As soon as you enrol!

It's up to you how to pace yourself as you follow the course. You may want to blitz through to finish, or work at a more leisurely pace. You may want to dip in and out, to suit whenever you have time available to immerse yourself in the process. 

You can access any of the lessons any time you want, whenever it suits you, wherever you are in the world - for as long as I host courses here!

I'm nearly always on hand at the end of an email to help out if you get stuck.

• A sewing machine. Make sure it's in good working order before you start - when was the last time you cleaned and oiled it? Start with a new needle: I use Schmetz 90/14 topstitch needles.

• A free-motion embroidery foot or quilting foot, and the ability to lower or cover the feed teeth.

• Plain, strong and sturdy cotton calico or canvas. By calico I mean strong, plain cotton cloth, not loosely woven cloth - that's what I would call muslin! It needs to be FIRM to take the volume of stitching we're going to do.

• Paper-like embroidery stabiliser like Stitch'n'Tear

• Fusible adhesive like Bondaweb

• Recycled papers such as old book pages, leaflets - nothing too precious or glossy.

• An old magazine or two

• PVA glue or glue stick

• A tiny amount of gesso or white household emulsion paint

• A few paints such as watercolour

• Acrylic matte medium or acrylic wax sealer NB this isn't furniture wax, it's fluid and dries to a soft sheen.

• A couple of brushes and a jam jar. 

• Fabric scraps and strips including some scraps of organza (think “sky” colours). I love using sari silks for this workshop but use all sorts of different things. You don't need much of anything, so see what you already have in your stash. Old lace (even net curtains) is great for sea foam!

• A few all-purpose machine threads

• Machine embroidery threads including invisible thread

• A few thicker threads and yarns. 

• Other optional bits and pieces include a few rusty bits and pieces e.g. old nails, water soluble fabric, transfer foil and a few small sheets of handmade paper and/or thin card, tracing paper, compass, ruler.

Because people will be taking this course in all parts of the world, I can't advise on where to find materials: you need to find your local or online supplier. 

I'm a big believer in using what you already have in your stash - not only is it more cost-effective, it'll give your work that personal touch. Most of my fabrics are recycled cottons, but I'm a sucker for buying sari silk ribbons! I buy my machine threads and machine needles from a trusted online haberdashery retailer and make sure I use a quality brand. Thicker threads are invariably second-hand yarns and oddments, with a few new stranded and perlé cottons.

For the paints, we can work with what you have already - even a child's watercolour paint set would be fine for this, or even watercolour pencils. 

Once you've signed up, I'm not able to give refunds.

Please get in touch with me before you go ahead and purchase, if you want to ask me anything before you commit! I'm happy to answer any questions that I haven't already answered here.

If you do go ahead and sign up and you're really unhappy with the course, please email me - but I strongly encourage you to get in touch beforehand if you're not sure. 

There's lots of ways! If you want a private response, probably the best way is to email me. There’s an email link at the top of every page in the course, and a little envelope icon at the verrrrrry bottom of every page, too.

Or send me a private message using the chat function on every page. This will also ping me an email notification, and I'll respond as soon as I can. If I'm online and already in the course, I'll see it immediately.

If you're happy for others to see, you can leave a comment (with or without) a photo in any lesson. This can be really helpful for others, because if you have a question, chances are someone else has the same one!

However, if you don't want to do that in the course itself, but you're happy for everyone in the private Facebook group to see, then that’s the place to post something! I check for posts every day, but if I'm not around (depending on time zones!) someone else is sure to be, to offer support or advice. It's a closed group just for this course, and very supportive.