So… Is Handmade Worth It? If you want the cheapest option available, no, handmade custom designs that are More Shabby Than Chic are not for what you are looking for.

This was one of my very first custom card projects, and in typical me style, I over-stretched myself spectacularly. By the end, my hair was thinning, my hands were permanently mimicking the motions of folding and gluing, and my Cricut and I were no longer on speaking terms. In all honesty, this project pushed me right to the edge of a breakdown. I can say, without exaggeration, that it took blood, sweat, and tears. Was it worth it? Yes.

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.

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.