Badger and Bobbins

🧺✨ Look what we’re making inside the Collective this month! Meet the Breezy Day Peg Bag (there's no danger of this beauty blowing away!). 💨

I’m so happy with how it turned out! I wanted to make something really sturdy that actually works on the washing line with loads of room for pegs! I'm also a sucker for a bit of hardware and got especially excited about all the trinkets that can be added to this little honey.

It’s got some really cool features that are super fun to sew. We’re going to be:

🧵 Inserting plastic boning to keep the top open (so much easier to grab your pegs!)
🧵 Making a drawstring channel with a toggle closure
🧵 Adding hardware like a D-ring and carabiner so you can clip it right to the line or your belt loop (if that's your thing)
🧵 Having a bit of fun with some simple fabric appliqué

This is all broken down into small manageable steps with videos and PDF instructions so you can just enjoy learning new sewing techniques within a lovely supportive community.

We are kicking off next week with 'cut, prep and play' week where we gather our resources and get ready to sew. The project is then released in four manageable chunks over the next four weeks so we can all sew-a-long together and cheer each other on.

👉 Just click the link to join the Collective and come make one with us! ✂️🌿 https://www.badgerandbobbins.co.uk/the-collective-hub

I'm writing this from my bed today because I have come down with a sudden case of Laryngitis! 🤫 On the plus side, everyone else in my house is absolutely thrilled that they can finally get a word in edgeways. 😂

I've just spent the last hour and a half trying to construct some seriously useful slides and captions about matching colours for sewing projects and how the colour wheel can help you out with that. Unfortunately what I've managed to produce doesn't make a lot of sense! So here's a picture of my lovely cat DJ who is keeping me company (no, he is not a colour wheel).

Colour theory content is coming next week when I'm feeling better. I wrote a blog post about it a couple of weeks ago though if you fancy checking that out in the mean time. You can find it here https://www.badgerandbobbins.co.uk/sewing-blog/beyond-the-bundle-how-to-choose-fabric-colours-with-confidence-part-1

Helen x

If you are heading to the Festival of Quilts this summer come along to my talk on choosing colour palettes for quilts where I'm going to deep dive into it all!

I've been on Instagram for a long time now, but it's been a while since I properly introduced myself. So here goes.

I'm Helen. I'm a sewist, a teacher, a tea addict, and someone who believes that making things is genuinely good for you, not just as a skill but as a whole person kind of good.

I've been sewing since my early twenties. Just because I loved making things with my hands and I've never really stopped. In my mid thirties, after having kids, I trained as a primary school teacher. Loved the teaching, less so some of the other bits, and eventually left.

Badger and Bobbins started as something else entirely (hello to you if you've been around since the eco friendly alternatives to single use products). Then coming out of lockdown in 2021 I taught a few friends to sew. I planned a six week block (you can take the teacher out of the classroom but not the lesson plans out of the teacher) and we carried on for over a year.

That's when I realised teaching was the thing for me. Workshops, 1:1s, and now online too - spreading the sewing love a bit further.

What I've noticed, and this is the bit I care about most, is that learning to make something does far more than teach you a skill. It builds confidence, creativity, and the satisfaction of finishing something with your own hands is hard to explain until you've felt it.

I teach step by step, I explain the whys not just the whats, and I cover the details most YouTube videos skip. Sewing is vast, one skill that opens the door to dressmaking, bags, homewares, toys, quilts. You genuinely never get bored.

If you're new here, hello, lovely. If you've been here a while and never quite known what I was about, now you do. Hit follow and come and sew with me.

Helen x

How's your bank holiday Monday panning out?

Have you got some bank holiday sewing action going on? I'm working on my colour wheel quilt, watching run fat boy run (it just popped up as a recommendation on Netflix and it's whiling the afternoon away) and drinking chai lattes.

Having a very lovely time indeed! I’d love to hear what you are up to! Drop a photo of what’s on your sewing table (or what’s on your TV!) in the comments. xx

So, today I thought I’d share how my brain works when I’m designing new projects. 🧠✨

The first bit is like a vomit onto the page. What does it need to do? What could it look like? How big does it need to be? And most importantly: how can I fit the most amount of pockets in? (Have I told you I’m obsessed with pockets?).

What follows is a more detailed, considered, and measured drawing. I love it when this fits on an A4 page. If not? Pass me the masking tape. I am sticking those pages together! ✂️🩹

Then comes the mock-up. Okay, fine—it’s never really a mock-up. I know I should use cheap fabric, maybe calico, just to see if it works. But that is not how my brain works. It wants beautiful fabrics, it’s prepared to live with a less-than-perfect result, but it wants it finished and usable. It’s all about that dopamine hit! 💥

Then I return to the design. Has it worked? Are there tweaks to be made? Does it do what I want it to AND look pretty?

Then, it becomes part of something bigger.

I love my job!

This is the process I went through designing this month’s project for the Sew Much Fun Collective—The Stitcher’s Throne Armchair Organiser and Carry Case. (I always manage to give my projects silly names, but I think this one is the longest so far!)

I am loving how it has turned out, and I’m loving even more seeing everyone’s makes inside the membership. The fabric choices so far are absolute chef’s kiss! 😘

Are you a “proper” mock-up maker, or do you dive straight in with the good fabric like me? Tell me I’m not alone in the dopamine-seeking club! 👇

SewingCommunity PocketObsessed DopamineSewing SewMuchFunCollective SheffieldMakers

I am always giving things up. Chocolate, alcohol, being hard on myself—all really to no avail. (I still drink alcohol, eat chocolate and have the occasional, though not so frequent, dig at myself).

So, as we approached Lent this year, I managed to intercept the "what am I giving up" internal dialogue and decided to take something up instead. After much internal wrangling I realised the thing I actually wanted to do more of was sewing. Crazy, right? I mean, I sew for a living! I run a business based on sewing! How much more could I need to sew?

The truth is, I don’t get a lot of time to sew for myself. That "just for me" not too worried how it’ll turn out, creative, ‘I’ll give that a go’ type of sewing. I have no dedicated space for sewing at home and the excuses not to clear the dining table and get my machine out come way too easily.

So that’s what I committed to. 10 minutes a day during Lent. No excuses. I did set some rules, though. 10 minutes isn’t a lot of time in the making arena, so it didn’t have to actually be stitching, but something towards it. For me, "sewing" included:

Printing or sticking PDF patterns together (everyone’s favourite activity!)
Cutting out fabric
Organising or digging out bits from my stash
Looking for and ordering patterns
Planning and, of course,
actually sitting at the machine.

It was most definitely messy - no day was perfect. I started way more than I finished and missed a few days along the way. But I learnt a lot about myself and the way I like to sew and I'm determined to carry the practice forwards.

I've shared the full story along with the patterns I started along the way on the blog: https://www.badgerandbobbins.co.uk/sewing-blog/what-i-learnt-from-sewing-for-10-minutes-a-day

Behind the scenes today 🎥🧵

Full filming mode. Equipment everywhere. Tea going cold.

I'm filming piecing a cushion cover for this month's sew-a-long project: A cushion cover with a zip and piping, and yes, we will be making our own piping, cause why not!

This is what we do in the Sew Much Fun Collective.
We add the details. We build the skills. We make things we’re proud to put on the sofa!

If you’ve been hovering.
If you’ve been thinking, “I should probably sew more.”
If your sewing machine has been giving you that look…

This is your sign.

Come and join us. Bring your half-finished projects, your good fabric you’re scared to cut, your “I can sew but…” energy. We’ll sort it.

Doors are open. The tea will probably still be going cold. xx

I’ve set myself a little challenge this Lent: 10 minutes of sewing a day.

And you know what I’m finding? The hardest part isn’t the sewing itself… it’s just getting started!

Once I actually get the machine out, sit down, thread it up, and make that first stitch, I’m usually fine. Ten minutes later, I’ve got a little bit done and feel quietly smug about it (ok so most days 10 mins turns into an hour or two 🤣).

So if you’re thinking about starting something small like this, my advice? Just start. That first tiny step is always the hardest, get the machine out and thread it up see what follows from there. 🧵 xx

What I’ve learnt about myself on day 2 of my sewing for 10 mins a day for lent: it probably isn’t ever going to be just 10 mins (where did the last hour go!) and I’m too impatient for tiny appliqué!

Love this kit but I’m already promising myself I’m just doing the EPP and the bee and leaving the tiny flowers off. Maybe by day 40 I’ll feel differently!

Is it just me? Where do you sit with this? Love a bit of fiddly detail or does it make you want to cry?