Fancy Tiger

Fancy Tiger Crafts started out as a small do-it-yourself boutique and has helped revitalize Denver’s South Broadway neighborhood by selling craft supplies and offering classes for the modern crafter.

Owners Jaime Jennings and Amber Corcoran are all about inspiring people to reach their full crafting potential through contemporary and sustainable supplies and insanely knowledgeable instructors. They firmly believe that creating items by hand makes people of all skill levels feel good, which in turn is good for their town and world.

And, it seems to be working.

“People are drawn to crafts like knitting and sewing because it offers a relaxing and de-stressing activity. Plus, there’s an end product, so it’s a win-win,” Jennings says.

More than a decade strong, Fancy Tiger Crafts started out as a small do-it-yourself boutique and has helped revitalize Denver’s South Broadway neighborhood by selling craft supplies and offering classes for the modern crafter. Jennings and Corcoran have been masters of building community, moving just down the street to a larger shop with two large sewing studios and an expansive space for events and handcrafting five years ago, and launching an online store two years later.

Their shop is filled to the brim with a cornucopia of fabrics, yarns and fibers. Like many chefs in the city today, the duo claims they can track down the background of every sustainable product they carry, including the farm, the herd, the sheep’s name and even what that sheep ate by simply making a few phone calls. They strive to sell and use primarily natural fibers from small companies. Sound crazy? Maybe, but this is what a pure passion for crafts looks like.

It’s also more than just selling goods that also include kits, patterns, books, magazines, notions and other project supplies. Jennings and Corcoran host Open Craft Night every Tuesday night from 6 – 9 p.m. Anyone is invited to meet new crafty friends and bring projects of their own to knit, spin, crochet and embroider.

A wide range of other occasions are offered onsite to encourage creativity and community at Fancy Tiger Crafts, such as Knitting Help Night, Open Sew Night, Jeans Making Weekend Retreat and loads of classes. Man Made - A Gentleman’s Craft Society meets the first and third Monday of each month for a night of camaraderie and crafts among men, a growing segment of the DIY market. Every August, there is even Yarn Along The Rockies, a nine-day yarn crawl with a passport tour of 17 participating yarn shops across the Front Range of Colorado, including Fancy Tiger Crafts.

Jennings and Corcoran may be queens of the crafts scene on Broadway, but they also savor sharing great stories of other local crafters who are changing up the way DIY crafts are being done on their website, allowing people across Colorado and the world to plug into the inspiring spirit found at Fancy Tiger Crafts.