Travel Bags – Sewing with Leather & Adding Zips

by | Apr 17, 2018 | Uncategorised

Earlier this month I headed off to New York for 8 eight days with my family. Our trip started on the Tuesday after the Easter weekend. This lovely long weekend before we headed off meant that once I had got my classes finished and the house and family prepared for the...

FreeSpirit & What This Means For Us

by | Feb 16, 2018 | Uncategorised

The announcement this week from Coats (owners of FreeSpirit Fabrics) was shocking in its swiftness, but the writing has been on the wall for some time, had we chosen to look at it. Coats business is dominated by its ‘Industrial’ business (around 70%)...

Allow Yourself a Bad Idea…

by | Feb 4, 2018 | Uncategorised

[sg_popup id=”11″ event=”onload”][/sg_popup]Yesterday I had an extremely rare term time Saturday off from teaching my lovely teen classes and attended a lecture by Tula Pink, a young Amercian textile designer, who now lives just outside Kansas...

STOP PRESS : New Year Delayed until 1st Feb

by | Jan 13, 2018 | Uncategorised

Twenty eighteen may be well underway, but,  even though the tree is down, the decorations are away and my tax is done (hurrah),  the start of my New Year is on hold until 1st February to allow me to complete more of my  ‘2017 Finishing Off List’. There is...

Making Presents – Should We?

by | Dec 28, 2017 | Uncategorised

I have read soooooooo many posts online these past few days, where people are upset that the gift they have made has not been properly appreciated or even appreciated at all.  It is sad, and I can feel all the frustration when I read each story. I don’t have...
Defining Your Own Colour Story

Defining Your Own Colour Story

by | Nov 21, 2017 | Uncategorised

It is very easy to buy a bundle of fabrics, all from the same range, because the colour combination (often called a colour story) will have been worked out for you. In the Tula Pink Tabby Road Collection, the ‘Strawberry Fields’ colourway has red grouped...

Go On – Touch the Tension Dial!

by | Oct 18, 2017 | Uncategorised

When I was at school, for the short time I was allowed into the sewing machine room, the whole class was warned never (NEVER) to touch the tension dial. We were all terrified of that tension dial and what could possibly happen if we altered it. Actually, when...

Understanding Your Overlocker

by | Oct 10, 2017 | Uncategorised

With the Singer Overlockers on sale in Lidl this week and with the use of overlockers on the TV series, The Great British Sewing Bee, more and more of the sewing community has access to an overlocker. Overlockers are sadly often misunderstood tools. They can do so...