Why I spent a year not buying any new craft materials

I moved house at the start of 2022. I knew I’d accumulated quite a craft stash over the 9 years since we’d last moved but having to box it all up revealed exactly how much I’d managed to cram into the craft cupboard. It also allowed me to compare the number and size of boxes I packed compared to the number of boxes football memorabilia my partner had acquired (and that I was always moaning to him about). 

I started mulling over how I’d ended up with such a stash: 

• Buying something just because it was pretty without a clear idea of how I might use it 

• Being gifted or inheriting materials, again without a link to a particular project 

• Trying new crafts and buying all the necessary tools and materials 

• Keeping left over materials because they might be useful 

• Packages often containing far more materials than I needed for a particular project 

• I had disposable income and I chose to spend it on craft materials. 

It was that last point that really got me thinking and exploring my feelings towards my stash. 

To be honest I felt embarrassed by all the things I had accumulated. No one needs that much stuff. I felt embarrassed because I felt privileged to be in a position to waste money on things that were just sitting in boxes waiting for their moment to come alive.  

My move also came after taking 18 months career break when I wasn’t working full time, so I was more aware of how much money I’d spent and was tied up in my stash. 

The packing and move was precipitated by needing to care for a family member and moving into their property. Knowing we’d have less space of our own and how much of their stuff we would need to go through and decide what to keep, donate to charity, sell or chuck out also brought into focus the question of actually what objects do we really need to have in our every day life. 

Even if I made a project a week for the next 5 years, I’m would still have a huge stash of stuff. So what could I do to address the size and feelings towards my stash? 

First up, crafting is a huge part of what I do to relax and is my biggest form of self-care. Having a stash of materials is a reasonable consequence of this past-time and I accept that, but I can still indulge in this hobby without needing every single item I currently own. 

Not buying any new craft materials for 12 months was the obvious first step towards rationalising my stash. I have not been 100% successful but I have pretty much cut out buying something just because it is pretty. There were a few exceptions I allowed myself (as I’m trying to kick a 30 year habit!) 

• Quarterly Craftpod – I consider this part of my self-care routine as the projects are so gorgeous. But what I have started doing is not keeping all the off cuts ‘just in case’ 

• Gifts – my family will often get me something craft related as a gift. This is a nice thing, I don’t want it to stop but I’ll direct them to a kit or workshop rather than just a load of materials so I can make a project and move on 

• Workshops – having moved, I was looking for activities that would let me meet more people locally and discovered Pimms and Needles, which is a craft based group. Every month we make a new project. But the good thing about this I can try out a new craft without buying all the stuff. The bad thing is that I end up walking away with a finished item that I need to find a home for!

I also acknowledged that there may be a need to buy some craft materials to use up some that are already in my stash. For example, to use up 3 metres of Jersey fabric I need some 1/4 inch clear elastic. In this case the aim was to buy exactly the amount of elastic I needed to complete this project and not extra just because it was a better deal. 

I was also more conscious with the projects I chose to make. I have four plastic tubs of fabric which is one of the bigger collections in my stash. I embarked on a quilting project to use up all the fabric scraps I’ve accumulated, even the very tiny scraps that could never be used for making a garment. I also went through the larger sections of fabric and have matched the fabric with projects I want to make. I browsed Ravelry for knitting and crochet patterns that match the yarn weights I have in my stash rather than just picking a project and buying the yarn to fit it.

So why am I talking about not buying any new craft materials when I design and make craft kits? Well, if you like the idea of partaking in some craft as therapy or self-care but don’t want to end up with the stash problem I’ve found myself with, then kits are a great solution. Even though didn’t buy any new materials for the year, I did give myself permission to buy kits as it’s a controlled way of fulfilling my creativity needs. 

Enjoyed this blog post? I share embroidery tips and a free embroidery pattern in my monthly newsletter. Sign up here to receive the newsletter on the 1st of each the month.

Cat proof quilt

We have a cat. He's great. But we are first time cat owners and we didn't appreciate that cat hair GETS EVERYWHERE.

His favourite hobbies are eating and snoozing and in a futile attempt to minimise the amount of cat hair on bedding I thought I’d make a quilt top to protect the duvet on the spare bed.

If you want to make a simple quilt such as this one here’s how:

• Collect together fabrics in your selected colour way (my cat is white & ginger so I chose neutrals which should show his hairs less) if you can, collect a mix of plain, stripes, dots and other patterned fabric

• A cutting mat, rotary cutter and quilting ruler help make the cutting out process much easier and fun! I cut my fabric into 10cm squares (with a 1cm seam allowance the finished sized square was 8cm)

• Lay out the squares on the floor. I found that setting a few ‘rules’ helped me for example not having the stripes all going the same way, how many plain squares I wanted per row/column. The number of squares you have per fabric may also vary and you can decide on the number of squares of that fabric per row/column which also helps with the layout

• Step away from your laid out pattern and make a cup of tea, when you come back, look again at the layout and see if there is anything that needs to move around, especially with dominant colours or patterns which catch the eye first (but don’t forget the other sections which you may spot later and jar with you)

• Take a picture of your layout so you can make sure you are still happy with it later (and it can be used as a reference point if any of the squares get muddled up

• Pin the squares together in strips, use scrap paper pinned to each strip to number each one so that you can identify each piece

• Using a constant seam allowance (I used 1cm) stitch each square to the others in the strip

• Once each strip has been sewn, press the seam allowances flat

• Pin the strips together. If any seam allowances don’t match up across strips you can decide whether to live with the mismatch or unpick and re-sew

• Once all the strips have been sewn together you will have one large panel, press any new seams open so that the panel is completely flat

• I cut out backing from a cheap king sized sheet by laying the sheet flat on the floor and laying the panel on top and cutting with a generous seam allowance

• For my quilt I wasn’t looking for it to be too insulated so I didn’t include any wadding/batting, I just put an old sheet in the middle before pinning on the backing. I pinned the three layers together before tacking them together by hand as I find it easier to get the accuracy I’m looking for by hand rather than machine

• For the edge of the quilt I used bias binding that I made from the same fabric as one of the squares. (This is a useful tutorial for making your own bias binding.) Again I attached the bias binding by hand, you can use a machine but you will probably need a walking foot to handle the different layers of fabric.

Recycled materials embroidery

I work a lot with recycled fabric such as old sheets and old shirts.

For my third and final assessed piece for my embroidery course we had a choice of six design briefs and when I saw the brief involving recycled materials I knew that was the brief for me. The brief involved designing something to hang in the foyer of the local council to promote recycling by showcasing what recycled materials could be turned into. The focus was on paper and plastic and the design I came up with was based around the recycle arrow symbol and a world map. To bring in the element about what recycled materials could be turned into around the edge were embroidered words of things that could be made.

I really loved working with the paper scraps and stitching these together, I think this created a great effect, as for the plastic and wording I would have taken this off as it looked much better without it, but it was needed to fulfil the brief!

Cambodia goldwork project

I’d wanted to visit Cambodia for a long time and in summer 2018 it actually happened. Once of the places we visited was the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh where I saw these fabulous gates and just had to snap a photo.

I’ve been wanting to make and embroidery based on this picture for a while. At first I tried printing the photo directly onto fabric but because I’d taken the photo on my iPhone the resolution wasn’t great. So instead I used a drawing app on my iPad to trace over the photo and create a line drawing. I got this printed on to fabric and it worked so much better.

Having seen so many beautiful gold Buddhas on my trip I knew that stitching in gold would be perfect and I love it!

Jungle wall hanging

Module 9 of my City & Guilds course was my second assessed piece which required me to create a wall hanging. I think because I’ve been sitting on the sofa staring at my houseplants too much during lockdown this is where the inspiration for this module has come from.

The original design, stitch sample and finished piece are shown below.

Floral pouch

Module 9 of my City & Guilds course we had free reign to design anything. A bit intimidating at first but I knew I wanted to make a useful object (as the next module required us to make a wall hanging).

Looking back at the designs I’d created in previous modules I came up with an abstract floral design with each ‘flower’ stitched in a different way. I also loved perfecting my woven picot stitches to create the leaves.

The design I created, the piece in progress and the finished item are below. I love how this turned out.

Sublimation printing and flocking workshop

I spotted the leaflet for this workshop during the visit to the Sandra Rhodes exhibition and when my other half was struggling to know what to get me for Christmas I handed him the leaflet.

I’ve not tried any kind of textile printing beyond fabric paints so was intrigued to try something new. The workshop was run by Nicole Line and we started by painting some flock paper.

We then moved on to working with sublimation papers which are papers with sublimation dyes already embedded that you can transfer to fabric using a heat press (or being very patient with a very hot iron). You can use paper templates, cut shapes from the paper or just create a collage from scraps.

After lunch we moved onto the flocking and experimented with a couple of different techniques. This included painting patterns with glue directly onto the fabric, screen printing glue onto the fabric and painting and flocking onto different textures. Once the glue has dried the flocking paper is placed over the glue and heat pressed together to transfer the textured flock to the fabric.

Beads, Buttons, Braids and Edging

Module 7 of my City & Guilds course was all about finishing techniques. At first I thought I’d fly through this module as I got going with the samples pretty quickly but I found some of the sample categories a little un-motivating and my momentum dried up. This did coincide with a pretty tough time at work and the darker days making it difficult to photograph the samples. But with advent of the new year I have a burst of energy finished the last few samples and got them photographed in my mini photography studio.

Salt Stitches workshop

Back in March I treated myself to a workshop with Emily from Salt Stitches. Her work is truly unique and I was fascinated to learn about her process. It’s fairly simple - she photographs ‘textures’ prints them onto fabric and then stitches over them. But the beauty is in how you select the colours, the placing of the colours and the direction of the stitches.
The first three photos show the evolution through the 5 hours of the workshop.

The final photo shows a piece I stitched from scratch using a DIY kit I bought as a birthday treat. In this piece I more carefully picked a colour palette and thought as much about the unstitched areas as the stitched ones.

Fabric dyeing

Module 6 of my City & Guilds course was all about fabric dyeing. I have to admit that I procrastinated starting this module partly because it wasn’t embroidery based, But as with module 2 once I started I really enjoyed the process of experimenting.

There were 5 different dyeing techniques for us to try, you can see each of the techniques in the pictures below along with the outcomes.

• plastic bag dyeing

• microwave dyeing

• space dying

• ice cube dying

• drainpipe dying

Quilting, stumpwork and smocking

Module 5 of my City & Guild course brings together three very different styles of embroidery.

The first of these, hand quilting, brought back memories from childhood creations. It’s a beautifully simple technique with a rustic appeal. This piece I stitched when I was about 11 (I’ve always loved a bead embellishment) compared to the piece I stitched for this module.

The second technique broke down two of the elements of stump work embroidery, lines and needlelace. The design was based on the same inspiration used for module 1, I used a brown colour palette for the stumpwork piece as the shapes seemed forest/twig like. In contrast I used greens for the needlelace sample.

The final technique was smocking, which also brought back childhood memories of cute little gingham dresses. There are two elements to any piece of smocking - firstly creating the pleats and secondly adding the smocking stitches.

Appliqué, canvaswork and gold work

Module 4 of my City & Guilds course explored goldwork which was completely new to me. When my parents moved house I was donated some craft supplies that were surplus to requirements which included some gold work threads - this allowed me to experiment without worrying about how much I was wasting (gold work threads are made from gold coloured paper wrapped around silk and cost about £1 per metre).

Counted stitch embroidery

Module 3 of my City & Guilds course was counted work embroidery. As with module 1, some of our samples were based on designs we created using a famous artist for inspiration. In this module I chose Paul Klee.

The techniques covered in this module were cross stitch, blackwork, Hardanger and drawn thread work. I was a bit scared of Hardanger at first (because of the need to snip into your work) but I really loved creating the sample for this technique. I was helped along by a book on Hardanger embroidery my Mum found in a charity shop but this website also has a number of great tutorials.

Basics of hand embroidery

The first module of my City & Guilds course was all about the basics - trying different stitches. To complete this module we had to complete 4 samples - line stitches, textural stitches, isolated stitches and blocks of stitches.

The latter was the most enjoyable - I researched as many different stitches as I could (this book has a surprisingly wide range). I divided up my fabric into rectangles using a water soluble pen and started stitching. This was the sample in progress at my local cafe.

Designs on a theme

Module 2 of my City & Guilds course was a pure design module, not a stitch in sight. A lot of the work I’ve done in the past has either been intuitive or I have a very clear idea in my head and I experiment until I achieve the desired effect. Therefore sitting down and designing something from scratch for no purpose other than to create a design was alien to me.

However, we were guided through the process starting with selecting a theme and four photos on that theme. The theme I chose was ‘blocks’.

Clockwise from top left: Cinque Terre near Genoa, wall of Suomenlinna fort near Helsinki, Temple ruin near Angkor Wat, exhibit in Pergammon Museum in Berlin

We then traced elements of those photos and repeated those elements to further the designs. I started off using pen and paper but I found a great app on my iPad that allowed me to trace the photo electronically which gave a much more polished and professional look.

Below are some of the favourite of the designs I created for this module.

Distance learning City & Guilds course

I’ve always been a self taught crafter supplemented by the odd workshop or short course. I’ve never had any formal education in art or craft. After all these years I felt it was about time to get some more formal education, and as I’m currently obsessed with embroidery this was the course I wanted to do.

Most of the options I could find were year-long daytime courses which just didn’t suit my needs (as I work full time). So I googled and came across School of Stitched Textiles.

I wasn’t sure about it at first as I couldn’t find any reviews or feedback and didn’t want to pay out the course fee without some idea of what I might be getting. But I went for it in the end and I’m glad I did.

So I want to share my experience a few months after signing up: 

• There are only a limited number of places available each registration period (and only a limited number of registration periods a year) so if you find a course you want to do you can’t necessarily start straight away.

• You can chose a level and discipline, the brochures on the site give you descriptions of what is covered in each level. I felt I was already skilled in everything in level 2 but level 3 covered an number of styles I’d not tried (as well as some I had) and this seems the right level for me.

• The courses aren’t cheap, but the level 3 course I’m on is meant to take 2 years so works out at a monthly cost of about £80. You can pay in one lump sum or instalments. I was worried I wouldn’t like the course or life would get in the way but the additional cost of the instalments led to my decision to pay a lump sum. I was lucky to have the savings to pay for it in one go so could make that decision.

• Once you’ve signed up and paid you get added to a Facebook group with the other students in your cohort. There are live tutor chats, the timing has so far not worked out for me to join live but you can watch the recording. You are encouraged to share pictures of your progress in the group.

• About 3 weeks after you sign up you get the materials for the first 3 modules sent through as well as the course specification and an intro module. I made sure I read each module in detail and then started breaking down the module into actionable chunks as sometimes exactly what is needed takes some unpicking. I then used Trello to plan the tasks and the time needed for each (I love a project plan!) It also helps to plan ahead to order the necessary materials.

• Modules 1-3 require you to research other artists. For each one I thought I knew which artist I wanted to use but ended up researching 2 or 3 before finding the right one for that task. It is worth getting this bit right.

• Modules 1 & 3 involve stitching, module 2 doesn’t. I had a bit of an itch to stitch mid way through module 2 so started work on module 3. You should do the modules and tasks in order as the build in each other but I was mostly complete module 2 when I started on module 3.

• The amount of time you spend on your samples depends on how much stitching your design involves. Many of my designs so far have involved dense blocks of stitching so have taken quite a long time to complete.

A distance learning course suits me - being mostly self taught I’m comfortable relying on my own research (although you are assigned a tutor alongside the Facebook group) but this style of learning may not suit everyone.