Hello!
I'm Tash, founder of Bobbin&Bash
Welcome to my journey into making - more mindfully, living more sustainably and spreading the joy of sewing. It like me, is a work in progress, but I hope you enjoy coming along for the ride.
If you're stressed, struggling to keep all the plates in the air, let alone keep them spinning, then you may benefit from picking up a new hobby like sewing. Taking time for yourself, making space to breathe, learning a new skill and slowing down could be just what the doctor ordered.
I am an Event Manager by trade, a job that was voted 5th most stressful job by CareerCast in 2017 (the year I became a parent), right up there with army personnel and firefighters! But I left that life behind to bring joy, creativity and fun back to my own life and inject some into yours!
When did I get into sewing?
I took up sewing as a child. I remember my mum's friend Maureen teaching me how to make toy penguins from old bedsheets by cutting out two little circles, gathering them around the edge and stuffing them before stacking them on top of each other and sewing on a beak and feet. I remember going to Kilburn market on a Saturday morning and buying silvery grey velvet fabric with pocket money I had saved up, dreaming about what it could be made into for weeks, daring not to cut into it and ruin it. Going back to buy pink and white polka dot polycotton to make and then embroider a cushion for my sister, with her name on it for her birthday. I was so proud of it, it gave me such a sense of achievement, independence and self sufficiency. At school I was constantly doodling, creating fashion designs whenever I had a few spare minutes. At home repurposing clothes, making them into fancy dress costume for my Power Rangers mad brother or take myself off to an imaginary ball or party in a dress I'd finally cut and made from the soft silver fabric.
Enter the sewing machine
At University we often had to make fancy dress outfits for nights out, all by hand as none of us had a machine and couldnt afford to spend tons on ready made costumes. After I graduated I learnt to make a patchwork quilt a year or so after my dad died, to relax my brain and give me something to focus on. It was working, for short periods of time I was able to think about something other than my dad being taken so young, and so suddenly. It took me about a year to make the top of the quilt, sewing slowly, saving for fabric and buying some clothes to cut up in a Primark sale- desperate to finish it and completely underestimating how much time, fabric and money it would take to make the mammoth quilt top. I the upped and left all my problems at home and went off on a round the world trip with my then boyfriend, now husband and father to my children . On my return I decided I needed to finish the quilt and didn't want to spend another year quilting it, basting it and finishing off into something usable. I decided to try machine sewing to speed things up. I asked my mum for a machine for my birthday and never really looked back.
And not until losing the second pregnancy and finding mindfulness did I ever think slowing down might be the answer. Taking the time to process and move through the feelings - face them head on instead of speeding everything up, rushing past the healing, skipping the processing and just wishing life away to get to the next bit instead of growing through what you go through and relishing each day as a gift, the present.
Benefits of sewing
Sewing as a hobby really helped me cope with the demands of my job. It gave me a creative outlet when I was bogged down with countless emails, decisions to make and the never ending admin at work.
It later supported me in times of grief and loss.
Sewing was one thing that really helped me through all the dark times. It would take me away from the day-to-day and I would be immersed in a world where anything was possible, it was mine to create. It was harder to squeeze in when I became a mum but I made it work. I made time for me because i f i didn't nobody else would.
Sewing in a pandemic
We were lucky enough to get our rainbow baby, and she changed something in me. Stirred up feelings I never knew I had within me. An intense desire to protect her but also to be the woman to model how to get the most from life. That meant living it and being brave, Going way out of my comfort zone.
The pandemic hit 3 months after having my second baby, whilst I was on maternity leave. Like many people I took a deep, hard look inside and questioned what was important to me and decided to make lots of changes to improve our quality of life and reduce our impact on the planet, in an effort to live more sustainably.
I decided to grab life by the sewing needles and do something I'd been dreaming about for years, becoming my own boss, for my own mental health and the health of the planet. After all, if it's not sustainable, by definition, it simply cannot continue the way it is. And that is what my life felt like. Unsustainable.
So, I'm on a mission to craft a more mindful life, one that makes me and my family happy, and makes the world a better place to live in one stitch at a time.
Learning to sew is an investment, but it is an investment in yourself. Are you ready to make change happen?
Natasha Adams
Founder
Bobbin&Bash
Follow me on Instagram @Bobbinandbash