The Sewing Dilettante

This weekend was the first in a long time that we didn't have visitors or weren't ourselves away, and it was such a luxury to be at home with nothing much to do! We had glorious weather, so we spent a lot of quality family time outside, soaking up the sun. Otherwise, I had zero plans beyond relaxing and recouping from the past few weeks of visiting and entertaining, so I was glad to have some hand sewing at the ready for a cozy evening on the sofa on Saturday. I've been following the  Saturday Night Craftalong  hosted by Lucy of Charm About You on Instagram for a while now but never had the chance to participate, so this seemed like the perfect time to join in with my teeny, tiny hexies . Just for fun, I started sewing them into multi-coloured daisies. When I wound up for the evening, I had a pile of zany and colourful mini flowers. I'm still not quite sure what I'll do with these, but it occurred to me that I might be able to use them in combination w

In my dream home, I'm going to have the most beautiful sewing room, where I can have all of my fabric neatly displayed, my machine permanently set up, and an ironing board and iron ever at the ready. Until that day comes, I have to make do with the kitchen table, which means that my Pfaff and other supplies spend their days hidden away in various nooks and crannies safe from little children's prying eyes and wandering hands. They're generally liberated only at night, after the kids have gone to bed, for some post-bedtime crafting. Unfortunately, post-bedtime me doesn't always have the inclination for much more than mindless TV and a soothing cup of tea (or, depending on the day, glass of wine). This is where hand sewing comes in so... well, handy! Maybe it's the type-A personality in me, but I love to sit in front of the TV and still feel as if my time is being used productively and creatively. Multi-tasking, right? Thanks to my furious attack on my scrapbox a co

Hello, hello! Welcome to my newly re-named blog (formerly Secret Ingredient: Love). I was never completely crazy about that old name, and, as hubby told me, it always suggested a cooking blog, rather than one primarily about sewing with a bit of baking thrown in. When I started thinking about how much I'd like to get back to blogging, partially for a bit of encouragement to get my sewing machine out more often, I decided I'd change things up a bit. 'Dilettante' seemed a really apt word to apply to myself as both a sewer and a blogger, as I'm an amateur and fairly casual about both hobbies, so here we are... The Sewing Dilettante! Bear with me as I transition fully into this new blog; I'll be keeping the old email address for the time being but am linking to a new, blog-specific Instagram account: thesewingdilettante. Since my youngest little'un was born in November 2015, I've been doing the odd bit of patchwork and embroidery, but it feels as if I'