I am not a crafty person. Sewing a button back on gives me panic attacks, so you can imagine my reaction when I got an email from the V&A asking if I wanted to participate in a crafty blogger christmas project, creating a tree ornament… I’m still not sure why, but I said yes. A day later, 4 bits of beautiful Liberty for V&A fabric and a sewing kit arrived.

Now, when I tell you I’m not good at this stuff, I’m not lying. I considered lots of different things, failed at several attempts and then when the deadline came frighteningly close, I went to a local art shop hoping for inspiration. There I found some great 3D cardboard letters, so I got some fabric glue and set about glueing the fabric to the letters. Simple enough, right? WRONG. In the process I managed to glue about everything other than the fabric (my sunglasses! my kitchen table! my chairs! my iron!), screamed out of pure frustration more than once, but eventually got something slightly presentable. In fact, I even started enjoying the idea making something pretty myself (well, ish), so I made another “A” which now proudly hangs in my office.

I sent my pieces off with a note saying “please don’t take closeups” and now they’re proudly adorning the V&A shop’s virtual christmas tree, alongside Style Slicker‘s incredible patchwork and bells creation, Coco’s Tea Party‘s gifts and Belle About Town‘s mini christmas tree, with 8 more to come.

I’m not sure I’m a craft-convert yet, but somewhere between the frustration and sticky fingers, I did make something slightly presentable, so perhaps this is the start of something new for me. Until then, I’ll just stick to writing about those who actually can.

Check out the V&A’s blogger christmas tree here.