I can’t believe that we are already well into November and Christmas is now looming up on the horizon! Autumn just seems to have passed me by this year, but I’m clinging onto the last of the season with the Forage Craftpod. There are three projects included in this quarter’s box; an embroidery featuring all the delicious foraged food you can find at this time of year, a zip-up coin purse, and a recipe for a hazelnut, fig and apple cake.

Included in the box was:

• Embroidery hoop
• Embroidery thread x3 (yellow, ginger, red)
• Spool of white thread
• Pins
• Needle
• Zip
• Printed fabric
• Iron-on interfacing

For the embroidery project there was a sheet of pre-printed fabric with patches of different colours and textures to be used to represent the different objects in the still life design. I thought this was a really clever use of the fabric. The process was very straightforward – cut out the paper templates and then cut out the pieces of fabric in the corresponding colour or pattern and appliqué them to the backing fabric in a collage style creation. The main stitch used was split stitch, but seed stitch was used to create the effect of the seeds inside the figs and lastly blackberries were added using French knots to give the bobbly effect of the fruit. 

The zip-up coin purse also used printed fabric for its design. If I had had more time I would have added some stitches to embellish the design before making it up into the purse as well, I think that would have been really cute. This project was slightly more complicated than the embroidery because it is a constructed piece (and I can never remember how to put in a zip), but the instructions were very easy to follow with clear photos of what was supposed to be happening at each stage.

I sadly haven’t had time to make the hazelnut, fig and apple cake yet. I’ve been unwell and not had a chance to get the shops to buy fresh figs, but as soon as I get the chance I’ll be making it and will definitely post the results on my Instagram. I really like it when they include a recipe in the box. As much as I love sewing it’s so nice to have a something different to make.

Another great box from Craftpod with an interesting variety of projects to try and as we are well on our way into Winter I don’t think I’ll have to wait too long for the next one!