How to Design and Make a Dress

July 29, 2018 · Leave a Comment

How to Design and Make a Dress

Have you ever considered that it might just be possible to design and make a dress from scratch?

One of the best things about being able to sew is making your own clothes.

How many times have you been shopping and seen something you quite liked, except that it didn’t fit quite right, it wasn’t available in the right size, you didn’t like the colour or the collar made it look weird?

I’ve walked past things and thought, “That’s nice,” only to be horrified when I’ve seen the price ticket!

Making your own clothes solves these problems.

You can make things you like in a colour and style that suits you. You’re not restricted to what the fashion people have decided we ought to be wearing, and you don’t need to worry about turning up at a party or a wedding in the same outfit as somebody else.

When choosing a pattern, there are probably almost as many as there are different clothes in the shops. If you find a pattern you like, using a different type or colour of fabric or can make it look totally different!

One of the issues I have with patterns is that often I’ll have an idea of what I want to make, but I can’t find a pattern that’s exactly right.

It’s possible to alter patterns. My sister Eleanor is very good at doing this! But it doesn’t always solve the problem of the thing not being what you want in the first place.

Another problem I have with both patterns and ready to wear clothes is that I know what I like, but I can’t always find it.

I love my vintage style dresses and I don’t care at all if that’s a weird thing to wear for the school run! I’d rather celebrate my individuality and creativity by looking like I’m on my way to a 50s themed tea party than be one of the herd in a mummy uniform bought from Next. I don’t fit in anyway, so I might as well make the most of it.

So the answer is to not only make your own clothes, but to design them as well!

If you’ve not tried this before, it might seem daunting. But if you’ve made clothes for yourself from patterns, just think for a minute about what you know and what you can do.

You probably have a good idea of what pattern pieces ought to look like. The chances are you know how to sew darts and how to put in a zip. You can work out order for sewing something together. You know how to sew seams and hems neatly. You can finish a neckline and add a lining. If you’ve tried your hand at making jackets and shirts you probably have a whole lot of other skills too!

So why not put them to good use and design and make a dress yourself?

How to Design and Make a Dress From Scratch

As an idea, designing and making a dress from scratch can be overwhelming. It can be difficult even knowing where to start.

It’s something I’ve done myself lots of times and know that it’s both possible and fun!

I want to encourage you to have a go. This is why I ran the Cherry Blossom Dress sewalong, and it’s why I’ve written my ebook, Designing and Making a Dress From Scratch.

In the ebook I take you through the the stages of how to design and make a dress, from collecting ideas and making sketches, to drafting pattern pieces and choosing fabric, to deciding on an order for making it up, to sewing it all together.

There are also 7 printables to accompany the ebook.

By completing the printables as you go along, you’ll be able to clarify your ideas as you go along, and you’ll end up with a plan for making a dress just like the one that’s in your head!

You can find out more about the ebook here.

I’m going to show you how I’ve used the printables to design a dress that I’m currently making. The tutorial for the dress itself will appear in a week or two when I’ve finished making it!

Using the Printables

I’ve used the printables to design and make a dress, specifically a vintage style halter neck sundress.

Inspiration For Dresses

To design and make a dress, you need a place to start! The best places are where there are dresses that you like.

When you find dresses that catch your eye, the first printable provides you with somewhere to to record your inspiration.

Pinterest is great for this, but if you already have boards full of ideas of things you want to make, you might need to narrow things down a bit.

I have a board called Sewing Clothes With and Without a Pattern, but there are lots of different things on it!

In addition to Pinterest, there are plenty of places to find ideas for pretty dresses! Try Google images, magazines and taking photos on your phone while you’re out.

As I had some idea already of the kind of thing I wanted to make, I identified the ideas that were the most useful, printed them out some of the ideas and stuck them on.

If there’s a url, you can write that in, and there’s room to make some brief notes about fabric etc if you want to. I felt that the pictures were self explanatory, and I’d already decided to make my dress out of cotton.

My Dress Design

Now it’s time to take those ideas that you liked and turn them into your dress

On the second printable you can make some sketches, record sources of inspiration, ideas for fabric and anything else you want to write down.

Under the notes section I wrote that the skirt is a circle, there will be buttons down the front and that the bodice might need facings if I decided not to line it.

In the fabric box I wrote down what I would need, including haberdashery.

This helped to get me thinking a little bit about the 4th printable which is sketching the pattern pieces, and the 5th one, a shopping list for fabric and haberdashery for the dress.

My Measurements

To design and make a dress, you’re going to need to know your measurements.

It doesn’t matter too much when you take your measurements, but it will need to be before you draft the pattern pieces and before you decide how much fabric you’ll need to buy when you go shopping!

Obviously if you’re making a knee length dress, you won’t need to know your waist to floor measurement! So just record the measurements you need.

I didn’t need measurements for hips, arms or anything past my knee, so I didn’t bother with those.

Pattern Pieces

Sketching the pattern pieces will help you to clarify the shapes you’ll need to cut.

If you’ve made clothes for yourself from patterns, you can use that knowledge here. Otherwise a quick google will give you the information you need.

The dress I’m making doesn’t have sleeves or a collar, so I didn’t need to draw anything in those boxes.

Identifying the pattern pieces I’d need to make made me realise that I’d need to cut straps and button bands. I also drew facings, although I’ve since decided to line it instead.

Another thing that I hadn’t thought of was that the button bands and the facings would need fusible interfacing. Working all of this out at this stage meant that nothing got left off the shopping list!

Fabric and Haberdashery Shopping List

Sorting out exactly what I was going to make and how I was going to make it enabled me to think about what I would need, and the shopping list printable meant that I could add things as I thought of them.

For the dresses I make, I usually need 4 metres of fabric (although when I made the last one there was quite a lot left over). I also needed buttons and bias binding. I had some fusible interfacing already.

Writing everything down as it occurred to me meant that nothing got left off the list and I was able to get everything I needed when I made the trip to the fabric shop.

Steps For Sewing Up

When you design and make a dress, sometimes the order in which you do things doesn’t matter very much.

For example, it doesn’t matter if you sew the shoulder seams before you sew the skirt to the bodice or afterwards.

But sometimes the order does matter! If you’re adding darts to the bodice, you’ll need to do that first before you sew side seams or attach the skirt.

Having a plan for the reduces the chances of messing things up and needing to unpick things at best, or having to start again!

I was very glad I did this actually, because the order that I would usually do things in had to be changed because the dress will have buttons instead of a zip.

You can see from the photo that I had to change it!

This is the order I decided on for sewing my dress together:
1. Sew the darts in the dress and the lining
2. Sew side seams of dress and lining
3. Sew straps and pin to bodice
4. Attach lining to bodice along the top
5. Make button bands and sew to bodice
6. Make button holes
7. Sew on buttons
8. Sew skirt sections together (also lining)
9. Attach both skirt and lining to bodice
10. Finish hems with bias binding

Finished Dress

This is the last stage when you design and make a dress, and it’s one that we often miss out!

The last printable gives you the opportunity to record what you’ve made. If you keep these safe, you’ll be able to refer to them long after the dresses you’ve made have worn out.

It also gives you a chance to assess what went well and what you might do differently if you make the same dress again.

Now I’m Ready!

I’ve got my plan.

I know how I want the finished dress to look and it’s clear in my mind.

I know how the pattern pieces will need to look.

My measurements are recorded on the printable.

I’ve bought the fabric and habby.

I’ve got a plan for sewing it up.

So the next part is making the pattern pieces and cutting out before sewing the whole thing together. Because I’ve planned everything out, I feel ready and quite confident that I’ll end up with something wearable.

Sewing clothes without a pattern is a learning journey

When you design and make a dress, you want to end up a lovely thing you can wear, but if it’s not perfect it doesn’t matter.

My vintage style sundress isn’t perfect. There’s a hole at the top of the zip and the waist seams don’t match perfectly. I’ve also had to move the straps a couple of times.

It’s still my favourite dress though! And when I make the halter neck dress, I’ll be extra careful when I’m matching the seams, and I know to take my time positioning the straps.

Tote Bag Tutorial

July 21, 2018 · 6 Comments

Tote Bag Tutorial

Here’s a tote bag tutorial!

I’m not going to say an awful lot about this, except that I’ve made 2 of these bags for a teacher.

They’re the correct size for carrying A4 exercise books, so they’d also be fine for carrying library books or shopping.

The webbing handles go right underneath the bag, so it’s the webbing that takes the strain, not your sewing!

I sewed French seams as the fabric was fraying quite a bit already.

The bags are lined because I wanted to make them as well as I could, but you could skip this step if you just wanted to quickly run up some shopping bags.

This tote bag tutorial includes instructions for making a cover for the handles. If you have a bag already for this kind of thing and the handles hurt your hands, you could make some covers and sew them to the handles.

How To Make a Tote Bag

There’s some tips at the end of this tote bag tutorial, so make sure you read to the end!

You Will Need

1 metre of fabric for the bag outer.
1 metre of fabric for the lining. I used ticking for the outer and calico for the lining.
2.5 metres of webbing 3 cm (1 inch) wide.
A small amount of quilt batting or foam interfacing
15 cm (6 inches) velcro
Usual sewing supplies

Cutting Out

Cut a rectangle 64 cm x 87 cm (25 inches x 34 inches) from outer fabric, and another the same size from the lining. The grain needs to be running up and down. If you’re using a directional print, you’ll need to cut it half, turn one half round and sew it back together (don’t forget to add a seam allowance!).

Cut a piece of webbing 230 cm long.

Cut 2 rectangles 15 cm x 17 cm from outer fabric, and another the same size from quilt batting or foam interfacing.

Sewing Together

A 2 cm (3/4 inch) seam allowance is included.

1. Attach the handles.

Cut cm of webbing. Melt the ends over a candle. Don’t hold it too close to the flame! You’re only melting it so that it doesn’t fray, not setting fire to it!

Pin the webbing to the fabric so that the inside edges of the webbing are 12 cm apart and either side of the centre. Overlap the ends a little bit near the centre as this will be the bottom of the bag.

Check that the handles are the same length, then sew the handles to the fabric. Leave a couple of cm (an inch) at the edges of the fabric for folding down the raw edge later.

2. Sewing the outer.

Fold the outer in half widthways with the wrong sides together. Sew the side seams a cm away from the raw edge.

Trim the seams in half, then turn the bag outer the wrong way out. Sew the seams again so that the raw edges are enclosed.

To make the boxed corners, press the bottom edge with your finger to make a crease. Squash one corner flat so that the side seam is next to the crease. Measure up 12 cm (4 3/4 inches) from the corner. Pin, then sew across the corner.

Cut the corner off, then turn the bag outer the wrong way out. Sew the corner seam again to enclose the raw edges.

Repeat with the other corner.

3. Making the lining.

The lining is made in the same way as the outer, just without the webbing.

4. Sewing the lining and the outer together.

Pop the lining inside the outer so that the wrong sides are together. You might find it helpful to pin the corners together, and also at the side seams.

Fold the top of the lining inwards by a couple of cm (3/4 inch). The folded edge should be just below the stitching where you sewed the webbing to the top of the outer.

Now fold the edge of the outer under by a cm (1/4 inch), then fold it over again. Pin it so that it covers the folded edge of the lining.

Sew all the way around the top of the bag. When you get to the webbing, you can either sew across it, or miss it out and continue sewing on the other side of the webbing. If you do this, you’ll need to hand stitch the outer to the lining on the bits you miss out.

5. Making the handle cover

Take the 2 rectangles and the quilt batting. Pin them together so that the rectangles have their right sides together, and the batting is on the top.

Sew around the outside edge, leaving a gap in one side.

Trim the seams and cut across the corners. Turn it the right way out and sew up the opening.

Pin one half of the velcro to one of the long edges about a cm (1/4 inch) in from the edge. The is so that the velcro doesn’t scratch your hand when you’re carrying your books about or your shopping. Sew around the velcro.

Pin then sew the other half of the velcro to the other long edge on the other side of the handle cover.

Pin the handle cover to one of the handles on the underneath. This is that you can fold the handle cover round both the handles, then do it up with the velcro. Sew webbing to the cover.

Tips

Remember to wash your fabric first! This is especially important if you are using calico or similar as this might shrink when you wash it.

You could use cotton webbing instead of nylon, or you could make straps from fabric.

Don’t forget to press seams as you go!

You could skip lining it if you wanted to as the the French seams will give the inside a neat finish anyway.

If you liked this tote bag tutorial, you might also like these.

Shopping bag tutorial

Quilted bag tutorial

Reusable bags for bread and vegetables

Easiest Bunting Tutorial Ever

July 12, 2018 · 2 Comments

Easiest Bunting Tutorial Ever

Making bunting isn’t especially difficult, but there are several ways of going about it. Some ways are more time consuming than others.

Taking your time over it is fine if you’re only making a bit, or if you need it to be special.

One of my favourite bits of bunting I’ve made is this with the trees . Although it didn’t take an age to make, it did take a little while! I made the templates for the trees, backed the fabric with interfacing, cut everything out, appliqued the trees to the flags, sewed the flags up then sewed the flags to the bias binding.

I love my tree bunting and it lives in my kitchen!

If you need to make a lot of bunting, or if you just want to make some quickly to put up in the garden (or on the front of your house to distract attention away from peeling paint!), then you need a plan for getting it done with the minimum amount of faffing about.

So here’s the easiest bunting tutorial ever!

How to Make Bunting the Easy Way

You Will Need

Cotton or polycotton fabric
Bias binding
Bunting template
Scissors or rotary cutter
Bunting template (make your own or you can have mine in exchange for an email address)
Pins
Sewing machine (you could sew the flags by hand but a sewing machine will be quicker!)

Making the Bunting

1. Make your template. Once you’ve printed it out, you could stick it to a piece of cardboard. This will make it easier to cut round if you’re using a rotary cutter. There are bunting templates here.

2. Cut your fabric into strips the same width as the the length of the flag.

3. Line the top edge of the flag up with the top edge of the strip. Now fold the strip so that you end up with several thicknesses of fabric the same width as the top of the flag. Keep the fabric folded. Don’t cut it into squares!

4. Cut the fabric along the sides of the template. You’ll find that as well as the flags in the centre, you’ll have some extra ones at the sides too.

5. Take your bias binding and unroll about a metre. Fold it half lengthways and press it with your finger.

6. Leaving a bit free at the end for tying (15 – 20 cm or 6 – 7″ is probably enough), slip one of the flags inside the bias binding and pin it. Start sewing from the end of the bias binding, keeping close to the open edge. Keep sewing the bias binding past the flag.

7. Leave a bit of a gap (keep sewing though!) then slip another flag in. You’ll have to stop every so often to fold the bias binding in half, but I do this while sitting at the sewing machine.

Keep going until you run out of flags or bias binding!

Tips

You can use fabric you have already, but if you’re worried about colour combinations, you could use a fat quarter pack. You’ll only get about 8 flags out of a fat quarter though.

If you are using fabric from your hoard and you’re not sure about choosing things that go together, pick a favourite print, then choose some plain fabric, spots and/ or checks in similar colours.

If you’re concerned that the fabric might fray badly, you could iron on some fusible interfacing first.

Using a fabric with a directional print will mean that either some of your flags will be upside down, or you’ll have to discard the upside down ones. Non directional prints are better for this.

Polycotton works just as well as cotton as you’ll be unlikely to be washing it very much. It’s also cheaper and less likely to fray.

If you liked this bunting tutorial, you might also like these:

Cushion cover with appliqued bunting

Shopping bag with appliqued bunting

How to make paper bunting

Handmade Wallet Tutorial

July 8, 2018 · Leave a Comment

Handmade Wallet Tutorial

Although I quite like my current wallet, it’s looking distinctly tatty.

It also has 2 major disadvantages.

The first is that it’s huge and it takes up an awful lot of room in my bag.

The second is that because it has so many useful pockets inside, I feel obliged to fill them all up with junk. The pockets of my purse get so full of old bus tickets and receipts that it won’t stay closed! Pockets are nice, but I just don’t need that many.

So I now have a handmade wallet that’s quite a bit smaller and enough pockets to be useful, but not too many!

I already had some fabric that I liked (most of it is a dress which is currently in the pile of unfinished projects!), and some little bits of Soft and Stable that are to small to use in bags.

The only things I had to buy were zips!

This is a good project for using up fabric left over from other projects, and it would make a nice gift for somebody if you don’t need a new purse yourself.

Here’s the tutorial for my handmade wallet!

Sewing a Handmade Wallet

You Will Need

Cotton fabric for the outer
Cotton fabric for the lining (a fat quarter of each will be enough)
Sew in interfacing (you could use fusible interfacing if you prefer)
Foam interfacing like Soft and Stable
Fusible interfacing
1 lace zip
1 magnetic snap
Usual sewing supplies

A zip foot is useful but not essential

Cutting Out

If you’d rather not faff about with making your own pattern pieces, I have the pattern for this handmade wallet for sale here.

A 1 cm (1/4 inch) seam allowance is included.

For the purse outer, cut a rectangle 24 cm x 17 cm from outer fabric and from foam interfacing.

For the purse lining, cut 2 rectangles 13 cm x 17 cm from lining fabric.

For the card pockets, cut 5 rectangles 13 cm x 10 cm. I cut them from the outer fabric, but you could use the lining fabric (or something different!) if you prefer.

For the coin purse section, cut a rectangle 17 cm x 21 cm from outer fabric, lining and sew in interfacing.

For the strap, cut a rectangle 7 cm x 11 cm from outer fabric.

1. Making the Card Pockets

Take one of the card pocket pieces and fold it in half lengthways, with the right sides together. Sew along the long open edge.

Turn it the right way out and press. You might like to sew along the folded edge, but you could leave it.

Repeat with the other card pockets.

Take one of the card pockets and one of the lining pieces. Pin the card pocket to the lining so that the top of the pocket is 3 cm down from the top of the lining. Sew along the bottom of the pocket.

Take another card pocket. The bottom of this one needs to be 10 cm down from the top of the lining. Pin, then sew along the bottom.

The third card pocket needs to be 13 cm down from the top of the lining, and the fourth 15 cm down.

For the fifth pocket, line the bottom edge of the pocket up with the bottom of the lining.

2. Coin Purse Section

Take the lining,the outer and the interfacing. Pin them so that the lining and the outer have their right sides together and the interfacing is on the outside.

Sew all the way round, leaving a gap in one of the short edges.

Trim the seams then turn it the right way out.

Press it and slip stitch the opening.

Before sewing the lace zip onto the short ends of the purse, you’ll need to trim it down a bit. Cut about 4 cm (1 1/2 inches) off each end of the zip. Check first with your purse piece that you’re cutting off the right amount!

This will mean that it doesn’t have a closed end any more, but this will make it easier to sew the zip to the purse, as well as making it the right length.

Pin one half of the zip to one of the short edges, ensuring that the teeth of the zip are past the edge of the purse. Sew the zip to the edge of the purse.

Reattach the other half of the zip and pin the other half to the other short edge. Unzip it, then sew the other bit of the zip to the purse.

Zip it back up, then squash the purse so that the zip is a cm or 2 down from the top.

This is a bit fiddly and you might prefer to use the kind of zip that separates without having to hack a bit off the end.

Pin the purse to the lining.

Sew along the sides and the bottom. Leaving the top free will give you a pocket for notes.

3. Making the Strap

Fuse a piece of interfacing to the wrong side of the strap piece.

Fold one of the short edges over by a cm.

Now fold it in half lengthways and press. Open it out, then fold one of the long edges inwards almost to the centre. Press it (with your finger will do), then fold the other long edge over by a cm. Press again.

Open it out again and attach the snap.

4. Assembling the Wallet

Find the centre of right hand half of the outer by folding it in half horizontally, then vertically. Where the folded lines cross, fuse a small piece of interfacing to the wrong side. Attach the snap.

Take both the lining sections and pin them with the right sides together. Before pinning, check that the section with the card pockets is underneath with card pockets the correct way up, and that the top of the coin purse is on the left.

Sew down the right hand side.

Take the strap and pin it to the right hand edge in the centre, with the snap facing downwards.

Pin the outer to the lining with the foam interfacing on top of the outer.

Sew round the outside edge of the wallet, leaving a gap on one side.

Turn the wallet the right way out and slip stitch the opening.

Tips

Iron everything as you go. It’s tempting to skip this, but the finished purse will look much nicer if you do, and it will be tricky to iron once the purse is assembled.

Use a longer stitch for top stitching.

If the fabric you’re using for the lining is very light, using some fusible interfacing will give it some more weight.

For left handed people, you might prefer to have the zip of your handmade wallet the other way round. Decide what is most comfortable for you before sewing!

If you liked this handmade wallet tutorial and your new wallet needs a new bag to ride around in, you might like to have a look at these tutorials.

My Favourite Metaphors

July 1, 2018 · 4 Comments

My Favourite Metaphors

Sometimes I have an overwhelming urge to write about things that are nothing at all to do with sewing or crafts.

This is one of those times.

I love a good metaphor. Sometimes they’re the best way of expressing things.

So here are some of my favourite metaphors. And if you have one you’d like to add, please do in the comments!

Roads With Grass Growing Down the Middle

Roads with grass growing down the middle are my favourite kind of road. Living where we do means that there are lots close by and I know where they all are!

I like them because they represent the road less travelled. They are roads that are less travelled, otherwise the grass wouldn’t be there!

Sometimes leaving the main road and taking one of these little lanes means that you end up somewhere interesting. Often they don’t go anywhere interesting, but it’s fun to see where you end up.

I have no desire to get onto the motorway of life. I don’t want my life to be dictated by other people’s expectations. I don’t want to be heading in the same direction as everybody else because somebody who doesn’t know me or my situation at all has decided that that is the way to go.

I like trundling down little country lanes with not much idea of where I’m going. I’ll find out when I get there! Walking down these roads is such a joy. It’s peaceful, and when you do meet people on the way, they’re more likely to be kindred spirits because they’ve chosen that road too.

I want to live life in the way that suits me and my family. Different, weird and unusual are all good things. I’m going to try to run a kitchen table business instead of having a career. I want to take care of my kids myself, and that includes them not having ipads but running around outside with no shoes on. I’m going to do the school run in a tutu, and I’ve no intention of going near anything that looks like a metaphorical motorway if I can help it.

Chaos Theory

As metaphors go, this is possibly my favourite! A warning first: maths isn’t my thing and I can’t guarantee that I’ve got this completely right.

As far as I understand it, chaos theory is when you take a group of random numbers, do some kind of maths thing to them and suddenly, there are patterns.

If you do something (I’m not sure what!) to every third number, you get a pattern of repeating triangles.

If you do something to every 6th number, you get a fern.

Other stuff can be done to the numbers which will turn a collection of messy numbers into fractals.

The reason why this is one of my favourite metaphors is because our lives so often seem to be chaotic. Stuff is going on all around us, and even with technology and everything that living in the western world offers, there’s so much we can’t control. It’s hard to make sense of things sometimes.

Chaos theory reminds us that sometimes, things might seem to be chaotic. But maybe all we need is a different persepctive. If we look at chaos in a certain way, perhaps we won’t see a random jumble of mess anymore, but something that makes perfect sense.

A Garden

It’s so hard to choose a favourite book. It’s like choosing a favourite child!

2 of my favourites are Tom’s Midnight Garden and The Secret Garden. I’d recommend them both, even though they’re children’s books!

Tom’s Midnight Garden (affiliate link) is about a boy who is sent to stay with his aunt and uncle because his brother has measles.

Poor Tom is cross because it’s the start of the summer holidays and he and his brother had plans to do all sorts of fun stuff out in the garden. His aunt and uncle live in an old house that’s been converted into flats. They don’t have a garden.

One night, as Tom’s lying in bed trying to sleep, he hears the clock in the hall chime 13. He gets up to investigate, but can’t see the face of the clock. He realises that if he opens the back door, it might let in enough moonlight so he can see what time the clock actually says.

Tom creeps downstairs, opens the back door and instantly forgets all about the clock. Instead of a tiny yard where bins are kept, there’s an enormous garden.

The garden is only there when everybody else is asleep, and Tom sneaks out every night. In the garden is a girl about the same age as him, called Hatty.

Night after night, Tom creeps downstairs and spends several happy hours in the garden with his friend.

But as the summer winds on, Hatty gets older. Eventually she is much older than Tom, almost grown up.

Then one night, Tom goes outside expecting to find the garden and it’s not there.

There’s a lovely twist at the end, which I’m not going to tell you because it will spoil the book if you decide to read it!

In The Secret Garden (affiliate link), several lonely, unhappy children find friendship and healing for emotional and physical hurts, which they are able to extend to adults around them.

When they find the garden, it’s been neglected and everything seems dead. But with a little bit of gardening from the children and the arrival of spring, the garden transforms itself as well of the lives of its little caretakers.

A garden represents a safe place. It’s somewhere to have adventures and to enjoy the long days of summer.

It can also represent hope. Unless it’s been dosed with large quantities of weedkiller, even if everything seems dead, it probably isn’t. Hope returns with the spring. Even if things seem hopeless, give it time and a little shoots of hope will appear.

An Interesting Door

Doors in old buildings are often interesting. There wasn’t UPVC in olden times and heavy oak doors are so much more intriguing!

When a door is closed, we can’t see what’s on the other side. The only way to know is to open it and see!

Sometimes a door will only open if you have the key.

It might only be possible to get through the door at certain times.

You might have to wait for somebody to let you in.

Some doors will shut behind you, and you won’t be able to open them again.

A door represents a change.

Sometimes it’s something we have to go through, sometimes it’s a choice.

It might mean not being able to go back to a previous way of life.

Certain choices can only be made at the right time, when the circumstances are right.

Making a decision sometimes depends on somebody else.

Occasionally the right choice might not obvious, and we have to hack away at the ivy to find the door that’s hidden.

Tatty Bits of Furniture

I love a junk shop! They are treasure troves of possibilities. Last time I visited the one in Long Sutton, I came out with some vintage teacups, a matching cake plate and a hand embroidered vintage tablecloth.

Lots of the furniture in my house has come from IKEA. But I also have several bits that started off as tatty, unloved bits of junk. It’s amazing what a coat of paint and some new handles will do! I also like the idea of having pieces of furniture that are not the same as what everybody else has.

Tatty bits of furniture are an illustration of looking past the obvious to see the potential. We should never write people off just because their faces don’t fit, or because they are odd, or because life has knocked them about. All they need is someone to give them a chance.

Stay Puft Marshmallow Man

When I was at university I had a lovely friend called Victoria. She had beautiful blond hair, she was very clever and she was extremely kind.

I remember one occasion when I was in a tizzy over an essay. Computer problems were compounding the other issue that I’d left it all a bit late, and I wasn’t sure whether I’d get the essay finished and handed in on time.

20 years on, I can still hear Victoria telling me that there was no need for the essay to take on supernatural proportions.

Anyway, the end of this rather boring story is that Victoria helped me with the computer issues and I got the essay finished and handed in on time.

The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man is a metaphor for something small taking on supernatural proportions.

At the end of the original Ghostbusters film, the chief ghostbuster tells the others to empty their minds and think of nothing so that the evil ghostie they’re trying to zap can’t take on a physical form and destroy the city.

Unfortunately, one of them thinks of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from a packet of marshmallows.

The evil ghostie becomes an enormous Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and starts destroying the city.

Happily the ghostbusters zap him in time and the city ends up covered in marshmallow.

For some of us, if we’re not careful, small things can end up ridiculously out of proportion. Even something like making a phone call. If I don’t, it ends up being such a big deal I either end up not doing it or being far more worried about it than is sensible!

I should probably say that the credit for the last of my favourite metaphors goes entirely to my friend Helen.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little bit of weirdness. Next week we’ll be back to sewing tutorials!

How to Design and Make a Dress

How to Design and Make a Dress From Scratch

Using the Printables

Inspiration For Dresses

My Dress Design

My Measurements

Pattern Pieces

Fabric and Haberdashery Shopping List

Steps For Sewing Up

Finished Dress

Now I’m Ready!

Sewing clothes without a pattern is a learning journey

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Tote Bag Tutorial

How To Make a Tote Bag

You Will Need

Cutting Out

Sewing Together

Tips

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Easiest Bunting Tutorial Ever

How to Make Bunting the Easy Way

You Will Need

Making the Bunting

Tips

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Handmade Wallet Tutorial

Sewing a Handmade Wallet

You Will Need

Cutting Out

1. Making the Card Pockets

2. Coin Purse Section

3. Making the Strap

4. Assembling the Wallet

Tips

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My Favourite Metaphors

Roads With Grass Growing Down the Middle

Chaos Theory

A Garden

An Interesting Door

Tatty Bits of Furniture

Stay Puft Marshmallow Man

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