Hi, my name is Renee and I have been a long-time lurker. I decided to introduce myself finally because I have learnt so much from these forums. As a teenager, my mum taught me how to use my grandmother’s treadle sewing machine, which I mainly used to make straight-sided bags. Clothes sewing mainly started while on maternity leave about 5 years ago when I was looking for non-pink, non-sparkly nor frilly little girl’s clothes. I first found out about Oliverands through a blog now long forgotten and I bought ‘Little Things to Sew’. The bucket hat was the first pattern sewn. I have made a few more things since then and have been pretty impressed with how easy the instructions are to follow and how nicely the clothes all come out. I have just moved from Cairns, Australia to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (hello, anyone here?) with my husband, daughter 5 and son 2.