I love love love it when crafting gets into the mainstream media. If it makes just one person pick up some fabric, needle and thread and make something, then I get a little warm glow. It’s this feeling that has inspired me to set up my own chapter of Church of Craft in Manchester.

I was really happy to read this little article in the Guardian , it really cheered up  my bus ride to work.  It also inspired me to make time to finish the three sewing projects I have going on at the moment.  There is the smocked dress from the great UK craft book Making Stuff (weirdly, I have the exact same fabric, although I used a purple rather than blue. I had planned to make cushions from it, but the dress was too good to resist). I’ve also got the a-line skirt I am making from upholstery fabric, which I need to make a waist band for and then I need to sew together the bag I made. Pictures to follow of each when they’re done.

Actually it was sewing that brought me to the online craft community and the old version of www.getcrafty.com not long after Jean Railla had founded it, I followed a link for making a skirt from a pillow case (we’re back to making skirts out of non-dress making fabric) and it all grew from there. Okay, so it took me about another 3 years before I sewed anything, but it was a start. From tiny seeds grow big trees and from one stitch grows a huge love of crafting.