New found love of sewing by hand - give me your tips!

[desperatebutnotserious]

Over the lockdown i started sewing. Complete beginner. Found out pretty quickly that i have a strong preference for hand sewing and not machine.
I've enjoyed some 12 days of xmas felt sewing projects and recently tried out some embroidery floral patterns that were printed on in a hoop (see what a beginner i am - don't even know the lingo!).
I have spent a fortune on kits where its all put together for you (felt, thread, patterns etc) but want to be able to try some more stuff now without paying for someone to put it all together for me.
Is there somewhere people share patterns/designs/ideas that people use within the community? I am terrible at drawing so can't draw out even the simplest of patterns - any tips on where i can get these relatively cheaply/free?

Also - i know mumsnet might not be the most active site for craft chat - so is there another place where people chat? Is there a whole community somewhere that i just dont know about?

You could give quilting a go, you can buy panels like the ones in the link below.

Then you add a layer of wadding and a backing fabric and you can either sew around elements of the pattern or add straight lines, zigzags, Circles, spirals etc to give definitions and extra texture.

The panels can then either be stitched together to make a quilt or made into cushion covers, bags etc.

You can also buy panels that are things like Xmas stockings that you just cut out and stitch together.

Panels - ladysewandsew.co.uk/product-category/patchwork-quilting-fabrics/pre-cut-fabrics-panels/panels/all-panels/

How to use panels - www.polkadotchair.com/21-creative-ways-to-use-fabric-panels/

For embroidery hoop ideas, Love Crafts have loads of printable for free, you'll probably just need to register an account - www.lovecrafts.com/en-gb/l/cross-stitch-and-embroidery/cross-stitch-and-embroidery-patterns/free-embroidery-patterns

I found a load of embroidery/hand sewing resources in my local library, have you looked there yet?

I’m not great at drawing, but I got some graph paper and plotted out designs on there - has worked pretty well so far!

Have you heard of a technique called English paper piecing? It’s sewing by hand, but you wrap the fabric around a paper or card template and then sew the pieces together. You can make some beautiful designs this way. Take a look on YouTube or Instagram

I'm making a bag by Daisy and Grace, you do need to buy some templates and possibly fabric and wadding if you don't have scraps. I quilt (piecing and quilting by machine) so I have plenty of scraps and it's nice to have a hand sewing project for when I don't want to use the machine.

This is the pattern and templates www.daisyandgrace.co.uk/collections/templates/products/quilt-as-you-go-large-bag-template-set

A guide to hand sewing using the templates.

This one also useful for making the hexagons, they do machine sewing but you can hand sew.

I've bought some lovely felt kits from The Banner Boutique on Etsy but she also sells the PDF patterns on their own should you not want the whole kit. There are loads of them and they look really nice.

Good luck :)

@desperatebutnotserious Have you tried slow stitching? It's slightly different from cross stitch embroidery but it's very relaxing and more free form. You can use little scraps of fabric, thread etc, or get a kit. There's a little write up about it here (the link below) in the 'news' section.
I've had some of these, they're so nice but there's a lot about. (I like this one because you can email any queries and she replies no matter how 'dumb' you think your questions are 😀) I'm not associated btw.

sandscreative.co.uk/product/birds-and-butterflies/
She has some on etsy too- SandSCreativeco I think 😬

I like Angela Daymond’s Kantha stitching, basically a running stitch and very relaxing, along a similar line is Kawandi which is a sort of hand sewn patchwork which I hope to learn soon.

I’ve stitched many of Corinne Lapierre’s felt kits. I love Lorna Bateman, her Embroidered Country Gardens book is beautiful and has detailed instructions and gorgeous makes, I am also a fan of her ribbon embroidery and did a couple of courses a few years ago. Crafty ribbons do ribbon embroidery kits and have reasonably priced silk ribbons.

I use Pinterest a lot to find things I like the look of and then look for YouTube video tutorials

The Facebook group Needle ‘n’ Thread community by Mary Corbet is inspiring and her website is full of useful sewing techniques and lots more.

I follow the the Australian Inspirations magazine on Facebook too, the pdf digital patterns are quite reasonably priced.