The craft subscription everyone needs for Autumn

When the pandemic hit, many of us felt inclined to pick up some new hobbies as a means to stay busy at home. Banana bread baking, clay sculpting and colouring books were just some of the activities that kept us occupied, but us Brits also took great comfort from the outdoors, soaking up a surprisingly warm British summertime. 

As the nights draw in for autumn, there is a sense of nervousness creeping back in when we consider how we plan to manage socially distant life without that implicit option to get out in the sunshine.  Craft activities and mindfulness exercises will once again become all-important, keeping both brain and hands busy. Once again, I will find myself turning to one of my earliest lockdown discoveries—the innovative service that is MakeBox. 

For those who are uninitiated, MakeBox+Co. is best thought of as make-it-yourself subscription plan. Each month you will receive a lovingly themed box through the post with all the supplies and instructions you need to make a specific item, with varying degrees of complication. Enjoy a package each month, or buy a one-off box of you choosing – with options for macramé, painting, cross-stitch, tote bags and even your own face covering, there really are plenty of genuinely pretty and useful items ready for you to make. 

When our own MakeBox+Co samples arrived, we were more than impressed with the contents. Box one was their hugely popular pastel ‘Over The Rainbow’ rope weaving – now sold out but thankfully re-issued in different colour shades. With easy to follow instructions, the process of weaving wool over rope was strangely meditative, and great for hand dexterity—an easy project to do in front of the telly! Fraying the ends and adding a loop, the final rainbow took only a couple of evenings to finish and would look great in a baby’s room or a front porch window as a tribute to the NHS.   

For slightly more established crafters, the “Bee Kind” embroidery set kept us a little busier. In fact, it is still a work in progress, but the quality of the provided threads and backing cards make it one of the more luxurious patterns we’ve tried to follow, again yielding a design that you’d actually want to display in your home. As with each craft box, there is a smaller secondary project—for this kit, you receive a “Bee Kind” postcard, which can also be embroidered and sent to a friend as a lovely, sentimental way to keep in touch during this strange, distant time. 

Priced at £24.99 per month for a subscription, the MakeBox+Co kit is a great way to treat yourself this season, the regular post giving you a way to feel connected with the outside world and the whole MakeBox community—an online Facebook group of crafters who can offer guidance on your project, or share their various ingenious ways of using up spare materials. The joy doesn’t have to be kept for yourself either—with everything you need in one box, they make a great gift option for a loved one who is shielding at home, or who doesn’t wish to make unnecessary trips to the shops.  A crafting kit certainly won’t solve the pandemic, but it might help make your autumn/winter days that little bit brighter. 

For more information visit MakeBox+Co

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