The children have been drawing a lot of kings and queens lately in their artwork. I think this is largely inspired by all the Narnia stories we read them over the past year, plus the 'myths and legends' they've been reading at school. But in any case, I like this theme a lot.…

      Last week, my friend Kirsty and I went to see the French film Coco Avant Chanel and I completely fell in love with it- the 'look and feel' of it mostly. And all the clothes! I thought it was truly beautiful. In a couple of fleeting scenes, I saw Coco using a…

Last month I came up with this design for a 'housewife' needlecase after seeing one in a vintage craft book, (you might have seen my blog post here) and I casually mentioned I'd post a tutorial for them, in case you'd like to make one too. Obviously, it didn't quite happen the next week, mostly…

I bought this old, very fine silk scarf from an antique store a while back. Mostly because I completely fell in love with its print: botanical illustrations of Swiss native flowers on a pale pink, cream and green background. But the scarf itself had lots of stains on it and a couple of holes and…

I've been thinking about making some moreporks for a while now, and finding my old book about NZ birds was a good prompt. A morepork is a small owl native to NZ- (Maori name ruru), so called because its call sounds like it wants more pork. I used to hear them from my bed as…

    Here's a collection of garden-inspired items I've made- some things for my small shop update this week, and a new dress for Keira. I've had that brown vintage fabric for a while now- it was given to me a couple of years ago by Amisha. K pulled it off the shelf the other…

I found this page in an old book of mine the other day: 'Gifts to make', (published in 1974, Marshall Cavendish, London) and was intrigued by the idea of this 'sewing housewife' it featured. Well, not the idea of a long, fold-up case for keeping sewing supplies together, but rather the name of it. Why…

The children have been invited to a 'kings and queens' party on the weekend, so we've been doing a bit of research about possible costumes and gifts. The Head King and Queen are brother and sister, and celebrating their birthdays together in one party- so I made them these felt crowns for their dress-up box.…

I finished the purple and black quilt. At first, I basted together the quilt layers gingerly, conscious that I should have asked Mum for help, and feeling rather worried that the whole thing was a disaster. But then I realised it was actually quite enjoyable to work on something so big for a change- and…

Arlo says thank you for your nice comments on his post last week. He was thrilled with those. Today has been long anticipated: it's his first day at primary school. I know I could easily have bought him a backpack, but for some reason I just wanted to make him one. A bit of homemade…