Is a Tufting Workshop Worth It? An Honest Answer.
£170 for a tufting workshop. It's not nothing. So before you book, it's a fair question: is it actually worth it?
We're going to answer that honestly — including the parts that might not suit everyone.
What You're Actually Paying For
Let's start with what's included, because it's more than most people expect.
Your £170 covers your tufting frame, tufting gun, and all the yarn you need for a 40×40cm rug. It covers three hours of guided instruction, with our team in the room with you the entire time. It covers the backing and finishing after the session. And it covers the finished rug you take home at the end.
There are no hidden costs. No materials fee on top. No "finishing charge" added at the end. What you see is what you pay.
The Thing That Makes It Different: Same-Day Take-Home
Most creative workshops — pottery, glassblowing, printing — involve waiting. You make something, and then you wait weeks for it to be fired, processed, or finished before you can collect it.
At Cheeky Studio, if your rug is fully tufted during the session, you leave with it the same day. Finished, backed, and ready to go on your wall or floor.
That matters more than it sounds. You spend three hours making something, and you walk out holding it. The experience has a physical ending. That's rarer than it should be.
The Quality Is Real
This is the part people are most surprised by.
First-time tufters consistently leave with rugs that look genuinely professional. Not "pretty good for a beginner." Actually good. The kind of thing you'd hang in your living room and not feel the need to explain.
That's partly the technique — tufting is more learnable than it looks — and partly the materials. Every rug at Cheeky Studio is made with Cheeky Yarn, our own GRS-certified yarn made from 100% recycled PET. It's the same standard used by serious textile producers. The result is a rug with real weight, real texture, and real longevity.
Cut pile or loop pile — you choose on the day. Cut pile gives you a soft, plush finish. Loop pile is more textured and durable. Most studios only offer one. We offer both, which means your rug can look and feel exactly how you want it to.
The Session Itself
Sessions at Cheeky Studio are capped at 8 people maximum. In practice, most sessions run with 2 to 4 tufters. That's not an accident — it's how we keep the quality of instruction high.
You're not in a room with 20 strangers following the same template. You're in a small group, with our team genuinely available throughout. If something goes wrong with your design, we fix it. If you want to try a technique, we show you. The whole session is built around your rug, not a generic syllabus.
The studio itself is a bright, window-lined space inside Tradestars, Hackney Wick — one of East London's most interesting creative buildings. Good light, good speakers, and you can put on whatever music you want. It sounds like a small thing. It makes a real difference to how a three-hour session feels.
Hackney Wick Is Worth the Trip
This isn't just about the workshop. Hackney Wick is one of London's most genuinely interesting neighbourhoods — canal walks, street art, independent cafés and restaurants everywhere you look. Most people make a day of it. Workshop in the afternoon, dinner and a walk along the canal in the evening.
We're two minutes from Hackney Wick Overground, which makes it easy to reach from anywhere in London.
Who It's Not For
Honesty means saying this too.
If you're looking for a completely passive experience — something where you sit back and watch — tufting isn't that. You're working for three hours. Your arms will know about it the next day.
If you need absolute certainty that your rug will be perfect, know that handmade things have character. Small variations are part of what makes them handmade. That's not a flaw — but it's worth knowing going in.
And if £170 is a genuine stretch right now, it's a genuine stretch. We're not going to pretend otherwise.
The Honest Verdict
For most people who book, the answer is yes — it's worth it.
Not because it's cheap. It isn't. But because you leave with something real. A finished, quality rug you made yourself, in a session that felt personal rather than conveyor-belt. In a studio that's thought carefully about the materials, the space, and the experience.
316 five-star reviews. Average session size of 2–4 people. Same-day take-home. GRS-certified recycled yarn.
If that sounds like your kind of afternoon, it probably is.
Standard Rug — 3hrs · 40×40cm · £170, Grand Rug — 5hrs · 55×55cm · £220
📍 D009 Tradestars, 415 Wick Lane, Hackney Wick, London E3 2JG🕙 Open every day, 10am–5pm
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