Crafting Wellness with Rachel Bearn

In this episode of the Sewing Social Podcast, Gemma Daly interviews Rachel Bearn, who shares her journey into slow living and crafting whilst facing chronic illness. 

Rachel discusses the healing power of handmade crafts, her commitment to sustainability, and the physical and mental health benefits of engaging in creative activities. 

She also offers insights into managing crafting with chronic illness, her self-taught journey into sewing and knitting, and the positive impact of social media in the crafting community. 

Rachel reveals her upcoming projects, including her first book that intertwines her faith with her crafting ethos.

Key Takeaways:

• Rachel's journey into slow living began following the diagnosis of a chronic illness.
• Crafting has been a healing process for Rachel.
• Sustainability is a core principle in Rachel's crafting ethos.
• Mental health benefits are linked to engaging in crafts.
• Setting a timer can help manage energy levels while crafting.
• Rachel emphasises the importance of using what you already have.
• Social media can be a positive space for crafters.
• Rachel's first book will be released in September.
• Crafting should be accessible and enjoyable for everyone.
• The crafting community on social media is supportive and inspiring.
• Choosing fabrics with ethical supply chains is challenging but important.

Follow me: 

Instagram: @thesewingsocialpod

@thedalythread

Guest details:

YouTube and Instagram: @byrachelbearn

Link to Rachel's new book preorder: A year to slow down

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0281091137?ref_=cm_sw_r_ffobk_cp_ud_dp_19WKG2W4E0TZQWG3557G&bestFormat=true

https://www.waterstones.com/book/a-year-to-slow-down/rachel-bearn/9780281091133

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Slow Living and Crafting

00:45 The Journey to Handmade and Homegrown Living

04:04 Sustainability in Crafting and Fashion

06:43 Mental Health Benefits of Crafting

09:08 Crafting with Chronic Illness

12:53 Self-Taught Crafting Journey

15:09 Releasing Patterns and Creative Inspiration

18:01 Kirsty's Handmade Christmas Experience

20:32 Fabric Preferences and Sustainability Challenges

25:10 Inspiration from the Sewing Community

28:36 Upcoming Projects and Book Release

29:49 Fun This or That Game

Transcript

Speaker 2 (00:15.022)
Hi Rachel, how are you doing today?

Hi, yeah, I'm good. Thank you, Gemma. How are you?

really good thanks. I'm very excited to have you on the Sewing Social Podcast.

I'm really excited to be here. Thanks for having me.

Brilliant. The first thing I wanted to chat about was I was hoping you could tell us a bit about your handmade, homegrown and slow life. How and why did it start?

Speaker 1 (00:45.966)
Yeah, so I mean, I have to go back quite far. So I became unwell with a chronic illness, a chronic fatigue and pain condition about seven years ago. And I had already started at that point, sort of following lots of Instagram accounts that were doing like hashtag slow living and slowing everything down and

living in a much more sustainable way, a much more ethical way. And that had really started to interest me, but I hadn't really sort of put any of that into practice hugely. And then I became very unwell. And I ended up mostly housebound for about a year or two from illness, which then sort of meant that my whole life obviously just

sort of disappeared almost all of my hobbies and interests and I had to leave my job. yeah, from that sort of place of real difficulty, I started to knit and I started to make things with my hands and I found it to be a really healing process. I found it to be a really sort of helpful thing to keep me going. It kept me in the present moment.

it stopped me worrying about being unwell and what was going to happen in the future. I was able to just focus on creating something a little bit more each day. And so, yeah, I got really obsessed with sort of the handmade side of living. And then a couple of years later, as I was starting to get a bit better and I was able to do a little bit more, it was actually during the first pandemic back in 2020, I started growing my own food in the garden and

Again, the huge benefits of being outside of slowly sort of planting up seeds, watching them grow, having to accept that I didn't have a huge amount of control. I could water them and I could put them in the sun and I could take care of them as best I could. But actually, you know, it was sort of all up to nature really. All of that, again, I found it very calming and quite a helpful and

Speaker 1 (03:06.496)
Yeah, sort of the methodical act of planting and growing. It seemed to go very well with the making side of things. And then I started sewing my own clothes and yeah, it's just kind of gone from there where I now try to make as much as I possibly can. I try to grow a lot of stuff and it's just become a real ethos for my life to do things in a much slower way. And I noticed from the

my own personal experience, how beneficial that's been to me and my life, but also how much of a benefit it can make to the planet and sort of using less resources and yeah, just having a slower mindset because we live in a very fast paced world, so it's very easy to get caught up in the rat race and be running around all the time. But yeah, it's sort of developed over quite a few years into now very much like an ethos for life.

love that. I love all aspects of it really. Obviously, when you make your own stuff, you get a deep satisfaction, don't you, that you've made something with your hands. But also, me personally, I'm really sort of conscious about sustainability at the moment. And I love how you, because I do watch your YouTube channel, I love how you try and use up your stash, you know, because we all have a stash and you can start to feel...

a little bit overwhelmed by it, can't you? But I love that you talk about, you know, using up that stuff and I think particularly this year is that your goal? To sort of use what you've got?

Yeah, definitely. I feel like my first year of sewing, I was just so excited to learn to sew. So I sort of went a bit bonkers and I went to like multiple of those sewing shows and bought loads of fabric and just got really over excited, which I think is obviously quite normal. And then there's the fact that when you're first learning to sew, you often make a lot of mistakes and you make quite a few like unwareable or sort of like...

Speaker 1 (05:13.844)
only wearable at home kind of garments that you're, and it's sort of one of those where, so the first few years, I think I made a lot of stuff, which was really good for me to learn a lot. But then this year I was like, I've now got a beautiful wardrobe. Well, I think it's beautiful. I've had made clothes and I don't need to keep adding to that all the time because actually, you know, it was reminding myself that my main

driver for making my own clothes was to slow down and to be more sustainable and to, you know, be very considerate about the resources that I'm using. And so I sort of started to slow things down a bit in 2024. But yeah, for me, 2025 is very much about what can I like make from what I already have? What clothes am I not actually wearing that I could maybe take apart and remake into something else?

And how can I use up even scraps and things like that? You know, how can I use those up? And it's actually quite a nice challenge really, to sort of have that to think about how we can use what you already have. Cause it's so easy just to go shopping and buy fabric and that's great. And it's, you know, really good fun. And sometimes it's really necessary, but actually if we're wanting to be more sustainable, I think it.

most sustainable thing is to use what you already have and to wear what you already have. that's definitely a big focus for this year.

So going back to like your sort of ethos and slowing down, obviously slowing down with your physical health was one thing, but you said quite a few things really about your mental health as well and how those sort of crafts and planting your own vegetables and things that really had a huge impact on your mental health. Would that be right to say?

Speaker 1 (07:12.494)
Oh yeah, definitely. think that, I mean, there's a lot of studies. I am no scientist or doctor. I am 100 % a creative, but there are so many studies that show the most incredible things happening to our brains and to our nervous systems. I've learned an awful lot about my nervous system and the sort of parasympathetic nervous system. I'm going get too technical because as say, I'm not a scientist, but that sort of like the flight or fight response that all humans have.

how that can be so positively sort of looked after by working with your hands, by being outside, by being in nature, by growing food, by sewing. You know, even obviously like with a sewing machine, you don't have to sew by hand to get those benefits. And even things as well, like I think there's been studies that have shown that knitting crochet can actually reduce chronic.

pain. It's very helpful for people with arthritis and things and can reduce their pain and inflammation, which is just so interesting that it has that effect. So I think it has like such effects on our physical health because actually mental health is so connected with the nervous system. So actually by affecting your nervous system and bringing that down and sort of calming that down and putting that in a good place, you then feel the benefits.

in your mood and mentally. As I say though, I'm no scientist, just repeating some of the things I've learned.

Yeah, it's amazing to know that these sort of things that you sometimes take for granted and you feel are so small in your life can have such a big impact.

Speaker 1 (08:54.186)
Mm, yeah, exactly, yeah.

Do you have any strategies for sort of crafting with chronic illness or managing your energy levels that our listeners might find interesting or useful?

Yeah, I have really sort of developed a like practice of crafting because again it can be quite tempting to sort of get absorbed and sometimes that's a really really positive thing if you're coming at it from a place of real enjoyment and you're really absorbed in the craft that's a really nice place to be in the present moment but it can also as well I think my personality type I get sort of hyper focused and I've had to learn how to break that focus because

actually it uses up a lot of energy storage. I find particularly with sewing that uses more energy than I find with knitting often. And so I'm very, very careful with my sewing. And I actually found Samantha, who is the purple sewing cloud, I think on Instagram. She shared loads of tips of how she managed her chronic illness with her sewing. And I found her quite early on in my journey and I found all of her advice really helpful.

and she suggested setting a timer. So you only sew for a certain amount of time and you don't just get completely absorbed and then find yourself absolutely exhausted at the end of the day. Because it can be hard because you're on Instagram and lots of people, you know, will sit down and sew for six hours and they'll sew an entirely new garment on a Saturday and that's it. And that's great. That's really wonderful for them. But for chronically ill people, that's actually

Speaker 1 (10:35.956)
exhausting and I think it's quite helpful to know that you don't have to do that, that you can enjoy sewing in sort of bits and pieces. And so yeah, I found it really helpful to set just an hour timer. So I tend to do an hour at the sewing machine at a time. And I've been very lucky as well to create a space in my home where I can leave my sewing machine and the project I'm working at sort of out.

during the time, if I know I'm going to work on it over a couple of days, which I often do, I'll work on it for sort of three days and then put it away for a bit and then bring it back out again. I can just leave it a complete mess in the corner of the room, which I found really helpful because then I can just sit down and start exactly where I left off. So yeah, I think if any of the listeners have the similar to me energy to, know, depleting illnesses and things, that would be my advice would be to figure out how long you feel you can so for without

over-exerting yourself and set yourself a timer for that amount of time and if possible set yourself up a station that you can just leave messy and come back to whenever you have the health to do so because sewing should be totally accessible for you so whatever you need to do that's what you should do you shouldn't worry about what other people are doing there's no right or wrong way to sew you know it's all about you and it's all about making the craft work for you I think

Absolutely. That's so helpful and it's so interesting to hear the way that you do things, but also that could potentially help other people. And I completely agree that leaving stuff set up is just so much easier because even like lifting your machines and things, they're heavy, aren't they? Yeah. To pack them away, it's hard work.

So happy

Speaker 1 (12:23.926)
Yeah, and that was a thing I struggled to learn to sew for a while because I didn't have a dedicated little corner of a room, which I now have, because for that exact reason, when I was really struggling with my health, lifting the machine up and down and getting it out of a cupboard was actually really quite hard work. So yeah, it really sort of changed everything for me setting up a sewing station.

Are you completely self-taught in all of your craft?

sort of. So, my sister taught me how to thread a sewing machine when I was about 10 and I never forgot that. but I didn't really learn anything else, until I was sort of, yeah, when I, when I was teaching myself about three, four years ago, because we didn't do any kind of textiles or anything at school. I went to an all girl school that was very, like, they didn't want to do traditional women's things. They were really.

really strongly wanting to sort of teach us that we learnt like DT. So we all learnt like woodwork and soldering, which is amazing. But also I haven't used woodwork and soldering in my life, whereas sewing a button on would have been very helpful. So I'm not quite sure they got the feminist agenda quite right. Because I was like, feminists still need to know how to sew buttons on. So yeah, I basically had to teach myself how to like do dressmaking, how to follow a dressmaking pattern.

I got Tilly and the Buttons book, think it's called, is it Love at First Stitch or something? Yeah, that book, I got that for a present, I can, I think 2020. And that was just so helpful because it had all the information I needed. And then I used YouTube and things to learn how to do that. And yeah, that's basically been, I still now use YouTube all the time to learn how to do sewing techniques. I find it really, really helpful.

Speaker 2 (13:59.278)
it.

Speaker 1 (14:20.994)
I haven't actually been on any sort of workshops or anything like that. I'd love to one day, but I am mostly just self-taught YouTube from home. But with my knitting, I did learn to knit as a child from different women in my life, which was really, really helpful. Like they taught me how to sort of cast on and things like that, but nobody taught me how to follow a pattern. So again, when I started knitting as an adult.

I had to teach myself how to read a pattern. again, YouTube became my best friend. Every time I get stuck on a stitch, I'm on YouTube. So I have a lot to thank YouTube for.

You're quite a prolific knitter now though, aren't you? How long has that sort of journey taken you? Because it's really impressive what you make.

Thank you. Yeah, so I think I started knitting at the end of 2018 and then 2019 was that first year that I was very unwell and I was knitting basically every single day because I didn't have anything else to do. Yeah, I learned quite a lot in that year. So yeah, I guess it's been, gosh, over six years now, which feels like quite a long time. But I still feel like I'm learning so much. There are so many techniques like...

I have some good friends that are sort of independent knitting pattern designers and I'm always just completely bowled over by their ability to like work out construction and like they're just such interesting shapes that they create with their knitting. It's really very impressive. I still have an awful lot to learn I think.

Speaker 2 (15:59.512)
Gosh, if you've got a lot to learn, I don't know what you call it for me.

I'm sure you'll be great.

You've actually released, is it once a knitting pattern or have you done a few?

Yeah, so I released a headband knitting pattern years ago, which is very basic, just because I was on Kirsty's Handmade Christmas on Channel 4. And yeah, that headband was on there and a few people asked me for the pattern, so I did that. But yes, I released my first garment pattern a few weeks ago, which I've never done before. Garments are much more complicated than headbands.

Yeah, again, it was sort of based off the design that I made for Kirstie's Handmade Christmas back in 2022. Yeah, it's been really lovely actually. The reception to the pattern has been so, so nice. It's quite a scary thing putting something out into the world like that, but people were so complimentary and yeah, it was really lovely.

Speaker 2 (16:57.055)
I'm glad it's gone really well. It is a really pretty sweater. It's got like a frill, hasn't it? it?

Yeah, ruffles. So basically it's a drop-shouldered sweater and the ruffles are on the sort of seam of the shoulder and the sleeve. So they're slightly off the shoulder and then there's a lace panel down the front. It was very much inspired by Edwardian blouses that have lots of ruffles and lace and high necks. That was sort of the thing that I thought, oh, I'd love to try and

Where would you describe that it goes?

Speaker 1 (17:32.984)
turn that into like a modern day knitting pattern, how would I do that? Which then sort of led to the name as well, because it's called the Amy March sweater after Amy March from Little Women, which is one of my favourite books. And it is that kind of, I know sort of Little Women's a bit older than Edwardian, it's more Victorian, but it was that idea of that kind of Victorian Edwardian lacy frilly blouse, which yeah, I'm really pleased with how it came out. I often get compliments when I wear the jumper, which is just the loveliest thing ever.

so yeah.

Brilliant. And tell us about Kirsty's Handmade Christmas. How did you get on there? What was the process?

Yeah, was really amazing actually. I got a message on Instagram from the casting team, which I think is fairly normal. I think they do that for sewing bee as well. They have people looking out for people that might apply. And so they sent me a message and they said, would you be interested in applying for Kirsty's Handmade Christmas for the Christmas jumper competition? And I thought, actually, yeah, that does sound quite fun. I might have a go at that. And it's a really interesting...

competition because there's like a whole series every single day there's a different competition you have like the Christmas tree decorating competition or the Christmas cake decorating competition and they're timed tasks but obviously for a knitting a Christmas jumper you can't do that in a time challenge so it was one of those where you had to design it and make it before the show and then you came on the show and you did a small time challenge which is when I did my headband

Speaker 1 (19:10.018)
that sort of matched with your original design. It was the first time I'd ever really designed a piece of knitwear. So it was a really nice opportunity to sort of have a go at something and come up with a concept and come up with a design. And yeah, I was really pleased with how it went. It was a bit odd filming a full Christmas episode at the beginning of October.

Like you went on set and it was just Christmas. Like there was Christmas music playing, there was Christmas snacks available. It was like super decorated. It was a little bit weird, but yeah, I had such a good time. Like my fellow knitters on the show as well were just the loveliest, most talented people. And we just had a really lovely, like, I think we were there for about six hours and we just had a really lovely time together and we've got a little group chat. So we sort of kept in touch since then, which is nice.

That's amazing how exciting and the show's still on isn't it? It still runs. Yes.

but that was the last Christmas Jumper. So last year they repeated the year I was on. So in 2023, they just repeated 2022. They didn't film a new series, but 2024 Christmas, they did film a new series, but they only did five episodes and they didn't do the Christmas Jumper. So I feel quite pleased that I may have got in just at the last minute to do the last ever Christmas Jumper episode. That feels quite special.

definitely, that's amazing. Do you have any sort of favourite fabrics that you like to sew with and is there anything you sort of look for in a fabric when you're buying them?

Speaker 1 (20:48.174)
Yeah, so it's difficult because I really love to sew with like cotton or double gauze simply because it sews up so easily, but I don't actually like to wear cotton as much. Double gauze is nice and soft, but cotton's quite stiff. So I love being able to sew with cotton because it does what I want it to do. It presses really well, but actually it's not that comfortable. So I have sort of

sewn quite a bit with viscose because it's much more comfortable but I don't actually enjoy it as much because it's so much more slippery so it's always very difficult to get that balance. Yeah I think my favourite fabric ever is a double gauze because it's really soft, it's really comfortable but it also presses well and I make a lot of gathered dresses so it gathers really well.

I like the way that it looks. So I've started making quite a lot of things in a double gauze. But I'm also as well very conscious of trying to be as sustainable as possible. So trying to choose fabrics that are from brands that have sort of like a good supply chain. It's a lot more difficult with fabrics than it is with yarn. So when I'm picking yarn for a piece of knitwear, you can normally trace it back to like...

the herd of sheep, you can often find the person with the herd of sheep on Instagram, which is great. But like, you know, with fabric, it's very difficult to trace it back. And so that's something that I'm definitely trying to work on a lot more is finding brands and fabric producers that I can trust that I feel like they've got good ethical and sustainable supply chains. But I feel like it's something in the industry that we're really

lacking when it comes to buying newer fabrics, which is why I'm often drawn to thrifted fabrics. So I will buy curtains and bedsheets from Vinted or the charity shop. And I've made quite a few dresses now from curtains and bedsheets. And I will also try to buy like a dead stock as well. So I'm a big fan of new craft house and their beautiful dead stock fabrics, because otherwise they would have just gone.

Speaker 1 (22:59.114)
into landfill so it's amazing to have saved. And I think Rainbow Fabrics Kilburn as well is another one that is very good at going, they go abroad and they buy huge amounts of fabric that would have otherwise gone into landfill. So that's obviously really, really positive. So yeah, it's a difficult one trying to marry up the fabric that I would like to make a dress out of but also the most ethical and sustainable choice. Often they don't always...

sort of married together.

I think that's, you know, it's a bit of a dilemma in general life as well at the moment, isn't it? It feels like everything comes with such a choice and that can be quite tiring in itself.

definitely.

But yeah, I mean, for me, try my best to avoid polyester if I can. And that's not a downer on anybody that likes to sew with polyester. But for me, I try and avoid it if I can. But like you say, it's really hard to trace where something's from and that matches with your morals, if that makes any sense.

Speaker 1 (24:12.474)
Yeah, And I think that's the big thing, isn't it? That as you say, there are so many choices. You get to a point where you do have to just make the choices for you. So you have to almost come up with your own like mission statement for how you're going to purchase. So like you, I'm the same. try to choose like natural fibers and I try to choose, you know, dead stock or thrifted where possible. And if it's going to be new, I try to pick from a, you know, brand that I know.

is trying their hardest to have a good supply chain. it's sort of like, go, it's like, you know, it's like one of those quizzes where you sort of go down to one answer and then you go across. It's like, that's what I do when I'm choosing fabric is one of those. And I feel like everybody sort of has to make that choice, whether it comes to like food, clothes, whatever you're buying in life, that's where we've got to where there is no perfect choice. You just have to make a decision for you what you feel is most important for you.

and accept that you can't do it perfectly because it's just not possible.

Yeah, I think you're exactly right. Do you feel like you get your inspiration from anybody in particular in the sewing community? Because we're all scrolling through Instagram, aren't we, a lot of the time and you'll see things. Does anybody stand out to you that you are inspired by?

Yeah, no, I mean, I love Instagram. It's just the best place for inspiration. Instagram and YouTube are just so much inspiration for sewing. I think one of my main inspirations for dressmaking has been Janelle from Rosary Apparel. I'm a big fan of her channel. I started watching her channel before I was even dressmaking and she really like inspired me to get started with it. And I was quite lucky because a few years ago,

Speaker 1 (26:03.726)
I interviewed her. I'm a features writer for Simply Sewing magazine. I got to interview her for a feature in the magazine, which was really, really lovely to actually get to chat to her. And since then we've sort of become friends and we chat every now and again. And yeah, it's been really lovely to get to know her because her ethos is, is been very inspiring to me because she makes a lot of things from thrifted fabric. She makes a lot of things from vintage tablecloths and bed sheets and

And she's also a pattern designer, so she designs her own patterns and they're all beautiful puff sleeves and gathered skirts and all that kind of stuff that I love. So yeah, she's probably one of my biggest inspirations. I'm also a big fan of Lauren Johnson, who I think is just, I think she's called just Lauren Johnson on Instagram, who has a great YouTube channel and her style is very sort of.

like feminine and girly and like lots of florals and lace and pretty dresses, which again is very much my style. I really love that. So yeah, I think those two are probably some of my biggest inspirations on Instagram. But to be honest, I'm always following new people because there's always so many people like with so many, I've got so many friends with the most amazing fashion sense. And I just, that's what I love about Instagram. It can be a really positive place for s-

especially for crafters to like come and get some inspiration.

I think so too. mean, you hear a lot of negative things about social media, but I think in the crafting world, it's a really positive place and everybody's always really kind.

Speaker 1 (27:45.334)
Yeah, definitely. I think that's the thing I always say that, you know, it can be quite a sort of dark place social media, but actually crafting seems to bring quite a lot of light to it because actually everyone's so supportive and there's a real sense of community. And, you know, it really helped me when I was housebound for a while to have sort of a sense of community and have people to talk to.

just on my phone, that was a really helpful thing for me to be able to connect with people. So yeah, I always find it to be a very supportive space.

good. That's really nice. And great choices on the inspirations there. I follow both of those ladies and I love them too. Have you got any exciting plans coming up this year, Rachel? Anything that's in the pipeline?

Yeah.

Speaker 1 (28:36.6)
So we are moving house in the next few months. So that's exciting. But that's led to lots of like home sewing plans. So I've got plans for curtains and quilts and cushions and all that kind of stuff, which is really exciting. And then a bit later on in this year, I actually have my first book coming out. So my first book is coming out in September on September the 18th.

That's very exciting.

you able to tell us the title of that or what it's about? I know maybe some things are hush hush but...

Yeah, no, it will be open for pre-orders soon. So I am allowed to say the title. The title is A Year to Slow Down, A Christian Guide to Embracing Handmade and Homegrown. And it's very much about my ethos and also my faith. My husband and I are Christians. So it's all about our faith and how sort of living in this slower handmade and homegrown lifestyle is very connected to our faith and our belief system and my sort of journey through chronic illness.

and lot of the health benefits of living in this way. So yeah, it's a real mix of things.

Speaker 2 (29:50.108)
cool, that's really exciting. Congratulations!

Thank you.

Just to finish off, I thought we'd do a little game of this or that. It's mostly crafting related, but there's a few little different things in there as well. So if you had to choose, would it be knitting or sewing?

Okay, great.

Speaker 1 (30:12.014)
That's a horrible question! my god. I think it would have to be knitting just simply because I can do it everywhere. And I love that, that I can take it everywhere. I can't really take my sewing machine to church and start sewing at the back. I take my knitting and do it. It would be difficult to take the sewing machine, so probably knitting.

haha

Speaker 2 (30:39.35)
Well done, I know that was a tough one to start with. Going out or staying in?

you

Speaker 1 (30:46.542)
I staying in every time. That's not even a hard one.

To your coffee.

probably tea, but like a nice herbal tea. I'm not a fan of coffee at all, I have to say. My husband's a big coffee drinker, but I just think it's too strong.

Prints or solids?

Probably prints, yeah. I have got into solids more recently, but I'm still always drawn to a print.

Speaker 2 (31:17.614)
You're a floral girl at heart, aren't you?

I am definitely a ditzy floral every time.

Okay, this might be a bit tricky as well. Thrifting something or making it.

I think probably making it because of the joy and like, but can I make it with a thrifted fabric? So it's like both then.

A bit of both, a bit of both. YouTube or podcasts while you sew.

Speaker 1 (31:51.182)
Definitely podcasts because I can't concentrate on what's happening on YouTube. So if it's a podcast on YouTube, that's great. But no, always listen. Yeah, I'd listen to a podcast whilst I'm sewing.

A0 or PDF printing.

I prefer A zero. too. But do I actually get round to it? I don't know.

to.

Speaker 2 (32:17.496)
Hahaha!

making for yourself or others.

Probably myself, yeah. That sounds really selfish but I also get quite... like when you make for others it's quite stressful because I worry that it's not good enough whereas for myself I don't care if the seam looks a bit rocky or something, no one's gonna notice it. It's just me. So probably myself.

Yeah, no, I get that. completely get that. Hand sewing or machine sewing?

Get that.

Speaker 1 (32:47.598)
Hmm, I think machine sewing, but I have started embroidering and hand quilting. So I'm really enjoying that. But I think I'd probably go machine sewing because my favorite thing is dressmaking and I'm never gonna do that by hand because that'd be crazy. It take a long time.

Yeah. Organised stash or creative chaos.

Definitely organized dash. I can't cope with the mess. It's very, very folded and organized and all the yarn is together in its own sections and stuff. Definitely.

Brilliant, very good. And the last one, only one project on the go or multiple.

Yeah

Speaker 1 (33:31.924)
I definitely one project. always sort of attempt to do that, it's quite... because I get quite overwhelmed if I have multiple on the go, but I am terrible at like starting things and yeah, I try to keep it to one project as much as possible.

So where can people find you Rachel? What are your social media handles?

Yeah, so it's basically the same everywhere. I am at, by Rachel Behan, B-E-A-R-N, at sort of Instagram and on YouTube. And then I also have a sub stack, which is called the Slow Nature Journal. But all of that is linked on my Instagram or on my YouTube. So yeah.

Lovely. Well, it's been super interesting talking to you today and I really appreciate you coming on the podcast. So thanks again.

Thanks so much for having me. It's been really good fun. I've really enjoyed it.

Speaker 2 (34:30.786)
Thank you, Rachel. Take care.