Royal Wedding stuff: the Lydia Leith sick bag

I fully intend to go Royal Wedding mad when the moment comes, but in the meantime for those people who can think of nothing more tedious, get plenty of these in stock: Lydia Leith's Royal Wedding Sick Bag - screen printed by hand in the UK especially for you.  A snip at £3, order from here.

She also does other fine screen prints (which I can't seem to make any bigger than this):

sewing projects for kids - Alice Melvin, Clothkits and Sew Much Fun

For those with kids that are keen to sew, there are some lovely kits available. On a recent visit to the Tate Modern shop (another post soon about the wonderous shopping opportunities here) I bought this extremely sweet kit by Alice Melvin for my oldest daughter - a friendly mother owl, with her babies.  We haven't tried it yet, but I'm guessing that I'll be doing most of the sewing.  Alice Melvin is based in Edinburgh, and her products are made in the UK.

Alice Melvin's owl glove puppets

Ah... Clothkits. As their website says: if your remember us from the 70s, welcome back! What I would give for the little padded waistcoat, matching bag and doll that I sported back then... my cousin wearing the rust-coloured version, and me in the blue.  For those of you with oodles of time and patience to help  your kids with more sewing projects, here's a trip down memory lane (1978 to be precise):

Clothkits Kitty doll

Clothkits Pocket Dolls

Clothkits, a Sussex based company, tell me that all of their products are printed in the UK, a lot is hand screen-printed and some prints are produced digitally with the use of machinery.

However, if you haven't got the required skills needed Sew Much Fun in London's Primrose Hill could be the place for you - regular classes are available for kids and adults.