Never At A Loose End: Dabbling in other crafts

Sunday, 27 July 2025

A Lovely Leather Bag

No one was more surprised than me when I won a prize on the Ruth Loves to Knit podcast.

Ruth has very clever hands and her handknits are beautiful. Originally from Northern Ireland, she now lives in Devon and her chats to camera where she shares her making and her thoughts on her spiritual life, regularly keep me company whilst I'm knitting.

A few episodes back, Ruth showed off the lovely bag she'd made from a Babylon Leather kit. After the company offered her another bag kit, she generously decided to give it away. I was the lucky winner of the kit she chose at random - the zip top tote bag in this gorgeous caramel colour.

I was so excited to open the box when Ruth's parcel arrived. I'd seen other podcasters making Babylon Leather bags - now I'd be able to make one of my own!

The kit contains absolutely everything you need from lovely soft, pre-punched leather to thread, snips and hardware. As we were about to go on holiday, I decided to take my kit with me to make whilst we house-sat for some pals and cared for their lovely labradors in the Scottish border town of Peebles.

When we weren't walking the dogs along the banks of the River Tweed in the beautiful sunshine, I made a start on my sewing and completed a section of the bag each day.

Instructions are provided via a QR code in the box but a wee glitch recently on the website meant I couldn't gain access. I joined the Facebook group, Babylon Leather for Beginners, to ask for help. Very quickly other makers found a YouTube video for me to follow. It got me started and soon I had the back, front and base in place. Next, I had to sew in the inner pocket and zip - at the same time.

That didn't go entirely according to plan. I managed to sew my zip in upside down.

The thoughtful Facebook group members sent a link to another video for me to watch. It was clearer but I missed the lady mentioning that she'd made a mistake. So I made exactly the same mistake! Duh!! Third time lucky I got the zip in correctly.

Sewing in both the side panels was fortunately incident free and the body of the bag was complete. Time to turn it outside in and attach the hardware and handles.

These just screw in so, in no time, my bag was finished.

It's so lovely - I can hardly believe I made it! Beautiful and practical - it holds a lot.

Don't be put off by my mistake! The installation tutorial is now available on the website so making this bag in future will be much more straightforward and you, too, could have a lovely leather bag!

Catch up with Ruth's podcast here

Peruse the many Babylon Leather bag kits here

My Very Own Yarn Shop!

Am I the only one who believes I'm a pottery expert based simply on the number of episodes of The Great Pottery Throw Down I've watched? Terms like sprigging, coiling and raku firing just trip off my tongue!

Putting my armchair know-how into practice, I joined a ceramic clay hand-building workshop at Elevate: The Space in Stonehaven in February. What a light, bright spacious studio to work in with a very warm welcome from Creative Director, Kate, who kept us well supplied with refreshments.

Workshop tutor, Helen, who's appropriately named business is Far From Dull Ceramics, knew arming beginners with wet clay could be challenging. We started the day making toadstools to give us some hands-on experience of the raw material most potters use. Mine stood up at least but were trickier to fashion than you'd imagine for their diminutive size!

Helen then handed us each a piece of leather-hard clay. Though partially dried, it's much easier to manipulate. You can see what we're going to be making just in front of my coffee mug.

There were lots of tools on offer to make a range of marks, textures and shapes on the clay and we were encouraged to experiment and try everything out. As well as classic modelling tools, some impressions were made with old computer parts!

With this confidence building practice under our belts, we set about the business of the day - to make a wee hoose. Helen is well known for her whimsical pottery and I'd seen her wee hooses at local fairs. What fun to be able to make one of my own!

Helen cut us each a piece of extruded clay, according to our desired house height, and demonstrated how to shape the gable ends.

Then it was time to add all that lovely decoration we'd practised.

This was so absorbing that I hardly took any photos. By the time I did, I'd added a doorstep, fashioned a 'cat' to sit on it, textured the walls, cut out the windows and stamped some flowers to grow up the back wall. I got carried away when I found a set of alphabet stamps and made a sign to go above the door. Before I knew it, I'd created the happy place of my dreams - my very own yarn shop!

Helen offered us a selection of pre-prepared patterned sheets so we could make our rooves. I chose to curl mine like an oriental pagoda once I'd secured it in place, created the roof ridge and added a chimney. We also discussed what colour glaze we might like as Helen would add that to our wee hooses during the firing process. I chose turquoise.

Once construction was complete, this most enjoyable workshop was at an end.

Helen Timperley of Far from Dull Ceramics

With Helen's colourfully glazed examples for inspiration, everyone made a wee hoose very personal to them.

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A short while passed and I heard that I could collect my wee hoose from Helen as firing was complete. I was so excited to see the finished result.

I'll never own a yarn shop - but this is the next best thing I reckon!

You can find Helen here:

Website https://www.farfromdull.co.uk/

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/FarFromDullCeramics/?locale=en_GB

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/farfromdullceramics/

Keep up with the latest workshop news at Elevate: The Space

https://www.elevatehealthuk.com/what-s-on-1

A Delightful Shop and a Delightful Workshop

I love any excuse to visit Jane Keenan's shop!

It's a hidden gem, tucked away in the quaint and quiet village of Maud, nestled in the Buchan countryside, a pleasant half hour drive north of my Aberdeenshire home.

It's packed with gifts, jewellery and homewares.

If I need to buy a present, I know exactly where to go.

Jane trained as a textile designer and her screen printed artworks grace her lampshades and cushions making the shop colourful and joyous. Framed screen prints also adorn the walls.

Fragrance abounds in the hand poured candles and diffusers Jane makes, along with the hand creams she creates, all beautifully packaged with her graphic signature branding.

As if this wasn't enough to hasten your visit, the shop is also a stockist for Frenchic Paint, an environmentally friendly chalk and mineral paint, ideal for upcycling furniture with minimal prep. Ideal for a beginner like me!

With a studio upstairs, the shop is also an ideal venue for classes and workshops.

Earlier this month, I attended a very pleasant morning of painting and decoupage along with five other ladies, each of us decorating a three drawer, desk-top unit. We began by sanding the existing surface to provide a key for the paint which can be applied directly with no need for undercoat.

Choosing a paint colour was fun! I went for the rich, deep blue green, Steel Teal.

Several coats were required to give good coverage. Luckily the paint dried pretty quickly.

The only photo I have of Jane herself!

In between coats, we all choose a coordinating decoupage paper from the gorgeous array on offer.

Jane's easy-to-use templates allowed me to accurately cut my drawer fronts from the multicoloured dotty tissue paper I'd picked.

Once the drawer fronts received a lick of neutral surface coat, I applied the decoupage paper with Mod Podge, a versatile adhesive, sealant and varnish. I also painted my drawer handles with Plum Pudding paint.

To speed up drying, the drawer fronts enjoyed a wee toast in front of the heater!

Then all that remained was to varnish the outer cabinet and touch up any bits I'd missed.

Here's the final reveal of my completed cabinet -

And a photo op of all the finished cabinets produced that day. Aren't they lovely?

This certainly won't be my last time using Frenchic Paint, or trying decoupage, thanks to Jane's encouragement and her very enjoyable and welcoming workshop.

I'm thrilled with my little cabinet and can't wait to fill it up!

Find out more, and visit Jane Keenan Design for yourself or browse her online shop.

I've Got It Pegged!

Now in its 25th year, the Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival recently hosted 700 events over 6 days. Central to the festival is the burgh of Dufftown, the malt whisky capital of the world!

Dufftown is also home to local yarn store, 3 Bags Wool, the venue for craft events in the festival programme. As Dufftown is only a 45 minute drive away (and a very scenic drive at that) I signed up for one of the craft workshops last Saturday afternoon.

3 Bags Wool is a very well stocked yarn emporium with balls of wool for every pocket lining the walls from floor to ceiling.

Shop owner and textile artist, Sarah Fraser, has taken full advantage of the shop's quirky layout to display her beautiful needle felted landscapes. Kits are available so you can make your own and Sarah runs a wide range of craft workshops throughout the year at her in-store 'Wool Skool'.

Amongst all the wool, I also spotted this super-cute needle felted mouse nestled on a hand-kit sample sweater, a gorgeous floral handbag and a completely bonkers sheep!

As well as housing a fantastic range of supplies for knitters, crocheters and felters, 3 Bags Wool sells a less well known product for textile crafts called thrums. Thrums are the narrow selvedges from woven fabrics and are usually discarded by the nearby Scottish mills but Sarah has turned their use into an art form. You can't beat a bit of beautiful upcycling!

She showed us a range of rugs she'd woven from thrums to get an idea of what we were about to make.

The workshop I'd joined was peg loom weaving with thrums to make a sitting mat, basically a mini rug which could be completed in the two hour session!

After choosing some colours we set about warping up our peg looms. I was using a chunky blue wool which was wound around the pegs 36 times then cut into 18 lengths.

The pegs were threaded with the lengths of wool before being reinserted into the loom.

Then the weaving could begin. I'd chosen a jolly blue and yellow thrum which reminded us all of Doddie Weir's tartan. The weaving itself was very therapeutic.

When the woven fabric reached the top of the pegs, they could be removed from the loom and the wool length pulled through. A big knot was tied in the wool at the opposite end so I didn't pull it all the way out. That would have been a total disaster! Sarah was on hand throughout, guiding us gently through the weaving process, and encouraging us even when we thought we'd gone wrong.

Freshly brewed coffee and frangipane cake provided a welcome break mid session.

Once the weaving was finished, the woolly lengths were knotted to their neighbour at each end of the mat and neatly trimmed to finish them off. I teased out the woolly lengths of mine to make a fringe.

With our mats complete, we were able to admire each other's work.