Flora Patterns Blog

I rediscovered while spring cleaning my craft cupboard a folder which belonged to my mother and father dating back to the 1940s. When my mother died, I was looking through her fabric cupboard and I came across a box of pattern pieces made from card and clipped together with paperclips or in numerous envelopes.  There were also two small vintage books of toys. Rag-Bag Toys and Felt Toys by the Dryad Press. My mother and father made these toys in their young adulthood while convalescing in a TB hospital. I also rediscovered the only surviving soft toy, Pinocchio which had been handmade by my father at that time. He is tatty and a bit worn. I had kept them because I felt they were precious and always intended to attempt to make them sometime. The time seems to have come.

I started by dusting off my old sewing machine, collecting some fabric and started by making a ragdoll for my wee neighbour. I went on to make a rabbit for a colleague’s new baby. I posted these on Instagram and that led to a few friends asking me to make a few more. Suddenly I found a world which fulfilled me mentally and creatively.