Hi there!

In September last year, I decided to sign up to the Whole 30 Fabric Challenge: a challenge that encourages you to use or give away 30 metres (or yards) of fabric that you already own, before buying any more fabric. It is a reaction against the very consumerist notion that sewing and fabric collecting are two separate hobbies - a trap that most sewists eventually fall into.

It seemed like a great idea. I don’t have a crazy amount by some people’s standards, but I do have a lot. I do have the storage space for it, and I keep good digital records of my fabrics, so I’m fully aware of what I have, but it’s still a decently sized amount of fabric that’s just sitting there. Forcing myself to use it seemed like a good thing - for sustainability, and for my wallet.

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Last week I finished my Fashion Design course! I now have a shiny new qualification - a Diploma.

I’ve been thinking about how to document this achievement here on my blog. I wanted to write a big long essay about what I learned, how I found the course, and all the personal struggles and growth that came out of it. There’s been an awful lot of all of that. But to be honest, it’s too much. It’s been two and a half years, and navigating a creative (and deadline-free) course as an adult has brought plenty of challenges. I’m a different person now to who I was when I started, and it’s beyond what can be condensed into a blog post. Instead, I’ll just share my six-outfit collection from my final assignment:

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We just came back from a long weekend in Dublin. (Well, it was a long weekend for me - I tagged along with my husband who was there for work.) It was a lovely little trip; lots of Guinness was consumed, we did a 5 mile run, went to a Viking museum, and hung out with an old friend and met his delightful cat :)

On the last day I popped into a beautiful little yarn shop called This Is Knit:

I was a bit overwhelmed by the huge amount of choice, to be honest! I knew I wanted an Irish yarn, but they had so many options, and so many colours. After a bonkers amount of deliberation, I picked out six balls of Studio Donegal Soft Donegal. It’s lovely and soft has a tweedy sort of texture.

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