Articles

The Great British Sewing Bee kids week started with Joe dressed as a giant furry bee and ended with him sharing his spin off series idea of Patrick and Esme wrestling in the car park! He is certainly throwing himself into the role: dressing up, joking with the contestants and he even has Esme smiling week after week - floss anyone?!

We are less than a week away from the hotly awaited Great British Sewing Bee series 5 airing. I haven't sensed this much anticipation or excitement since surrounded by a bunch of under sevens on Christmas Eve. With a new host (Joe Lycett) and ten new contestants we are in for a real treat. Let's find out a little bit about the chosen ones and the first set of challenges they'll face...

A New Year is a great excuse to reflect and plan, especially when it comes to sewing. Ok I realise I am a little late to the party here, but surely  it's never too late to take stock and look back on how you got on with your sewing goals for the year? Find out how I got on against my plans and what I've learned from reviewing them. I love doing this every year and find it uncovers some surprising facts.

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.