Who is Maple?

I've been sewing by hand for forty-one years — quilting, stitching, quiet evenings with good fabric and a pattern that finally comes together.

You might remember the shops where things were made properly. Where you could turn a bag inside out, look at the seams, and know. One by one they went — and the adverts took their place. Lovely quilted bags, photographed beautifully. What came through the letterbox was flat, thin, the pattern printed on. Those photos fooled me too, and I've sewn my whole life.

Nobody says much about that moment. You put the thing in a drawer, feel a bit daft, and don't mention it to your daughter. But it wasn't daftness. Those pictures were built to fool anyone.

So I cleared a table here in Hay-on-Wye — a town that still believes things are worth making properly — and started sewing the bags myself. I cut, layer, pad and quilt each one, in small batches, rarely more than twenty of a design. It's slow. That's rather the point.

How you'll know

I could list what goes into each bag, but you've read lists like that before, on sites that lied to you. So instead: when yours arrives, press your palm flat against it. You'll feel every stitch under your hand. And if anything isn't what I've said it is, email me — I reply myself — and it comes back to my Welsh address for a full refund.

Who I sew for

Women who can tell the difference. Who notice seams. Who are quietly tired of things that look lovely online and disappoint in person — and who've decided they're allowed something properly made for themselves.

A few hundred of them across Britain carry one now. Several came back for a second, usually as a gift for someone who'd been eyeing theirs.

If that sounds like you — you're in good company here.

— Maple, Hay-on-Wye