‘I CAN’T FEED MYSELF BECAUSE OF MY CRAFTING ADDICTION’

Jane Smith is a mum of five from Kingston Upon Hull and has been addicted to crafting for a long time, spending up to five hundred pounds a month on crafting materials. It all started for Jane when she was four years old and was introduced to knitting by her eldest brother Ken Coyne. At the age of seven she moved onto bigger things such as knitting when her eldest sister taught her how to sew.Jane began to talk about her family’s history. She mentioned that sewing is in her ‘blood’ as her Aunt was a seamstress, who inspired her and led her to develop a passion for it.

She told us that when her fourth child, Angela was born that she took on the role as a Governor at her children’s school. She took to crafting again when she made over two hundred book marks for the pupils at school and all for free. “I never do things for money its more for pleasure of helping people.”

She didn’t come back to her love of crafting for a long-time, this was until her two daughters got into jewelry making and she said “I stole a jewelry making kit from my ex-husband and never gave it back”. She spent her nights making earrings and necklaces for her two daughters. From that the extreme hobby collecting started and she swiftly began growing her collection.

While the crafting blossomed her youngest daughter, Becky, wanted a doll house for Christmas and of course it was Jane’s job as the self-confessed ‘crafting enthusiast’ to decorate the house. Creating this one house was addictive and she then spent more and more money on the little things like creating little pieces of food and furniture. It shortly followed with Jane purchasing another doll house to decorate for herself. “I have to be busy, I just can’t sit here and do nothing” At one point she said there was about four doll houses in the living room and it was getting out of hand.

Her obsession grew when she moved onto another crafting project. It was around 2014 when the trend of Loom bands became a hit among teens. She decided why not treat her girls with latest trends. This obsession she blames on her two daughters. “At one point my daughter owned about twenty loom bands” This became expensive as she added to her collection every day.

Jane’s next hobby started when due to ill health, she ended up being in hospital and saw a fellow patient with an adult colouring book. She took a liking to this hobby and later developed a keen interest to it and had all varieties of books. Each week she’d purchase a new book and slowly it because a huge hoard of books. Her daughter even began taking her books when she wouldn’t notice. While this obsession was growing she moved homes and when packing she noticed how crazy it had become, she had at least three medium sized removable boxes just full of her books. “At one point I had a hundred and sixty eight pens for my colouring books.”

When moving she developed a new passion in crafting and began making cards for the local charity shop close by to her new home. She even gifted her daughters with cards for their upcoming birthdays, any reason for a card and she had probably crafted it. Soon she began collecting lots of different items all to be able to create more products. “I just like creating something to see a final project”. She then bought cabinets purely dedicated to her cards and other crafting equipment.

In late 2018 an old passion of Jane’s that had surfaced through the years but when she asked for a new sewing machine she was already a goner. Making anything from under the sun just to get to use her beloved machine. At Christmas, she decided to make her cute puppy, Toby, a bow tie and bandana just because he “needed one.” She carried on making cute dog themed clothes for a while longer.