Sunday 2 April 2017

A Mother's Day Gift and a new sewing project

As I said in my blog last week my son gave me a new book for Mother's Day. He bought me Cath Kidston's Sewing Book published in 2014.


This is a beautiful book and all this week I have been looking forward to making something and waiting patiently for the weekend to find the time. There are so many projects in the book that will make a nice change from making clothes and lots of things that will be lovely to give as presents

The book comes with everything you need to make the pocket sewing kit so I started this morning with this quick project. It reminds me of the small sewing kits known as housewifes of Hussif  which soldiers used to keep in their kits. I found a really interesting article on Soldier's Hussifs written by Nicola Parkman on the blog Hands Across the Sea Samplers which you can read here.


Everything was supplied in the pack and the fabric was already cut out so it has been great just to follow the instructions. The sewing kit came together very quickly. I love the contrast between the little birds fabric and the shocking pink trimmings and altogether it has been a pleasure to make.

What did I enjoy most? I liked making something so small and compact. The instructions advised me to pin and tack everything together before machining and I really enjoyed the hand sewing. The pieces fitted together well and once all the different sections were tacked in place the sewing was easy.

This project reminded me why I like to make my own bias binding. Commercially made binding is so stiff and much more difficult to ease around the curves, but it does look good now.


There are three pockets in the sewing kit and each one is made in a different way which gave this quick project lots of variety. It would make a lovely present for a friend who likes sewing and I would love to make another one in a different fabric.



I altered the pattern slightly when it came to the button loops. I have made buttonholes to replace the cotton loops in the original design. I thought these would be stronger and would stand up better to me filling the sewing kit with lots of useful items, which I am sure that I will be tempted to do.


Spring is coming and the weather is getting slightly warmer here. This always makes me start planning holidays away. We have a touring caravan for family holidays which feels just like having a grown up play house. I like to make things like this to personalise our caravan and I will be filling the sewing kit with useful things so that if anyone tears their clothes or looses a button while we are away I will be able to fix it. 


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