I grew up in Newcastle and now live in Maitland with my husband and son and our cat Mr Puddles (my sewing su-purr-visor, who always makes sure each sewing project is glittered with cat hair). I have always loved traveling and actually met my husband when we were both living in London.


My last travel adventure was last month to WA with my sister to explore Fremantle and swim at Ningaloo Reef. I absolutely love whales and was traveling in the hopes of swimming with some humpbacks - my favourite animal. Although that dream didn’t come true we did get to swim with a whaleshark, and had the most breathtaking encounter with some orca that was beyond anything I’d dreamed!


I have been a social worker for over ten years now, and when we moved back from London I was at a bit of a crossroads with my career and ended up studying a Certificate IV in Celebrancy, and am now also a marriage celebrant. I hope to one day combine these two careers and move towards end of life, grief/bereavement and funeral care - who knows where the wind will blow, I have lots of other ideas and dreams there too. For now, I’m currently a part-time community mental health social worker, a very very part time celebrant, and full time Mum.


If I’m not doing these or sewing, I am usually playing with Byron, enjoying food, listening to or watching a musical, or thinking about or searching online for my next sewing project or creative activity idea/ inspiration! (Photography is actually on my list, to try to get ready for next whale watching season!)

What inspired you to sew?


I used to describe myself as a serial hobbyist - I would flit between this hobby and that one, collecting all the tools and never amounting to much with them, generally collecting dust after a few turns. So I guess it was inevitable that I eventually found my way to sewing, but 4 years is an unprecedented time for me to stick with something!


I think there are a lot of aspects to sewing that have hooked me - the tactile nature of working with fabric and all the different memories they can evoke, the technical aspect of following instructions and working a machine.


My visuospatial skills have expanded since starting, but it still feels like magic to me when you join several pattern pieces together and turn it all inside out and wow, you've created something. And I think that is easily the best thing about sewing for me - creating.


In the last year I have actually decided to give myself permission to call myself ‘a creative’. Instead of a ‘serial hobbyist’, I am acknowledging that being creative and artistic, whatever the medium and however ‘amateur’ my results, it is part of my self-expression and self-care. It is part of me.

The women in my life


Outside of my own inner experience, I’ve also been reflecting a lot on the women in my life and their creativity, and how often that can go unrecognised or unappreciated. It can be seen as ‘just women’s things’ or household tasks (e.g. hemming and mending) but there is so much skill and beauty in being able to sew and create and so much of these are acts of love, and are the fabric (pun intended) of the home.


For example, my Mum cross stitched each of our Christmas stockings as children, and to this day they hang every year. We would never dream of replacing them. We have beautiful photo albums made from fabric that she made to capture our milestones as babies and so many other things that have made our lives so wholesome and full of love.


Her sister has been buying items and altering them to her vision for years - she has such an ability to look at something and see its potential. My great aunty's home was absolutely filled to the brim with every kind of craft item, decoupage statues, handmade dolls, crocheted tissue boxes…


I inherited their full kit of knitting needles when they passed and I feel a real loss in not being able to talk to them now about their talents and knowledge and what they enjoyed about creating. Understanding now the dedication, patience, skill and time that it can take to create just one thing, I am blown away by the gift of time and creativity that all these women have given.


Another huge shift in my focus and understanding of broader contexts has been the influence of learning to sew on my feelings towards the evil system of fast fashion, and that has given me so much inspiration to consciously sew and choose where I buy my fabric and even if I don’t make the clothes myself, how I invest in ethically made pieces.


How old were you when you first started sewing?


I only started independently sewing back in 2020, when I was 29 years old. Everyone who knows me knows how much I love my dresses, and so it had always been on my bucket list to ‘sew one dress before I die”.


I took a 6 week sewing course to complete the goal of one dress. I completed my one dress as part of the course, and I remember wearing it on what turned out to be our last social occasion of the year, before the lockdowns happened!


I love to wear anything colourful, whimsical, bright, expressive. Lots of different fashion companies influence the kind of clothes I want to wear and therefore make, but I am enjoying now learning more about different illustrators and fabric designers and letting those influence the kinds of things I want to wear and make.




Do you sew for yourself or for others?


I definitely started with the intention of sewing my own clothes- I love expressing myself through colour and pattern. However, I have just gone wherever inspiration takes me- sewing some clothing for myself, but mostly enjoying trying new projects as gifts for others, largely the children in my life. I’ve made some costumes, toys, and clothing for my little friends and it’s been so fun!


Who taught you to sew?



A dear family friend - who I call my aunty - has always sewn, and now quilts. She sold me her spare machine (a Bernina 1001) for a steal, on the condition that if I ever stopped sewing and wanted to get rid of it I had to sell it back to her.


She has been answering every question I have, from understanding terms, what are the different fabric and notions, translating steps, and guiding me through every perceived failure so patiently since. I text her less often now, but am forever grateful and still seeking advice and sharing my makes with her.


I love how organised and thorough she was over the years - recording each foot that she has purchased, what it does, how to achieve different stitches etc. When I received the machine from her it had little notes hidden in different places to help me along and I love revisiting them to this day. It’s a very sturdy machine and has sewn through some very thick layers when I’ve just ‘gone for it’. I would be so lost if I ever have to buy another one!


I still have some dresses she had made for me each Christmas when I was a little girl, and our home is filled with gorgeous quilts from her.


Apart from my aunty mentoring, the 6 week course I mentioned taught me the basics, plus finding the right pattern companies with the most helpful and inspiring and encouraging communities have been absolutely wonderful and kept me going.


In the last four years that I have learnt to sew, I have also become a Mum! It's been a really great activity for me to reconnect with myself when I get a bit lost in motherhood, but it has also been so enjoyable and heartwarming to share some of this with my son (now 3.5 years old)!


He helps me match thread colours, helps me print and line up my patterns, hands me weights for placing patterns down on the fabric and then when I am sewing he will hand me pins and put them back in the pin cushion. My heart burst with joy when, as a 2 year old, he was able to identify and locate a bobbin!


One day I was making a gingham dress and had the large fabric piece laid out on the floor as the table was too small. He set himself up a picnic with his toys on top of it because he knew it was ‘picnic fabric’.


What has been your favourite project?


I think one of my most proud makes was when I made a coat for myself out of a woollen blanket. It was one of the first patterns I had eyed off when I started sewing but never thought I would be at a level to make it. Finally feeling confident enough to tackle that project, and realising I did have the skill was a really proud moment. One of the first days I wore it I remember standing next to a mannequin in Myer and it was showing off an almost identical coat - minus the colourful lining and individualised buttons! Sadly, my coat itself isn’t in great shape - I learnt my lesson around using appropriate fabric (polyester lining did not hold up well!), but the process of finishing it was wonderful.

Mickey Mouse


I also absolutely loved the process of making my son a jacket, in the style of Mickey Mouse who was his favourite!


It was mainly black, except for some large red pockets to match Mickey’s shorts, had Mickey shaped buttons, and the hood of the jacket had ears that actually stood up. The lining, of course, was also Mickey.


Byron was part of the making process, and his eyes lit up seeing it come together each day. I had made it with the intention of him wearing it to the local Disney on Ice performance, but was thrilled when we ended up visiting Japan in 2023 and he got to meet Mickey Mouse himself at Tokyo Disneyland wearing his Me-Made Mickey jacket :)


Is sewing a hobby for you or do you do it for a living?


Definitely a hobby! Lots of people compliment my makes and suggest I go to markets, but I think that would take the fun out of it and also… I am so slow that I could never ever turn a profit!

How much time do you spend sewing in a typical week?


I tend to sew in bursts. I can go a few weeks to a couple of months without sewing, then inspiration will strike and I sew about 3 hours per night, and sometimes in the day with Byron.

What sewing accessory can't you not live without?


Ooph, that's a tough one. Unfortunately I think I need to say my multiple seam rippers! Definitely though my collection of scissors, as well.

Do you have any sewing tips to share?


I think my biggest learnings have been around using appropriate and good quality fabric for projects, and when the pattern tells you to press, you press! It makes a world of a difference to the final product. And, of course, only use your fabric scissors for cutting fabric (this was a core lesson I learnt in my childhood).

What does sewing mean to you?


I just love that it is something I can work on individually, build my skills, express myself, be inspired and be creative, but it is also something that has given me, and gives so many people, so many beautiful connections.


One of my best friends and I have started a Christmas tradition each year of getting together and sew - each year we talk about what we think we could spend the day together making, and we have ended up each time sewing Christmas gnomes because we love revisiting them and building our gnome family each year haha.


Thinking about the special handmade items I have received over the years and what they mean to me, and how I now get to pass that on to the people I love, and especially the littler loves in my life, is so special.


If you give someone something handmade you are giving them so much more than the item it is.


I definitely don’t like mending things haha. But I am trying to be environmentally and ethically conscious and build those skills, and my enjoyment of them, more.