I’ve been working on making myself a huswif or housewife and I’m so excited I’ve finished it and can share it here.

Making a huswif sewing kit

This was from a lovely kit from Pretty Fabrics and Trims. I received it as a present some time ago but was too scared to make it. Last year I embroidered the front cover but them put it away, too scared! This year was the year to complete the huswif, so in March I opened the kit up and looked at all the different parts!

The kit came with labels which was helpful for identifying the different fabrics and parts. I ironed everything and labelled it all. Then put it away again, having no confidence that I could make this!

I worked on a few other sewing projects before having a stern word with myself and getting it out. I cut into all those beautiful Liberty fabrics and started reading through the instructions. I slowly began to believe I could make this and started layering the cut fabrics to make the outside cover. It was wonderful seeing how it was made with a layer of linen, wadding and cotton. I used quilting clips to keep the layers together and started to stitch the panels together before hand quilting the outside cover. Once the cover was finished I knew I could finish and spent every minute on it. I love working with Liberty fabrics and enjoyed making pockets and little places to keep pins and scissors.

Here’s the inside of the kit:

and the inside with the flaps open:

The instructions were good and the only slight issue I had was trying to keep the huswif to the right dimensions, unfortunately it shrank slightly when I hand quilted the cover! My mistake was to hope that the binding would cover the slightly smaller fabric and batting layers – it didn’t! I had to go back and -restitch parts of the binding to ensure it caught all the layers, and it left a few gaps. I decided to cover these with small fabric patches, and I’m not sure you’d notice unless I had told you!

I also added an extra little pocket for my tape measure.

It was a really fun kit to make and I would love to make another one but customise it for my own uses. I have some favourite tools I love to use and could do with another huswif to hold everything for my latest project. Anyway, my goal was to make this in time for the Knit & Stitch Show in October. I can’t wait to take it with me and use it in all those lovely workshops I’ve booked on! The kit is still available from Pretty Fabrics and Trims if you fancy making one yourself.