Starting a new project or managing daily tasks can feel overwhelming, especially when your creative energy is pulled in many directions. As someone who loves sewing, textiles, and fabric crafts, I’ve found that small, consistent habits make a huge difference in staying productive without burning out. Whether you’re a crafter, a cat lady balancing hobbies and home life, or someone who enjoys working with sewing machines, these daily habits can help you get more done while keep

As you can probably guess, my fabric choices can be as chaotic as my brain. That doesn’t mean they can’t work together, it just means they might not make sense to anyone else at first glance. I can get wildly carried away in a fabric shop, stroking bolts of fabric like a Victorian lady fainting over velvet and spending far too long gazing at colour ranges instead of making decisions.

But then summer rolled in, as it always does, and suddenly I had six weeks off work. Six whole weeks of no bells, no students, no deadlines. That was when everything shifted. With time, space, and absolutely no one policing my day, I really started to learn who I was, and I threw myself straight into sewing. I was on every sewing course going. If someone was teaching it, I was there, armed with a notebook and absolutely no self-control around fabric shops.

These friendships have taught me something I didn’t learn until much later in life: I don’t need to change who I am to belong. I don’t need to be louder, more present, or constantly available. The right people don’t need a polished version of me,  they’re quite happy with the slightly chaotic, tea-fuelled, often absent one.

There are so many decisions, and every single one feels life-or-death when you’re a beginner. What thread? What fabric? What colour? On the bias or not on the bias? Is the fabric directional or am I about to sew this block upside down for the third time? And you can only make these decisions after industrial amounts of procrastination and enough cups of tea to qualify as a hydration hazard.

To make matters worse, I sewed like I was on the starting grid at Silverstone. Full speed, full chaos, full “why is the bobbin doing that?” energy.

Christmas is fast approaching and I have a few fabric eco-friendly Christmas items left. So, in the spirit of Christmas I am holding my first sale! A Cracking Christmas Sale! 15% off All Ready made Christmas Cracker Hats and 10% of the beautiful Advent Calendars

I do, however, miss the old days when I’d come home and “retrieve” the Christmas tree. Not because of a draft, but because Asbo, my late cat with the personality of a small outlaw, loved climbing right up the middle of it. Christmas always won, somehow. The tree… not so much.

If you thought I only had one fabric option for my reusable Christmas cracker hats… oh no. My fabric stash is a bit like Mary Poppins’ handbag: bottomless, slightly chaotic, and full of things you didn’t know you needed. More Fabric's, More Crackers, More Christmas Chaos (the good king)

So, I did what any sensible woman would do: I signed up for a course. I signed me and my mum up, because if I was going down this path, she was coming with me. She had recently retired and needed to have her time filled.We joined a “Get to Know Your Sewing Machine” workshop run by the Maker on the Move.