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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…

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  • 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…

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  • 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…

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  • 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

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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.


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Wild Blossom Companion

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

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A colour palette for October πŸπŸŒ°πŸ‚πŸ§‘ Mak A colour palette for October πŸπŸŒ°πŸ‚πŸ§‘

Making a colour palette is one of my favourite creative invitations. October is an especially good month with all its lovely colours, tthe leaves of course, and also the berries in the hedgerows, the rosehips, the sweet chestnuts, the conkers and the acorns. The light is beautifully golden, but the grey misty days are lovely too.

Mine is based on the colours of the leaves and things I collected, but making a colour palette doesn't have to look like this! You could use acrylics or gouache, coloured pencils, scraps of fabric, yarn or thread. You could use other objects that make you think of autumn colours, or a photo.

If I was to make another, I would definitely include grey for the misty days. What do you think?

#creativelife #colourpaletteforoctober #imspiredbynature #simplecreativity #wildblossomlife
On a hunt for autumn colours! πŸπŸŒ°πŸ‚πŸ§‘ Th On a hunt for autumn colours! πŸπŸŒ°πŸ‚πŸ§‘

There's lots of red, orange and brown. In one gorgeous October orange tree I saw a happy crow (I was standing at a bus stop at the time, proof that you really don't need to go anywhere special to find inspiration!).

I spotted a patch of hawthorn on the way to the post office that had beautiful red leaves as well as red berries.

Shades of orange and brown are echoed in old walls and tiled roofs.

On a very damp and foggy morning, I couldn't see more than a few metres ahead of me, which made me much more aware if what I could see. The long grasses are brown and yellow now.

And I've never realised before that my kettle is October orange!

#creativelife #inspirationiseverywhere
#autumn #octobercolours #taketimetonotice
October πŸπŸ‚πŸŒ°πŸ§‘ What I'm noticing: Some October πŸπŸ‚πŸŒ°πŸ§‘

What I'm noticing:

Some of the trees are still quite green, but there is yellow, red and brown as well.

My favourite trees outside the shop in the village are beautiful 🍁

There are lots of berries in the hedgerows and masses of rosehips. They seem to be ready earlier this year. I don't remember that many roses in June! 

I can smell wood smoke and people's coal fires. It's not that cold but a fire is always nice πŸ”₯

The evenings are really drawing in now. It's dark by the time I've finished the washing up.

The stars are so bright! And I can see my old friends Orion, Cassiopeia and the Great Bear.

Lots of people have autumn wreaths on their doors, including me πŸ₯° it seems like more of an American thing but I'm glad it's becoming a thing here too. 

The last picture is of my silly cat. I think she might be the reason why one of the little pumpkins is no longer on that string of lights, but who could resist that furry little face? 😍

#autumn #creativelife #wildblossomlife ##slowingdownabit
#getoutside #norfolkfens
Autumn is painting this tree red πŸπŸ’– What co Autumn is painting this tree red πŸπŸ’–

What colours are you noticing at the moment?

#creativelife
#wildblossomlife #october #autumncolours #slowdownandlook
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