Skip to main content

2020 in Crafts

 How was your crafting year?


For me, homeschooling in the first part of the year left little time for crafting - except with the kids, as part of learning. There was a lot of drawing, colouring, painting, box-modelling with a hoard of recycling, and decorating kindness stones to hide during our daily walks.


I did find time to sew up fabric masks. I knew from the beginning of the pandemic that I would never want to wear a disposable mask - washable and reusable all the way! I've experimented with various styles and methods of making them, settling on a simple shaped design in the end. Friends and family soon asked me to make up masks for them, and I ended up making some for work colleagues using fabric custom-printed with images from the archive where I work. Making so many masks certainly gave me more confidence on the sewing machine, which I had bought in 2015 inspired by the Sewing Bee, but had never really got to grips with in a serious way. Masks were a gateway back into sewing!



In the summer my daughter asked me to organise a jumble and crafts sale for the RSPCA. I made a pile of masks, all from fabric already in my stash or from old clothes. Alongside these there was a lot of upcycling: decorated tin cans turned into flower pots or pencil holders. Scrap fabric too small for masks became hair scrunchies. I practiced some hand-sewing and embroidery by making some felties. I also turned pebbles into tic-tac-toe sets and story prompts by painting the stones and making simple draw-string bags from felt. The sale raised £150, with the face masks the most popular item by far! 






In the autumn we repeated it with Halloween themed crafts. A skittles set made of tin cans painted as various monsters sold out very quickly with requests to make more! Halloween bunting, glass jars and tin cans turned into potion pots dripping slime, and felt decorations also sold out.





For Christmas I ended up sewing a number of gifts and decorations, including fabric baubles, fabric trays, rice filled hand warmers, eco-friendly washable face wipes and book cushions for the kids. I also made several of my gifts for #YayAdvent, including experimenting with melted beads (Hama beads or Perler beads)! With the kids I stamped parcel paper to make eco-friendly Christmas wrapping paper.



Looking back over 2020, crafting of one kind or another has played a vital role in my year. It has been so important to make things, however amateurish they may turn out: battling the urge for perfectionism and learning to enjoy the process has been another theme of the year! Making things feels and being creative feels like a challege to the dark, something positive and good. I have no illusions that 2021 will be any better than 2020, at least at first - so crafting will continue, which leads me onto the net post - New Year Crafting Resolutions!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Eco-friendly Upcycled Face Wipes

 I recently ran up some eco-friendly face wipes for a friend. These are designed to replace cotton pads or face wipes, and are washable. To increase their green credentials I made the pad section from an old towel. I had some charm squares spare, so used those as the backing fabric. I cut the towel into squares that were slightly smaller than the charm square, and wrapped the fabric over the towel piece to form a small border.  I then sewed the top fabric down with a zigzag stitch. This meant I was mainly sewing on the fabric, as my machine can't sew through towel (unless I haven't found the right setting or needle of course)! Very very simple, but pretty and functional! There are lots of tutorials for other ways to make these face wipes, such as:  https://www.arosetintedworld.co.uk/how-to-make-reusable-make-up-remover-pads/ It seems to be even more simple with an overlocker:  http://juliawithanh.com/sewing/23-reusable-face-pads You can even crochet some! https://dab...

Sewing the Tessuti Apron

I've wanted to sew an apron for a while and came across the free Tessuti Apron pattern here . It was exactly what I was looking for, a cross-back apron with a square neckline. I decided to make it using this gorgeous pear print cotton twill fabric that I found at my favourite online fabric shop, DIY or Dye . I did look up whether the Tessuti Apron pattern would be suitable for a larger body like mine - it comes in a 'one-size-fits-all' pattern which is never really true. I did find fatter sewists saying they needed to adjust the pattern to lengthen the straps and widen the skirt section. I decided to make it as it came as I had a friend in mind who I could gift it to if it didn't fit me well. Above: Attaching the pocket Above: needle break! The folded layers of pocket in the heavy fabric were too much for a normal needle. I switched to a denim needle for the rest of the project. Above: halfway point. I still had the neckline to face and hem, and the straps to hem. Below...

#30DaysWild - crafting with nature

It's 30 Days Wild , the month of nature activities and wildlife activism organised by The Wildlife Trusts. During June, we are encouraged to do one 'random act of wildness' each day, whether that's something as complex as building hedgehog houses or digging ponds, to something as simple and peaceful as having breakfast outside or watching a wild webcam. The event gives us lots of opportunities for some wild crafting! Here's a rundown of wild crafty activities to do with kids - but there's many more on my 30 Days Wild Pinterest board - have a look! Leaf painting/rubbing Leaves can be used in so many different ways to create artworks - place them under paper and rub with crayons for an imprint, cover them in paint or felt-tips and press onto paper, arrange them in a collage, use them as the skirts for a woodland fairy, or imprint them into clay or salt dough! Sticks Sticks have so many potential uses! They can become paintbrushes, magic wands, picture frames, we...