Sewing & Knitting Magazines…

Good day wonderful blogettes!

I have a new habit… an addiction if you will… with magazines! I have gone a bit subscription crazy and are LOVING the fact that I get anything in the post that isn’t bills!! 🙂

I remember when I was younger I would get a magazine every Saturday morning and it was a highlight of my week… which is hilarious as A)They were mainly pictures of horse, ponies and dogs in these magazines and B)I grew up surrounded by all three of them (my mum was a race horse trainer) but C)Hated riding!!

So now I am the ripe ole age of 30 I have started to get excited about the arrival of a shiny magazine so I can look at pictures of homemade dresses and scarfs… even though I am surrounded by them!

But seriously – these magazines have a great impact on me – I love the fact that each week (The Art Of Knitting) or month (sewing mags) I am getting new inspirations and projects to kick start my creativity- as sometimes I just don’t know what to make next and where to start then suddenly a pattern and free fabrics arrive all packaged up with tutorials and pretty pictures- at my door – it’s like someone is going ‘Gabby stop staring at your sewing machine and make THIS!’ and I am all for a massive kick up the bottom!

So the magazines…

The first one that kicked this all off is…

LOVE SEWING MAGAZINE

I’m already 3 issues in and have made 4 new items from them!

I saw this online and went on a search to get a copy (it’s so hard to find this magazine but Sainsburys in Manor House has the best stock of craft mags I have found yet) Issue 9 came with a Simple Sew Pattern for the Bella Dress… which I have now made 2 of:

Issue 10 – the Tie Back Skirt… (all coming to a blog near you soon!)

And I’ve just started on the Jackie O Jacket pattern with Issue 11 that arrived yesterday (nice idea to pair with wiggle skirt from previous issue as a suit) and want to try the knickers soon. Also their website is full of free patterns -yay!

Oh and I’M IN IT! I couldn’t believe it when I saw my little piccy in there too – in my Bella Dress – eeek!! 😉

This mag is great as it really has something for everyone and lots of ideas and inspiration from many brilliant sewists that I admire greatly. They have just been joined by The Thrifty Stitcher – Claire Louise Hardie (who once lent me a clothes rail for a music video from a tweet – lovely lady!!) and who happens to work on The Great British Sewing Bee so we get free patterns, fabric, tips and bonuses from that team too.

I think for £27.25 for 6 months (about £4.50 a month) it’s already been worth it for me AND I got Gertie’s new amazing book for free with my subscription, which I was going to buy soon anyway… what’s not to love?

The new kid on the block that I found by accident and pre ordered months ago…

SIMPLY SEWING MAGAZINE

This one has literally just started and I like that I’m there at the start as it’s a pretty exciting mag for younger, quirkier sewists. Firstly I love the colour schemes and styling throughout it… it’s all very Tilly & The Buttons bright, playful chic and that’s exactly what got me into sewing in the first place so makes me happy. Tilly is actually one of the writer’s for this one and I’m pretty sure the main model, either that or they’ve chosen a very similar looking lady for the front!!

I have yet to make anything yet but am tempted by these

This is 3 issues for £5 so another bargain and I can’t wait to see what’s coming next!

Now to knitting… after watching a TV advert I succumbed to subscribing to the irresistibly cheap and cheerful…

THE ART OF KNITTING

I’m really loving this magazine! It’s £1.99 a month with 2 issues at a time and you get all sorts of free gifts with the subscription and a ball of wool each issue to make a throw -square by square.

Here are my first two:

I’m also about to try this:

And I’m getting a bit over excited about the fact that they all go neatly into one ring binder- did I enjoy organising that a bit too much?!

As I have knitted nothing but knit and purl straight lines since I was 13 I’m really enjoying all this new inspiration to work from and I even started crotcheting last week!

So that’s what I’m flicking through these days… so far! I do love a bit of Mollie Makes (which I was once in) from time to time, especially their recent sewing issue but it’s a bit expensive for now.

What do you read / subscribe to?

Have I missed any other great mags?

Not just the craft mags, are there any music/arts/ tech magazine subscribers out there too?

Having spoken to lots of lovely fanimals (our band fan group name) on tour last week I realised that lots of you reading this don’t care one jot for sewing but are joining me on my journeys anyway and thank you for that – please do feel free to let me know what else you’d like to hear about… more car bootings? DIY? Cooking? I’m all ears… and fingers!

Love and page flicking,