Mollie Makes - A Review

"Mollie Makes" Magazine!

I'm sure that all of you have heard of and/or read the new sewing magazine on the block, "Mollie Makes". This month the magazine will publish only it's third ever installment but it already has a dedicated following who are waiting eagerly for each issue's arrival. This magazine proved so popular that the first issue completely sold out in a matter of days, now how many new publications can say that? I was curious as to what all the fuss was about, so I picked up a copy of the second issue for myself and I'm now going to share my thoughts with you.

Firstly I adore the whole look of the magazine. The creative team have chosen a very Cath-Kidston-esque palette with lots of pastel colours, floral patterns and swirly text. It's incredibly pleasing to the eye, or to my eye at least! The look really invites you in and feels warm and comfortable, I defy anyone to start flipping through this magazine without getting the urge to curl up in a cosy chair and give it a good old read. Which is always a plus :)

Aren't these strawberries sweet? :)

There are some really sweet tutorials in these beautiful pages, personal favourites of mine being the strawberry pin cushions (featured on the cover), a crochet blanket pattern (designed by Jane Brocket) and a felt fox (by the lovely Lori Marie). I'm not even sure if I would need any of these items, but the way they are presented creates a need for me to give them a go, even if they do nothing for me after creation other than to look pretty (much like the crochet apple covers featured in issue one of the magazine, be still my beating heart!). The articles and interviews are brilliant too. I find it incredibly satisfying to see several bloggers that I have followed for a long while (Jane Brocket, Lori Marie and Alicia Paulson) all featured in these pages, they are so inspirational in what they do and it's wonderful that a publication like "Mollie Makes" gives them a way to spread their talents even further. I was also introduced to some new faces, namely Aurelie Mathigot and her incredible crochet filled home and the fabulous Jazz Domino Holly who will soon be releasing her first craft book (which I will definitely be purchasing by the way, so I guess the article did the trick!). This magazine is stuffed with inspiration, it really does make you want to get up, go to wonderful places (the article on why you should visit Bath made me seriously consider moving there!) and create beautiful things, which is always a big plus in my book :)

One thing I found slightly less shiny about "Mollie Makes" were the amount of pages dedicated to things to buy and places to go to buy more things. This felt a little bit odd for a magazine that is dedicated to "making, thrifting, collecting and crafting". I was surprised that a publication that encourages it's readers to make things for themselves would so heavily feature the buying of pre-made items, surely that goes against what the magazine is about in the first place? However the majority of the products featured in the magazine are handmade themselves, made by small companies and home businesses that I would much rather buy from than large chains. I suppose it's nice to have the option to buy something special if the mood takes you, and the bits and pieces chosen by the "Mollie Makes" team certainly express a smorgasbord of delights. I just wonder whether pages like this should have such a sizable percentage of a crafting magazine... But let's get back to the good things!

One thing I really love about this magazine is the wide variety of crafting stockists who are based in the UK. I often get envious after reading about various magical fabric stores and craft shops in the US, and although I love buying on etsy the majority of sellers are based in America which can be hard on a poor English purse. However in "Mollie Makes" I was presented with a really rich variety of fabric shops, wool suppliers etc. who are based in the UK and selling their products at very reasonable rates. It's so good to see that crafting and making in general are really catching on in my home country, sometimes it's easy to feel a bit lonely in my homemade ways, as it's a concept that seems so alien to a lot of people in our disposable culture, but this magazine gives me hope that I'm not one of the only ones out there! 

Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous!

All in all I would highly recommend "Mollie Makes" as a visually sumputuous, throughly inspirational read that is sure to please. I do think that the tutorials, though lovely, are aimed at newbie crafters and therefore the more experienced among you may find them a little too simple, but that doesn't make them any the less sweet. Also they cover a really nice variety of different types of craft, so the chances are you'll find something new to interest you (unless of course you are so talented that you can already do everything, in which case we may not be able to be friends any longer as I may be too jealous...!). Also as someone who mainly spends my sewing time on clothes there is very little in these pages to interest me on that account, but even so I found more than enough to keep me intrigued and interested, I've even got a few projects in mind (crochet blanket here I come. First I must learn to crochet...). I think "Mollie Makes" is a lovely magazine that is a real step forward both for sewing/crafting mags in general and the UK crafting scene as a whole. Even though I had a little bit of criticism for it I've not been put off and I'm looking forward to the next issue and seeing where this magazine will go from here. I think it's pretty exciting really :)

I hope you've found this review helpful, I'd be really interested to know your thoughts on "Mollie Makes" if you've read it yourself! 

Bye for now :)


P.S. A very happy July 4th to all my US readers!