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Wild Blossom Life
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  • 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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Do you... 🍁 Find inspiration in everyday thing Do you...

🍁 Find inspiration in everyday things?
🍁 Like spending time in nature?
🍁 Crave slowness but can't seem to find it?
🍁 Like making things but don't know where to start?
🍁 Maybe miss yourself a little bit?
🍁 Would like something gentle, not another demand?

Then you are in the right place! πŸπŸ§‘πŸ‚ This is exactly what Wild Blossom Life is about. No huge life changes or masses of time required, just some gentle ways to slow down a bit, notice the changing seasons, and be creative without any expectation of perfection. If this sounds like you, you are very welcome here πŸπŸ§‘πŸŒ°πŸ‚

#wildblossomlife #creativelife #seasonalcreativity
#natureinspired #slowingdownabit
I've been thinking about how easily we can slip in I've been thinking about how easily we can slip into comparing our lives with other people's and feel that we are failing because our lives don't look like theirs.

In the end, we are all different, our circumstances are different, our children are different, our home lives are different. What might work brilliantly for one person at the moment, in the season of life they are in, might just not work for you right now.

Sometimes the best we can do is accept that the current situation is what it is. Sometimes particular things need to take priority, or there might be a weird phase we have to live through. 

But it is worth remembering that growth can look like stillness, care can be keeping things simple, wintering is a thing, letting go is sometimes necessary, and tending what is can be as necessary as cooking up something new.

This is what Wild Blossom Life is about. It's not about making huge changes to your life. It's about doing little things that help, slowing down, getting outside even if it's only for a few moments, remembering to breathe, noticing what is there, then having some kind of creative thing for your hands to do if that is what you need, without pressure or expectation.

#wildblossomlife #autumn #lettinggoofperfectionism #peacefulmoments #changingseasons
From October's Wild Blossom Companion: "This is a From October's Wild Blossom Companion:

"This is a season of layers. 

Leaves drift down to form a rustling tapestry on the forest floor. 

The hedgerows become textured with sloes and rosehips. 

The fields lie stubbled and still. 

The skies stretch wider.

There's a richness in the layering of scent and sound: damp earth, woodsmoke and the call of migrating birds."

#creativelife #wildblossomcompanion #october #slowdownandlook #autumn #imspiredbynature
Painting leaves πŸπŸ‚πŸ§‘ After making an Octo Painting leaves πŸπŸ‚πŸ§‘

After making an October colour palette with water colour, I wanted to do something else with the paint. 

So I painted some leaves πŸπŸ‚

If you feel that you are not much of an artist, it can be difficult to try, even if you really want to. Often we have this expectation that what we make, draw or paint has to be perfect.

One thing that is very clear from looking at autumn leaves is how beautiful they are in all their imperfections! The colours are blotchy. They look like they ought to be symmetrical, but they often are not. The edges are wiggly and the lobes are uneven. So if you don't paint perfect, neat little watercolours, your leaves will probably be lovely!

I already had the colours, so that was one less thing to think about. It was a joyful experiment, not an exercise in perfection. Blotchiness is required! And a pro tip if you are new to this, let the leaves dry before painting the veins πŸ˜‰πŸ§‘

#creativelife #paintingautumnleaves #creativeinvitation #octobercolours #colourpaletteforoctober #lettinggoofperfection
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