Here are some more tasters of the book (Sew It Up). These are two details of projects from the book; an apron made from recycled shirts and a cushion made from recycled wool felt. There isn’t such a strong pink theme in the rest of the book, by the way!

There are 18 other projects including a skirt, a pincushion, a needle case, a blouse, placemats, curtains, a cuff, a blanket, a hand puppet, a scarf, a customised t-shirt, a pillowcase, another cushion, a hanging garland, a corsage and two bags! Now all the photography has been done, I’m very happily making use of several of the finished projects and particularly enjoying the finished handbag I waited very impatiently to be returned from the photographer!

There are loads and loads of techniques in the book, over 100 I think, from putting in zips (7 different ways!) to American smocking. The stuff I’ve enjoyed writing most are sections about designing your own sewing projects (building up your confidence and pushing boundaries), about buying fabric (how to get a feel for cloth and learn to understand it) and about getting into dressmaking – choosing patterns that suit you, making facings that don’t annoy you – all the stuff I didn’t know when I started sewing.
Writing it all has filled me with ideas of more books I want to write – about re-furbishing and repairing clothes, a whole book on fabric manipulation, one on cushions, one on designing handbags, one on textile jewellery…. I have endless designs for projects…. But I need to do other things as well (like sleep, play, walk, rest, sew (for myself), read, watch films, exercise, socialise, tidy up, and sleep a whole lot more) so a 3rd book will have to wait a while. But yes, there is book 2 in the pipeline. But first, some of that sleep.