Sometimes I just want to whip something up in half an hour, rather than slave over a project for weeks on end. So what’s the best thing to make? For me, it’s those little fabric purses that you’d pay a tenner for if you bought one from Accessorize. It puts small and otherwise useless fabric pieces to good use, and it’s a brilliant stand-by gift for a lovely lady of any age.

You’ve got plenty of variations on the standard instructions all over the interweb: this one on the CRAFT blog has a zip on the side; this one on Skip To My Lou is lined; and U Handbag’s tutorial has a rather neat travel card…