Skip to content
  • Home
  • A Gentle Beginning
  • Offerings
  • Blog
  • Mailing List
  • About
  • Contact
Wild Blossom Life
Wild Blossom Life
  • drafting a skirt pattern

    Drafting a Skirt Pattern: Spanish Style Skirt

    July 11, 2020June 24, 2025 Blog, Sewing Archives
    1 Comment

    This post about drafting a skirt pattern contains affiliate links. So the Great British Sewing Bee is over for another year, and while there are things they made on the programme that I probably wouldn’t make, I feel inspired to make a Spanish style skirt like the dress…

    Read More Drafting a Skirt Pattern: Spanish Style SkirtContinue

  • how to sew a reversible wrap skirt

    How to Sew a Reversible Wrap Skirt

    July 28, 2017June 24, 2025 Blog, Sewing Archives
    5 Comments

    How to Sew a Reversible Wrap Skirt In my quest for a neat and tidy house, I have realised that the best way to achieve this is to have less stuff. With 6 of us in a small house, this is not easy! But I know that there…

    Read More How to Sew a Reversible Wrap SkirtContinue

  • easy backpack tutorial

    Easy Backpack Tutorial

    October 4, 2016June 24, 2025 Blog, Sewing Archives
    8 Comments

    An Easy Backpack Tutorial When my boys were tiny, I always hadΒ a bag of stuff for them. Little cups with milk or water in, an extra blanket, nappies, wipes, a bib, a change of clothes, spare socks, it was easy to fill a large bag! As they got…

    Read More Easy Backpack TutorialContinue

  • How to Make a Shirt Without a Pattern The full tutorial showing how to make a shirt without a pattern is here on the Minerva Crafts Bloggers' Network. My third little boy, Barnabas, took a fancy to wearing shirts a couple of years ago. I don't know the exact reason but I'm guessing it's also why my second boy, Aidan, won't wear trousers unless they're tracksuit bottoms (apart from his school trousers, which he has no choice about!). As I had never made a shirt before and it was something I wanted to try, I decided to have a go at making a little shirt for Barnabas. Children are an easy shape to make things for and, being small, the things require less fabric. I also wanted to try to make a shirt without a pattern. I thought it would probably be doable as long as I kept things simple. Officially I should probably have taken all his measurements and made the pattern that way, but I did not want to chase him round the house with a tape measure and probably trip over the cat and mangle myself on Lego in the process. So instead I used one of Barnabas' t shirts as a guide for making the pattern. You can read the full tutorial showing how to make a little boy's shirt without a pattern here, including how to make the pattern pieces. Barnabas likes his shirt and I'm very happy with the way it's turned out! It is very simple, nothing fancy. The main part of the shirt is three sections. There are button bands on the front, but they're easy to do and they solve the issue of the front bits needing to be wider than just the back cut in half. The collar has a collar stand so that it sits nicely and doesn't distort the shirt. The collar was the only slightly tricky bit. I made a dress with a collar a few years ago from a pattern and it was a disaster! The instructions were totally confusing and I got into a right muddle. This time I did it my own way. It's turned out okay but I'm going to experiment a bit more next time to see if there is a really easy way to get a nice neat collar. The fabric I used is this superhero print from Minerva Crafts.

    How to Make a Shirt Without a Pattern

    August 20, 2016June 24, 2025 Blog, Sewing Archives
    2 Comments

    How to Make a Shirt Without a Pattern The full tutorial showing how to make a shirt without a pattern is here on the Minerva Crafts Bloggers’ Network. My third little boy, Barnabas, took a fancy to wearing shirts a couple of years ago. I don’t know the…

    Read More How to Make a Shirt Without a PatternContinue

  • truth about sewing your own clothes

    The Truth About Sewing Your Own Clothes

    March 8, 2016June 24, 2025 Blog, Sewing Archives
    19 Comments

    The Truth About Sewing Your Own Clothes Sewing your own clothes is a lot of fun. I have been making clothes for myself since I was 10, both with using a pattern and without one. Things don’t always go perfectly to plan! In this post I am going…

    Read More The Truth About Sewing Your Own ClothesContinue

  • attach a waistband

    How to Attach a Waistband

    July 23, 2015March 23, 2016 Living a Creative Life
    8 Comments

    According to my mum, the first skirt I ever made was when I was 9 or 10. It was a rectangle of fabric sewn together along one edge, with a hem and casing for and elastic at the waist. Unfortunately now, as a slightly chunky grown up, I…

    Read More How to Attach a WaistbandContinue

Page navigation

1 2 3 Next PageNext

Welcome

I'm so happy you're here! You are so welcome to join me in this exploration of what it means to be a creative person.

Search

Wild Blossom Companion: A Gentle Beginning

A free offering of reflections, creative invitations, and journaling prompts to help you slow down, notice the seasons, and find joy in small creative moments.


Thank you!

The Wild Blossom Companion: A Gentle Beginning should arrive in your inbox shortly.

Wild Blossom Companion

The Wild Blossom Companion is a gentle, seasonal guide for creative people. You can find out more here.

follow along

Latest on Instagram

anna_wildblossomlife

Did you ever do butterfly paintings as a child? T Did you ever do butterfly paintings as a child?

The theme in April's Wild Blossom Companion is reflections. Sometimes our hands want to do something creative but we don't know what, and the Wild Blossom Companion has ideas of things to do within a theme.

I started off combining butterfly paintings with landscapes, and as I often find with anything literal I felt a bit anxious about whether what I was doing was any good. But that's kind of not the point! It's supposed to be playful exploration, not something that makes stress and anxiety worse! Plus the acrylic paint stuck on one of them and the paper tore.

So I gave that up and just blobbed paint onto the paper instead.

I think they look more like bunches of flowers then butterflies πŸ’what do you think?

And yes, I somehow managed to forget that phone needed to be the other way round! 🀦🀷πŸ€ͺ

#creativelife #painting #printing #spring #flowers
Colour schemes for April πŸŒΈπŸŒ±πŸ’– April is a pink mont Colour schemes for April πŸŒΈπŸŒ±πŸ’–

April is a pink month, with  cherry and apple  blossom. There are also lots of new leaves, and spring sunlight makes them appear even greener 🌱

#wildblossomlife #colourschemes #colourpalettes #springcolours #blossom
I was inspired by a recent email post thingy from I was inspired by a recent email post thingy from Alison from @brocantehome, in which she says that if there is ever any doubt, to look at our hands, see what is in them and tend to that. 

There is a lot in the world that is bad. Sometimes there are things closer that are not that great either. We're encouraged to be inspired by people who do huge things, fly to the moon and whatnot, but there is a lot to be said for holding onto the knowledge that our grandmothers and great grandmothers lived through difficult times, in the middle of them, and still looked after their families, cooked meals and washed up, grew tomatoes, made doctors' appointments, wrote in their diaries, drew, painted, knitted. Admired the flowers in their neighbour's garden. Marvelled at the blossom, or the autumn leaves. Hoped it would rain, or stop raining. At the same time as worrying about loved ones far away. Not because one mattered more than the other, but because they both did.

In my hands today, home education for my dyslexic boy, cats, meals, laundry and washing up. Peculiar things to make out of pieces of old shoe for my textiles degree. And blossom, lots of it 🌸🌸🌸

What is in your hands?

#wildblossomlife #spring #blossom #tendwhatmatters #gentlerhythms
Out looking for signs of spring 🌱🌸🌞 They are ever Out looking for signs of spring 🌱🌸🌞

They are everywhere now. The hedgerows are coming green. There is lots of blossom. New buds are appearing on the trees and starting to open. The sun was warm today and the birds were singing πŸ’–πŸ¦β€β¬›

#creativelife #wildblossomlife #norfolk #spring #noticing
Follow on Instagram

Join

Sign up for the newsletter for seasonal inspiration and gentle creative encouragement

Please wait...

Thank you! You'll hear from me soon :)

Explore

Nature and Seasons

Creative invitations

Thoughts and Reflections

Connect

If you have questions, or if you'd like to chat, I'd love to hear from you!

hello.wildblossomlife@gmail.com

Instagram Facebook

© 2026 Wild Blossom Life Β· Design by Studio Mommy

Scroll to top
  • Home
  • A Gentle Beginning
  • Offerings
  • Blog
  • Mailing List
  • About
  • Contact
Search
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.