Lesson 1: Mistakes are how you learn

Watching TikTok and saying ‘I could easily do that’ is a great starting point for beginning a new craft project – note the word starting. After watching a sewing creator’s guide on how to bead embroider, it felt like the perfect way to start the challenge.

At the bottom of my wardrobe, I found a black ribbed vest top that I’d only worn a handful of times. After being hastily fastened to an embroidery hoop, I attacked it with a needle and thread haphazardly. Initially I followed the TikTok tutorial and designed my own template of a martini glass, only to find that the beads I ordered were the wrong size. Without even switching on a sewing machine, it felt like a fail already.

To make a wearable vest, I then spent an hour unpicking my work and applying a patch guide gifted to me for my birthday. Slowly I began to find my rhythm, even if I was yet to brave the machine.

Lesson 2: Zips were made for a reason

Always remember that zips are needed. It might sound simple, but this one thing can make or break the project that you’re working on. Which I quickly found out, after I sewed an entire dress that I couldn’t wear.

Being overconfident after your first minor success is quite a common mistake. You get too egotistical in your abilities; you think no challenge can’t be completed with enough enthusiasm. I sat down at my Singer sewing machine, a piece of equipment I rented from my local library for only £3 a week. Using it felt like being in a home economics class from high school all over again. It was exciting to figure out the cogs and mechanisms of how it worked, although I feel guilty admitting how long it took me to thread the needle each time.

After cutting out a pencil-drawn template on a meter of fabric, copied off of an off-the-shoulder maxi dress I found crumpled in my wardrobe, the new project was pinned together. I began passing the material through the machine quite nervously but found myself getting more confident, and more speedy, with each push of the pedal. Before I knew it I had sewn the entirety of the dress, but without any possibility of wearing it without a zip.

In a fit of disappointment at my clearly avoidable mistake, there was only one woman who could make me feel better. So, on a sunny Sunday morning, fuelled by a cup of tea and half a pack of Fox’s biscuits, I sat down with my Nan and begged for help.

Susan Proctor, aged 75, has been sewing clothes for over 60 years for her family, although she still defines herself as a “beginner”.

Lesson 3: Success is always a gamble

Tears. Pain. Exhaustion. They’re not normally words used to describe craft projects, but after hours of unpicking the seams of a magenta satin skirt I forgot to add an elastic waistband to, it felt appropriate. Sewing, although practical, is never a guaranteed solution to transforming your wardrobe.

If it were that simple, we would make all our clothes by scratch. Despite my earlier failure with zips, undoing my work to sew in a new waistband felt exhausting. So, by the time I’d finished measuring and hemming the skirt, with a matching bandana to accessorise, I didn’t feel happy.

It didn’t feel like it matched my style, but instead I’d tried to make something that I thought would look cool. I’d successfully made an item of clothing to wear but was failing to make something I enjoyed and was my own style. I’d sew an item, but it didn’t hit the criteria of still making me feel confident or stylish.

Lesson 4: Part of the joy is failure

Failing upwards, or finding the positives in the negatives of endless cutoffs of material, is essential when sewing. If you focus too hard on building an outfit around what you think other people will think looks cool, you’ll always be disappointed. Following your own style, as outlandish as it might be, is part of the joy of being creative.

It’s something Sophie enjoys seeing in how people style themselves: “I love seeing a group of girls with a Bratz vibe, where one of you is boho, one of you is a bit emo, one of you is 80s disco, one of you is girly-hot. You've all got your own individual styles.”

With my attempts at upcycling being unsuccessful, in a passionate fit of rage I began tearing up an old XXL t-shirt I sourced from my loft. Attacking linen with fabric scissors became a freeing act. If I was going to do this, I was going to do it properly. It didn’t matter if I was successful, it just mattered that I was brave enough to try something new.

The t-shirt quickly became halved, pinned and hemmed into two separate bandeau tops. One brandished a ‘Cardiff University’ logo on its front, the other I printed my own poster onto with some transfer paper and ironed it onto the remaining top.

Despite wanting to give up entirely, embracing my failure and trying again meant that I no longer cared what others thought. Who cares if it looks weird? I was starting to enjoy myself.

Lesson 5: Incredible things can happen with the simplest materials

A square meter of fabric can truly be transformed into whatever you want it to be if you have the right patience. Doom-spending on ASOS to try and find a dress to wear for a night out can often be a resort many of us fall to. Instead, a meter of white polyester stands before me.

The dress is my magnum opus. The greatest part of the challenge I’ve been working on to transform into a boat-neck maxi dress. It’s an item I hope will make me look chic and sophisticated, much like the models on my Pinterest page. And while my spirits have been knocked by my previous projects, I’m hopeful I can make something wearable. With one last push, some frantic facetimes with my Nan, and a concerning YouTube watch history of ‘Singer Machines Explained’ videos, I’m finished.

The one item I’d wished to come together was no longer a scrap of fabric but a real, wearable thing in my hand. A dress I could style for work, fold into a midi-dress, or even cinch into a maxiskirt (as my evening drinks with friends saw me wear). Success! After many failures, I’d finally made something from scratch that made me feel closer to my “individual style” that Sophie had been talking about.