Like many people, I've always sewn on and off, way before it became cool. For me, it is the perfect creative outlet, and the pay off is having unique, one-of-a-kind outfits or homewares. In recent years, thanks to social media, I get a real sense of community sharing that excitement with everyone else who is just as passionate and "gets it" when something turns out truly amazing or heartrendingly awful. I can happily spend time getting lost in the vortex that is Instagram scrolling!

Redundancy 10 years ago led to my hobby becoming my business and I became a WAHM - Working at Home Mum . I set up this Etsy shop, Facebook page, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram accounts - the full shabang. I spent many a weekend selling at a Craft Fair or Market somewhere in London and Brighton - and anywhere in between! In my past life I was a teacher so it seemed natural to combine my skills to run sewing machine workshops and after school sewing clubs. I founded a local community group, Stitch n Sip, out of my desire to meet, connect and inspire local like-minded people. Now 15 regular ‘members’ from different backgrounds meet weekly in a public community setting. Another highlight was when I was part of a 4 person panel at Mumsnet’s Workfest offering inspiration and advice to parents thinking of ‘taking the plunge’ to run their own businesses.

I lost some of the joy of sewing, and to be honest, I found running my own business overwhelming and all consuming. An opportunity as a family, to live and work overseas came at the right time and we moved to Almaty, Kazakhstan in August 2016. I put my Etsy shop on hold and spent time studying, sewing for fun and resurrecting my teaching career. I also took some of my British themed fabrics with me and sewed up some items to sell at a couple of craft fairs there! My husband's contract came to an end and we've moved back temporarily to England. Living overseas was the right thing for us as a family, but not quite the right place for us. Plus, I'm now a blonde!

And what now? I've never really had much of a cohesive approach, but British themed fabrics, using children's drawings and precious baby clothes, incorporating photographs and using upcycled fabrics have been at the core at what I do. However, I decided to pare right back and focus on my ready to ship items - most of which have a British theme - hence my new tagline of:

Quirky handcrafted fabric items with a British twist