Why I spent a year not buying any new craft materials

I moved house at the start of 2022. I knew I’d accumulated quite a craft stash over the 9 years since we’d last moved but having to box it all up revealed exactly how much I’d managed to cram into the craft cupboard. It also allowed me to compare the number and size of boxes I packed compared to the number of boxes football memorabilia my partner had acquired (and that I was always moaning to him about). 

I started mulling over how I’d ended up with such a stash: 

• Buying something just because it was pretty without a clear idea of how I might use it 

• Being gifted or inheriting materials, again without a link to a particular project 

• Trying new crafts and buying all the necessary tools and materials 

• Keeping left over materials because they might be useful 

• Packages often containing far more materials than I needed for a particular project 

• I had disposable income and I chose to spend it on craft materials. 

It was that last point that really got me thinking and exploring my feelings towards my stash. 

To be honest I felt embarrassed by all the things I had accumulated. No one needs that much stuff. I felt embarrassed because I felt privileged to be in a position to waste money on things that were just sitting in boxes waiting for their moment to come alive.  

My move also came after taking 18 months career break when I wasn’t working full time, so I was more aware of how much money I’d spent and was tied up in my stash. 

The packing and move was precipitated by needing to care for a family member and moving into their property. Knowing we’d have less space of our own and how much of their stuff we would need to go through and decide what to keep, donate to charity, sell or chuck out also brought into focus the question of actually what objects do we really need to have in our every day life. 

Even if I made a project a week for the next 5 years, I’m would still have a huge stash of stuff. So what could I do to address the size and feelings towards my stash? 

First up, crafting is a huge part of what I do to relax and is my biggest form of self-care. Having a stash of materials is a reasonable consequence of this past-time and I accept that, but I can still indulge in this hobby without needing every single item I currently own. 

Not buying any new craft materials for 12 months was the obvious first step towards rationalising my stash. I have not been 100% successful but I have pretty much cut out buying something just because it is pretty. There were a few exceptions I allowed myself (as I’m trying to kick a 30 year habit!) 

• Quarterly Craftpod – I consider this part of my self-care routine as the projects are so gorgeous. But what I have started doing is not keeping all the off cuts ‘just in case’ 

• Gifts – my family will often get me something craft related as a gift. This is a nice thing, I don’t want it to stop but I’ll direct them to a kit or workshop rather than just a load of materials so I can make a project and move on 

• Workshops – having moved, I was looking for activities that would let me meet more people locally and discovered Pimms and Needles, which is a craft based group. Every month we make a new project. But the good thing about this I can try out a new craft without buying all the stuff. The bad thing is that I end up walking away with a finished item that I need to find a home for!

I also acknowledged that there may be a need to buy some craft materials to use up some that are already in my stash. For example, to use up 3 metres of Jersey fabric I need some 1/4 inch clear elastic. In this case the aim was to buy exactly the amount of elastic I needed to complete this project and not extra just because it was a better deal. 

I was also more conscious with the projects I chose to make. I have four plastic tubs of fabric which is one of the bigger collections in my stash. I embarked on a quilting project to use up all the fabric scraps I’ve accumulated, even the very tiny scraps that could never be used for making a garment. I also went through the larger sections of fabric and have matched the fabric with projects I want to make. I browsed Ravelry for knitting and crochet patterns that match the yarn weights I have in my stash rather than just picking a project and buying the yarn to fit it.

So why am I talking about not buying any new craft materials when I design and make craft kits? Well, if you like the idea of partaking in some craft as therapy or self-care but don’t want to end up with the stash problem I’ve found myself with, then kits are a great solution. Even though didn’t buy any new materials for the year, I did give myself permission to buy kits as it’s a controlled way of fulfilling my creativity needs. 

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Top tips for tracing embroidery patterns

There are many kits available where the design is pre-printed onto the fabric such as this one. But knowing how to transfer an embroidery design onto fabric gives many more options and isn’t as difficult as you think. Here are my top tips for transferring embroidery patterns:

• Have the fabric super tight in the hoop. It’s really hard to trace accurately if the fabric in the hoop is a bit loose. The pen will catch on the warp and weft threads and the design will end up looking a little wonky. To read my tips about how to get fabric taut in the hoop, have a look here.

• Use a erasable pen. You can use any pen or pencil for transferring a design onto fabric but knowing that you can erase any mistakes really helps when tracing. This blog post covers the different erasable pen options, and this post outlines why heat erasable pens are magic.

• Trace just the crucial elements. Some patterns have a lot of detail and it isn’t always necessary to trace it all. For example a thin stem or branch, you might not need to trace both sides of the outline, instead trace one line in the centre.

• Keep an eye on the position of the hoop. Whatever method used to trace the pattern, the hoop will move during the tracing process. I recommend checking the positioning after tracing each element to make sure the final traced design doesn’t end up wonky.

• Don’t panic if you go wrong. The fabric has 2 sides to it and if you do go wrong then flip the fabric over and have a second attempt.

There are step by step instructions on how to trace from a digital embroidery pattern and how to trace from a paper embroidery pattern along with lots of other embroidery tips on my blog.

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How to be a thrifty crafter

When I was a kid I was very thrifty with obtaining craft materials because I didn’t have the money to spend on buying new. As an adult, I’m lucky that I have the disposable income to spend on any craft materials I want or need but that thriftiness learnt as a child is still there and there are some things I continue to do to this day. Here are my tips for making the most of your craft materials:

• Embroidery hoops are probably the most expensive item of any embroidery project and although they may only cost a few pounds one way to make sure you can re-use them is in how you finish your embroidery project. If you are displaying your project in a hoop, finish the back in a way that means in the future if you don’t want that project on display any more you can take it out of the hoop and use the hoop for the next project. costs of an embroidery project finish your hoops so you can re-use them. This blog post outlines 4 ways to finish the back of an embroidery hoops - just avoid the gluing method if you want to use the hoop again in the future.

• Embroidery projects need fabric to stitch on. I regularly use old fabrics such as sheets, curtains and shirts that aren’t good enough to go to the charity shop. I cut around any stains or tears and make use of as much of the fabric as possible.

• Keep thread offcuts for use in future projects. There are two ways I keep thread offcuts, the first is if there is a long length of several strands left, I rewind this onto the thread bobbin I cut it from. For shorter lengths and single strands, I have a jar where I store these for when I need a tiny amount of a colour or for use in an abstract embroidery project.

• Store things well. There is nothing more sad than opening a bag of yarn and finding its been nibbled by moths. This has happened to me and although I tried to rescue as much of the yarn as possible the grainy deposits the moths left meant much of it was unusable. I now store all my yarn in sealable bags and have moth balls dotted around the storage boxes.

• Keep anything and everything! This is only a good tip if you have the space. That ribbon from around the Christmas cracker, a necklace that broke, buttons from a shirt that you had to send to the fabric recycling. They could all be used in future craft project.

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