Lucy MacLeod

About me

I was brought up on the edge of the Yorkshire Moor but have lived all my adult life in Scotland, getting married and raising two children. I split my time between Edinburgh and the Isle of Skye where we have family and friends.

My mother taught me to sew and a love of textile crafts has followed me ever since, alongside a career with charities and in universities which has given me an abiding interest in community and adult education.

Three years ago I took the plunge to become a full time upholsterer and I am now qualified with the Association of Master Upholsters and Soft Furnishers (AMUSF) and have a studio workshop in Edinburgh where I work on commissions, collaborations and my own projects. I belong to The Leith Collective which provides a nonprofit outlet for artists and makers across Edinburgh. I love the process of taking an unloved, unfashionable or rundown piece and turning it into something special again.

Specialities

In my workshops you will be introduced to the craft of upholstery and traditional as well as modern upholstery techniques.

To make your own footstool using Scottish hardwoods and handwoven fabric, we would cover:

tools and materials of the trade
webbing
applying hessian
fibre stuffing
stitching and creating edges
cutting fabric
making corners
shallow buttoning

As we go along we will talk about the history of upholstered furniture and how to choose fabrics suitable for different projects.

Things I love

Being outdoors. Feeling the sun on my back. Wildflowers especially primroses. Sharing coffee and cake with friends. Almost anything with ginger in it. Finding fabric shops in new cities. Museum and gallery audio guides. Art nouveau design. Flea markets. Crosswords.

My experience is that learning a craft is a journey where some stages are slow and hard and others are enormously satisfying. Along the way you meet people you might never otherwise have met and start to understand everyday objects in new ways.