I’m back at work this week, after an extended Christmas break (three weeks, including a trip to London and a week in Hamburg), so I thought it was about time I recorded what I made, and got up to, in 2024.

My sewing output over the last year was fairly small. In 2023, I made a tamarack jacket (my fourth) with a pre-quilted Hello Kitty fabric, purchased in Japan. I had enough of the fabric left over for a smallish project, and decided to make a matching skirt using another Grainline pattern, the Moss Mini, which I finished just after Christmas. I started planning another of this year’s sewing projects back in 2023, when I naturally dyed a number of linen squares at a Birmingham Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers dying day. Over summer 2024, I sewed those squares together into a patchwork pair of Friday Pattern Company Sport Shorts. Finally, I made a nautical I Am Patterns Osiris top, to wear when we travelled to New York via cruise liner in May.

I completed two long-standing knitting projects during 2024. The first was a knitted swimsuit from a 1949 Stitchcraft pattern, which I knitted on and off over two years. The second was a cotton jumper from a 1980s pattern book which I started during 2023 before unravelling (it was too large) and restarting again a year later. After those two longer projects, my final knitting project of 2024 was a quick Pressed Flowers Kerchief with yarn which I received as a Christmas gift from my mom and dad.


I carried on weaving regularly during 2024, largely thanks to attending a monthly half-day weaving group. I completed a checker board double-cloth piece, in a cotton yarn, which I’m planning to make into a cushion cover. I also started my first weaving project using linen yarn; I’m part-way through warping my loom currently, and am aiming to weave a linen bread bag. Over Christmas 2023, I taught myself the basics of tablet weaving (thanks to a John Mullarkey online workshop), and in 2024 I put what I’d learned to use and wove shoelaces on an inkle loom. I’m planning to weave bands for a pair of braces next, and have applied to attend a week-long tablet weaving course at the Association of Guilds of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers summer school in the summer. I’m currently waiting to hear if my application has been successful (it’s determined by ballot).


My most worn project from 2024 is undoubtedly a beaded Palestine flag patch which I made at the end of 2023 and have worn almost every day since, pinned on the back of whichever coat or jacket I am wearing. It also came with me on all of the holidays we have taken this year to Madrid (March), New York (May, which we reached after a week’s travel onboard a cruise ship), Nice (September, where we swam in the sea and ate at my granddad’s favourite pizzeria) and Paris (October, where we stayed in Masons Lafitte and drank tea at the Dior boutique). Wearing the patch has given me a small way of showing solidary/protest through the year, and has also given me the chance to speak to a number of Palestinians, who have introduced themselves after seeing it. I attempted to make more of an effort to get involved in local activism and be politically engaged in 2024; I boycotted a number of brands (including those on the BDS list), made a conscious effort to spend money with local independents (especially local cafes and restaurants), canvassed for a local candidate and for Jeremy Corbyn in the June elections, and took on a steward role in my union (my training officially starts this week).


SewBrum took place for the eleventh time in 2024 and the event has now raised over £10k for, mostly local, charities since it started. I also organised the Festive Brum Sewcial in November, creating a pop-up sewing room in Birmingham’s Great Western Arcade, and bringing beginner and experienced sewers together to sew in company for a weekend. I acted as Programme Secretary for the Birmingham Guild of Weavers, Spinners & Dyers for the sixth year, and created a 2024 programme including talks and workshops with local artists and yarn dyers. The 2025 programme is now live, if you’re local and interested do come and join us as a visitor or member.


Thanks to local libraries, I listened to 27 library audio books during 2024. My favourite books I read during the year were Daniel Rachel’s ‘Walls Come Tumbling Down‘, an oral history of anti-racism music movements in the 80s, and two of Ira Levin’s novels, ‘The Stepford Wives‘ and ‘Rosemary’s Baby‘, both of which are brilliant at portraying women who slowly realise they are in insidious abusive relationships, plus the manga series ‘Parasyte‘ by Hitoshi Iwaaki, about alien parasites. I have a large manga collection, and I’m slowly re-reading series I already own, in addition to treating myself to new additions. Other favourite things I read this year included ‘Tribune‘ (socialist) magazine, which features great graphic design and brilliantly written deep dives on specific topics each quarter, ‘The Dispatch‘, Birmingham’s online ‘newspaper’ which is great on local history, culture and politics, and The Cold War Steve partisans (fan club) newsletter, which features really interesting articles, plus being a member gets you included in a Cold War Steve collage – and jigsaw.

In addition to my favourite local events (Birmingham Heritage Week and Flatpack film festival), I really enjoyed attending free monthly film screenings via Escapes, and GFTU’s trade union history monthly online lectures. We saw more theatre in 2024, including Nathan Foad in Loves Labours Lost at RSC, Nshute Gatwa in the Importance of Being Earnest and Michael Sheen in Nye at the National, and Sigourney Weaver in the Tempest.
In 2025, I’m looking forward to attending courses – an introduction to printmaking techniques, a weekend course in using a dark room/film processing, tablet weaving, and training in my role as a union steward. I’ve got plans to sew coats for me and Phil, and to knit using vintage (40s/50s) yarn purchased on eBay , and to weave a larger piece of fabric to sew into a garment, for the first time.
