Some days, especially as dark, rainy Yorkshire winter sets in, I just need to spend some time playing with beads. Cheerful, colourful, happy beads. Today I made a bead and wire necklace, not dissimilar to the one in my portfolio, but this time I documented it for your benefit, in case you, too, need some …
“Ladie’s” fashion is stupid in a lot of ways, but the lack of a sensible place to put your phone is one of the worst stupidities. I fix all my jeans with a phone holster on the outside of the thigh, where my phone is in easy reach at all times without getting in the …
Never crocheted before? Excellent, you’re in the right place. Especially if you’re a woolly-liberal-snowflake type like me. This tutorial will get you from zero to pretty snowflake without boring you to death, and while teaching you approximately 50% of everything about crochet. And when I say zero, I mean I’m assuming you know pretty much …
What, you *don’t* do a bit of weaving when you’re visiting your parents in Vermont? Well I guess I am at an advantage in that my mother is a highly accomplished hand weaver, so don’t feel bad. I was finally able, after two years, to go back to Vermont and see my parents. And was …
I’m in the middle of a project which is going to have lacing in it, and also in the middle of one massive, days-long squeal of excitement regarding my new eyelet press and how much easier it’s going to make setting eyelets in all the laced garments I’m going to be making, when into my …
Once upon a time, long, long ago, I made a dress form in the shape of me from a whole lot of gummed paper tape. I followed this tutorial from Threads magazine, and if you’re thinking of doing this, but plaster casts and expanding foam feels a bit too much, that might be a good …
My mate Loukas, to whom I have owed a few days’ work for aaaaaages, came to stay last week so we could get to work on a project he’s been eyeing up for a while. Somewhere, he’d happened upon a small mountain of old scout and guide tents, the cotton canvas kind, and his creative …
I was lucky enough to spend a day this past weekend at Running With Scissors in Sheffield, teaching some lovely people to make a shirt in a day. It is every bit as ambitious as it sounds. But they were well up for a challenge and they did magnificently. Up to and including this course, …
I’ve been messing about with this bead and wire technique since I saw a Very Expensive necklace in a posh artisan shop in town and thought to myself, “I could do that…” I love the bit where I go to my stack of drawers full of beads of every shape and colour and just choose …
Emboldened by the success of the first pair of boxers I made, and somewhat overexcited by the re-opening of charity shops, I decided to make Julian some crazy new boxers. I came home with this haul of old garments: And from them I made this pile of pants: These take a up a lot more …
