wearable things. Great instruction and lovely atmosphere!
Four evenings together, working on individual projects with plenty of chat in between — it’s social in a slow-burn way rather than a one-off party.
Group size: up to 6 guests
Price: £110 per person (4 sessions)
Duration: 4 evenings, 2.5 hours each
Atmosphere: social, but skill-gated — confirm sewing experience first
Glass painting — Edinburgh’s most affordable group craft class
If budget is doing a lot of the deciding in your group chat, this is the answer. Run by That’s Pure Glass from The Raging Bull on Lothian Road, this Glass Painting Workshop Edinburgh is the cheapest class on the list by some distance, and it’s also one of the most flexible — there’s no minimum group size, so it works whether there are three of you or considerably more.
You’ll paint two glasses each using proper glass paints, with the option to bring your own fizz and nibbles along for the ride (it is, after all, in a pub). It’s relaxed, beginner-friendly and properly social — the kind of class where you’re half painting, half catching up, and the finished glasses double as a nice souvenir of the day.
Group size: 1–30 guests, no minimum
Price: £24 per person
Duration: around 2 hours
Atmosphere: social — chatty, casual, pub setting
How to pick a craft class everyone in your group will enjoy
Booking for one person is easy. Booking for a group means you’re trying to satisfy several different comfort levels, budgets and ideas of a nice afternoon at once — and most lists of craft classes Edinburgh has to offer don’t actually help you do that, because they just show you options rather than helping you choose between them. Here’s how to narrow it down.
Is the group all beginners?
If everyone’s starting from zero, paint and sip, sculpt and sip, embroidery, crochet and glass painting are all properly beginner-safe — no prior skill assumed, no awkward gap between someone who’s done it before and someone who hasn’t. The upcycling course is the one exception on this list: it needs existing sewing machine confidence, so save it for a group (or a follow-up booking) where that’s already true.
Does everyone want to chat, or focus?
This is the single most useful question to ask the group before you book. Paint and sip, sculpt and sip and glass painting are built around conversation — drinks circulate, people chat over their work, and it’s fine if your attention drifts. Embroidery, crochet, silver clay jewellery and bookbinding are quieter and more concentration-led; you’ll still talk, but in shorter bursts between focusing on what’s in your hands. Mixed groups tend to do best with the social end of the list — it’s much easier for a focused person to enjoy a chatty class than for a chatty group to sit through a silent one.
What’s the budget per person?
£24–£38 covers glass painting, paint and sip, sculpt and sip and crochet — a sensible entry point if you’re splitting costs across a group with mixed budgets. £45–£85 takes in embroidery, silver clay and bookbinding, which suit a slightly more occasion-led booking (a birthday, a proper catch-up rather than a casual one). The upcycling course sits at £110, but that’s across four sessions, so it works out closer to £27.50 a session if your group is properly committing to the whole course together.
How many people are you booking for?
Most of these classes comfortably take 4–6 people, which covers the typical "small group of friends" booking. If your numbers are smaller, embroidery (2–5) and crochet (1–5) both work well. If you’re a slightly bigger or more flexible group, glass painting has no minimum and a generous maximum, and paint and sip can flex up easily too — useful if a few extra people decide to join at the last minute.
| Class | Atmosphere | Price pp | Max group |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paint and Sip Class Edinburgh | Social | £32–£38 | Flexible, large groups fine |
| Sculpt and Sip Class Edinburgh | Social | £32–£38 | Flexible, large groups fine |
| Beginners’ Embroidery Workshop Edinburgh | Focused | £45 | 5 |
| Beginner’s Guide to Crochet Edinburgh | Focused | £29 | 5 |
| Silver Clay Taster Jewellery Class Edinburgh | Focused | £70 | Small groups |
| Beginners Introduction to Book Binding Class Edinburgh | Focused | £65–£85 | 6 |
| Upcycling Course Edinburgh | Social (skill-gated) | £110 (4 sessions) | 6 |
| Glass Painting Workshop Edinburgh | Social | £24 | 30, no minimum |
Whichever way your group leans, there’s a class here that’ll actually work for all of you — not just the keenest crafter in the chat. Have a browse through the full range of craft classes Edinburgh has to offer to see what’s running when you need it, or if a hen do is the real reason you’re booking, our Edinburgh hen do ideas guide has more on that front too.
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