Sewing has had a bit of an image problem in recent years - you’d be forgiven for thinking the only people left in the country still doing it were GCSE students and grannies. But banish that thought - today’s the perfect time to rediscover a lost art (or a conveniently forgotten one, if your textiles classes at school were as disastrous as mine). Home sewing is undergoing a huge revival at the moment, as fashionistas find themselves with less money to burn and a greater awareness of the ethical concerns surrounding mass production. And it can work for anyone - it may seem like a lot to drop £50 or more on a sewing machine, but they last a lifetime and can be used to create limitless one-off wonders. So, why not put your fashion radar to work looking for a pattern and fabric you really love, rather than settling for what everyone else is wearing?

The benefits of creating your own clothes are huge - aside from the money saved and the environmental brownie points, when people ask you where you got that fabulous new dress/shirt/scarf from you get to do a little laugh and say ‘oh, I made it myself’. With all this in mind, I set myself the challenge of making my own skirt for summer. I chose a skirt because I thought it would be less fiddly than trousers, but not as much of a cop-out as a scarf. Well, it was still ridiculously frustrating in parts - but you just have to grit your teeth, accept you’re going to make a few mistakes along the way, and carry on. If you do this, I promise you’ll be left with something totally unique you’ll be proud to wear - it’s just a matter of trial and error until you get it right. To make things more fun, team up with a few friends and make things together to wear to a specific event. Then you’ve got a deadline, and there’s someone to laugh with if it goes wrong, and someone to look impressed when it all comes together.

Like anything involving a challenge, sewing takes more time, effort and small-scale frustration than your average grab-and-dash in Primark. But the reward is greater than all of that - I’m already planning my next creation!