After setting up our Facebook and Twitter pages a few years ago, we - I hate to admit - got a little set in our ways in terms of social media.  Despite knowing about Instagram, we just never bothered with it.  Or Pinterest, for that matter.

Hop forward to January 2015 and we are absolutely obsessed (sorry, #obsessed) with our Instagram account, @wheelerfabrics.

While we tend to use our Facebook page to share photos of new stock, using Instagram has given us the chance to give you more of a behind-the-scenes look at our shop.  We've shared pictures of sewing projects, furniture and our favourite haberdashery pieces, along with photos submitted by our customers showing us how they've used our fabric.  If you think this might be up your street, follow us @wheelerfabrics, or click here to see our page.

So, after seeing how much fun we could have with filters and hashtagging Instagram, we decided to have a go at Pinterest.  Our page is still very much a work in progress, but we'll be adding more and more photos, projects and design ideas over the next few weeks.  

#Catherine

We originally shared this idea on our Facebook page shortly before Mother's Day, as a sweet idea for a handmade gift.  As good as it feels to give someone (in March's case, your beloved Mother) a present that you've sewn, rather than something shop-bought, don't you sort of miss it when it's gone?!  You spend ages choosing your fabric, deciding on a design, pinning, cutting and so on.  You get to admire your masterpiece for what, one day? Then it's gone!

Inspired by a delivery of several new mouthwatering cotton prints, we decided that a handmade lightweight snood (or 'infinity scarf') would (a) make a lovely present and (b) give you the opportunity to very easily make two identical items, one for you, one for a friend!

Instructions:

• Take a metre and a half of your chosen cotton (we picked that downright fabulous green retro looking one on the right).
  
• Cut in half lengthways, so you have two 150cm x 55cm rectangles.  The width will vary of course, depending on the overall width of your fabric.
• Put one of the rectangles to one side for now and fold the other lengthways, right sides facing.
• Sew - by hand or machine - the long sides together, so you have a sort of tube shape.
• Turn right side out and neatly sew the short ends together.
• Repeat the above steps for the remaining rectangle.

Done!  Two snoods for under £11.  Bargain.  

You can play around with the dimensions of your fabric rectangles to adjust the finished length and thickness of your snood.  If you're feeling inspired, click here to browse some of the cotton and poly-cotton prints we have available to buy online.  As always, if you can't see what you're looking for, please get in touch and we'll do our best to find it for you.

Catherine