One of my favourite things about the lead-up to Christmas is making sweets and baking. The kids have been helping to choose recipes, which invariably require abundant quantities of chocolate, and design cards and gift tags. This year we wrapped homemade sweets of all types for their teachers, and tried something new: rocky road. We found…

In a rather unoriginal move, I completely copied a dress I liked on Pinterest. It's this one. I couldn't find it for sale, so I made it myself. It took a really long time, because I didn't have a pattern – I realised how much more i enjoy sewing with a pattern. Because there are quite a few…

– This yarn was a gift from my Mum. She bought it while visiting my sister who lives in the Czech Republic. It's Rowan 'fine art' sock yarn in the colourway Chiff-Chaff. Isn't that a great name? The colours are smoky greys, and purples. Mum said it was hard to choose colours she would never personally want…

I made a set of pillowcases for a very dear friend who I have always associated with the colour yellow. I knew I had to source some Nani Iro fabric especially, to make sure they were really soft and light. (I bought it from my local shop Stitchbird). S.J.E has recently had a baby and I…

Would you like to make a few ornaments for your Christmas tree, or someone else's? Here's the promised tutorial for the decorations I wrote about the other day. Put on your favourite album, make a cup of tea, and enjoy some Christmas crafting. It's quite likely you won't need these templates or instructions, but I…

Thanks for your comments on my last blog post. Yes, I will publish an embroidery pattern and template here for you to download and make some ornaments of the same design. Later this week, if I can work out how (I'm truly hopeless at things like that.) I bought this beautiful piece of Nani Iro…

I made a batch of these ornaments after a few requests on etsy for something Christmassy. I really enjoyed making them — I used wool felt in dark grey, red and white, and embroidered each one with white of grey thread. They are backed with recycled fabrics – bits of Liberty and kimono silk, mostly.…

I spent a chunk of late winter – spring working on a collection of embroidered project bags for beautiful London store Loop - you can find them for sale here. Susan, who commissioned them, bought a selection of jewel-coloured Swedish linen from a neighbouring shop and sent it to me to be embroidered. She has great…

The sun was shining this weekend and I had time for novel-reading and knitting which was pretty nice. Hope you had a good weekend too? I got to finish a project that had been sitting on my desk for a while: a pair of these shorts for miss K. I'm so pleased with the finished…

Nicola, my clever and generous friend, made this recipe calendar and sent me a copy the other day. I enjoyed the 2015 version, too! This year's calendar looks to be another winner, and there are already quite a few recipes I want to make (lemon bars, strawberry icecream, cashew dhal…) so I probably won't be…