Homemade: Gorgeous Things To Make With Love

Homemade. When searching for a title for this book, there was really only one candidate in our minds: this well-worn word that conjures up both things handmade at home, and a home that's made with love. There was a time, not so very long ago, when "homemade" had become synonymous with dowdiness, a degree of drudgery and doing without. From the profligate Eighties on, shopping was the preferred national pastime, while making your own was seen as second best, if not an eccentricity, or a leftover from childhood television programmes, such as Blue Peter. Not so nowadays. Making things-whether sewing, cooking, or customizing clothes-is firmly in fashion, with clothes designers incorporating crochet and patchwork into their collections and celebrities as keen to be photographed with their knitting as they were with a yoga mat a few years ago. Wearing homemade clothes is something to be proud rather than ashamed of-living proof of tour creativity and resourcefulness, as is sending homemade cards, or taking homemade jam, sweets or chutney as a dinner party gift. Making your own clothes or home furnishings is also a surefire way to get noticed in what is becoming an increasingly homogeneous society.