Make, Mend & Treasure
I’ve really enjoyed working with Bothy Threads over the past year or so creating an exclusive range of embroidery kits. One of my favourite designs to create was Make, Mend & Treasure ; a kit celebrating my love of sewing, embroidery, patchwork & mending. I’m very fond of vintage textiles and have so much admiration for how our ancestors put so much care and time into making clothes and home textiles, then mending them as needed and passing on these treasured items. Aside from the positive environmental aspect of using our resources responsibly, giving people the confidence to develop their manual skills such as sewing, knitting, woodwork.etc has endless benefits to their own mental health and peace.
I remember as a child being in awe of my granny’s skill in altering clothes and adding embroidered details to cover flaws. She would just dream up designs and stitch them freehand. I still have the dungarees (shown below) which she made for me when I was small. Being a 70’s child, I was a big Muppets fan and so having Kermit on one pocket and my initial on the other was an absolute delight. It’s pretty impressive how her perfect hand stitching held up on a well used piece of child’s clothing.
This is a perfect example of a treasure to me. Granny unfortunately passed away last year however she lived to be 104 so had a long and happy life. You’d be forgiven for assuming my Granny taught me to embroider however she lived in Ireland and we grew up in England so we only saw her in the holidays and I never thought of asking her to teach me. I just remember she was the most creative person I had ever met, and making just came naturally to her. She was also an amazing knitter which might be in part due to her originating from Donegal; which is synonymous with yarn.
I taught myself to embroider not long after I had my first child. I really fell in love with it and like my granny I just free-styled and saw what happened. I mostly created artworks to display, one-off pieces of textile jewellery, accessories & needle books (as shown below)I loved using vintage textiles or hand dyed threads & linen. Apart from enjoying the look of the finished items, it is definitely the physical process of stitching that makes my soul sing. I did in particular enjoy gifting things I had stitched and was in particular delighted to hear my granny kept a needle book always by her side which I had made for her. I can imagine my stitching probably didn’t hold up as well as my granny’s but she appreciated how much time & thought had been poured into that small gift.
With all that in mind, I know many people are intimidated to try embroidery (especially freestyle hand embroidery) They often think it is far more complicated than it is. I can understand the appeal of cross stitch or tapestry where there is the reassuring presence of a chart to follow and the repetitiveness of the stitching can be calming. However hand embroidery can be as simple or elaborate as you choose and is in particular suitable to those with that little rebellious streak who want to add their own flair to a project. A lovely way to start your stitching journey is to begin with a kit which will introduce you to the different stitches and guide you warmly through the steps. The designs in the kits I have designed with Bothy Threads are fully printed onto the fabric so it provides a lovely base and guide for you to add to. Each kit uses a variety of different stitches and the option to stitch as much as you wish. I have fully stitched the whole designs(including the corners) but I understand you might not wish to stitch this much. Some stitches are simple and provide rhythm and calm whereas others take more concentration but have a more immediate satisfying effect. There are fully detailed instructions for each element of the design and always the option to contact Bothy Threads or myself for any additional help required. Anyone who knows my work, knows I love adding gold to paintings, cards and embroideries are no different so many of the kits feature the use of metallic threads. I provide full instructions and advice regarding using them as I know they can be tricky but they are very satisfying to include.
Some customers have shared they are stitching the kits to gift to someone eventually which is lovely to hear. All that love and care poured into those treasures! I hope they also help build confidence in someone’s ability to see how they can use their own creativity and encourage them to try other kits or even freestyle and see where their imagination takes them. I’d love to hear if you have any stitched treasures or are creating some yourself. To see all the kits available CLICK HERE
Take care, Cassandra xx