Articles

Christmas is such a lovely time for many of us. Cherished time spent with family and friends, exchanging gifts and making memories. For me, remembering those who are less fortunate is also an incredibly important part of Christmas. Each year I make personal donations to children's charities in the hope I can make a child's Christmas that little bit better. This year I wanted to do more.

Christmas is the perfect opportunity to get your hands on those special little sewing treats. Whether you’re looking for a friend or want to give someone some helpful hints we’ve hand picked our favourite Christmas sewing gifts to suit every budget.

Velvet has had a serious comeback in recent years and is the perfect fabric for your autumn winter wardrobe. It is soft and warm against the skin making it perfect for everyday wear, but also packs some serious punch in the glamour stakes - hello knock out evening dress!

In this article we'll give you our top tips for sewing with velvet, share our sexy new velvet fabrics and give you some serious inspo and and ideas for projects using this delicious fabric.

If you've ever wondered about an embroidery machine - how do you use one? How expensive are they? What would I make? Which is the best embroidery machine for me? Then this video is for you. Together with Caroline from Husqvarna Viking we give you a quick overview to show you how much fun you could be having with an embroidery machine. We also cover all of these points in detail in the written article below.

It was my birthday on Monday and as a rare treat I spent the whole day shopping with Mom excitedly perusing the new autumn winter trends. I walked amongst the rails of my favourite high street stores mentally picking out patterns and fabrics I could use to recreate the looks my way. Sewing is such fun isn't it?!

Here's a round up of the key trends I spotted and the patterns and fabrics you can use to bring your handmade wardrobe bang up to date.

This August Bank Holiday weekend I had the pleasure of attending the Sewing Weekender for the third year in a row. Organised by the lovely ladies at the Foldline and Charlotte of the 'English Girl at Home' blog it is a real treat. Find out what we did, who was there and why I love this piece of sewing heaven so much.

The range of sewing machine presser feet on the market today can be quite bewildering! However, understanding the capabilities can be incredibly eye opening for everyone from beginners to experienced sewists.

I've known people who have struggled with a particular sewing task for 40 years then discovered a presser foot that takes all the stress out of that particular technique. Less frown lines, surely that's a good thing?

Not only do presser feet solve sewing struggles, but they can also help you to really make a project your own by adding unique and imaginative details like never before. This may create smile lines, but we can live with those, right?!

We are passionate about helping people to make these discoveries so wrote this handy ultimate guide to sewing machine feet. As you can imagine this is a rather substantial article so we've also included a handy quick reference table to help you to jump around the article and find the bits you are interested in.

For the last year I have been working on an extremely exciting project with my friend Anne. Last weekend all our hard work came to fruition and we hosted the Stitch Room Sewcial, a two day sewing event, at Loughborough University. With a truly unique offering of activities and a wonderful group of delegates I think it is safe to say it was a huge success. Find out what we did and more importantly how you can be involved in the next one!

Summer prom and special occasion season is nearly upon us. If you are tasked with making your own or someone else's dream gown here is some inspiration to get the creative juices flowing! If your summer prom days are long behind you fear not these patterns and fabrics are also ideal for weddings, cruises and summer balls or any other special occasion. Seven stunning dress patterns and gorgeous fabrics perfect for the Belle of the ball.

I don't know about you, but I am so over winter! I keep finding myself day dreaming of sunshine and summer dresses willing the grey skies and baltic temperatures to kindly push off! To help lift my mood I've spent some time picking out the key trends for Spring/Summer 2018 and the patterns and fabrics you can use to get your handmade wardrobe bang up to date. As always the focus is on the truly wearable rather than wacky catwalk.