My happy place is whenever I’m sewing; those hours when I’m all consumed by the project that I’m stitching. I love it because everything else in my head disappears and all my focus is on this lovely, meditative activity. I am also an avid collector of haberdashery: the colours, shapes and gadgets are all so appealing to me – even when I don’t really need more.

“The Haberdasher” represents the joy I feel at the start of a new sewing project: the pile of haberdashery loaded on top of the hat celebrates that moment when I’ve collected the equipment and materials together and it’s so full of potential.

Design-wise I wanted a slightly haphazard collection of items (that still made a pleasing arrangement, of course) something that wasn’t quite yet a hat or a finished product! This is the joy I feel at the beginning of a project! The slightly tottering pile of materials hint at the comic, cartoony feel to my entry. I chose bold, strong colours to accentuate this animated feel. And I played with notions of scale to add to the humour. The oversized “thread” on the reels for example and the cocktail stick “needle” nod to the silliness of the arrangement. Sometimes there’s a fine line between things looking real but not perfect and that’s what I wanted from the tape measure: it looking “nearly right” which adds to the cartoon attributes of the hat-trim.

Note: Entries have been not been edited or proofread to protect the integrity of the maker's original meaning.