It was love at first stitch when Sara Davey tried embroidery.

“As an adult I’ve always been quite into crafting,” she says. “I started with knitting and crochet, a good 15 years ago now.”

She started embroidering in 2017 when her step-day sadly passed away and she was looking for something to distract herself with.

“I decided to learn a new craft,” she says. “I don’t know what drew me to embroidery, but I thought I would give it a go and I was just instantly hooked and from then. It was just a really great coping mechanism to help with the grief, and out of all the crafts I tried I found it was the most creative,” she says.

After completing some ready to sew kits to master the stitches, Sara started designing her own patterns, and launched Pixels and Purls.

Her colourful, easy to master, make at home kits are hugely popular with crafters – and she also runs workshops in Norwich to pass on her love of embroidery to others.

“When I was learning, I was happy to do any kit, but I feel like crafting and embroidery is a bit like fashion - you really want it to represent your personality, and who you are,” she says.

“I didn’t really find too many existing patterns that were as modern as I wanted and I was getting a bit frustrated with everything being a little bit twee.

“So I thought well, I’ll try designing my own.”

Sara’s first designs were a portrait of the artist Frida Kahlo, a sugar skull, one featuring succulents and cacti and one of a sassy cactus – complete with a cheeky slogan.

“I like to either do modern takes on a traditional florals, and I like to chuck a little bit of feminism into my designs, some empowerment and occasionally some nice pop culture references just to keep it up to date.

“I started selling the at a local makers’ market as the finished embroidery and they were really popular. I thought there’s obviously a bit of desire for a more modern take on what was quite a traditional craft and kept going,” she says.

That then evolved into selling them as DIY kits for people to work on at home.

“At markets everyone was always asking how do you make them? What do I need? And I was like, well let me show you,” says Sara.

Sara, who has a studio in north Norwich, goes to great lengths to make sure that her kits are suitable for stitchers of all levels – from beginner to experienced.

“I work really hard to try and make them as easy to follow as possible,” she says. “Some of them are more in-depth than others, just because they take longer to complete, but I spend absolutely ages writing instructions to make sure that they’re transparent and not full of jargon. My husband proof reads them all to make sure that he can understand them – he is not a crafter.

“I take a few weeks for each design at least,” she continues. “Depending how complex it is, it will probably be a good month between me sketching it out on my iPad to stitching it and then writing all the designs and getting all the different bits together for the kit.”

They’re available to order online and really came into their own during the coronavirus lockdowns, when many of us turned to crafting as a way to switch off and take time out for some self-care.


One of the trends that Sara noticed was groups of friends buying the same kit and then meeting up online for a stitch-along.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen more demand for my kits than during lockdown,” says Sara. “I have a really busy mind and I find if I pick up an embroidery while I’m watching telly, it really helps to focus me and distract me from whatever I might be worrying about.

“I feel like every time there’s something difficult going on in the world, crafting has a little bit of a resurgence. It’s so good for your mental health and it always has been used in that way, such as being prescribed to soldiers with PTSD.

“There’s so much science behind the dopamine it gives you and how great it is for anxiety. I really think that everyone should try it.”

In November 2018, Sara held her first workshop. After a two-year gap due to Covid, in-person events have returned this year and Sara has three Christmas-themed workshops coming up at Artel in Norwich, starting in November.

“My favourite part of my business is teaching and running the workshops. They’re always so lovely and it’s always so chilled out and full of laughter.

“People come on their own and make friends. I think it really takes the pressure off of socialising, because you’ve got something to do, so you’re not relying on constantly having conversation and if you’re a bit shy you can just join in when you feel comfortable and the rest of the time can focus on your embroidery.

“I think it’s a really good ice breaker as well because you’ve got something to talk about, like I always ask if anyone’s ever done any crafting before and then we all talk about that for about two hours,” she says.

Sara loves holding workshops at Artel.

“It is an absolutely beautiful space, it’s got loads of plants and it’s bright,” she says.

Her Christmas workshops are being held on November 17, December 8 and December 15. They’re two and a half hours long and each workshop focuses on a different festive design.

Suitable for complete beginners the workshops are an ideal introduction if you fancy picking up a needle and thread for the first time. And they sound perfect if you’re looking for alternative ideas for a Christmas meet-up with friends.

“It’s me plus up to 10 people. I always start off with a 15-minute introduction to embroidery, so if you’ve not done it before I’ll tell you exactly how to set your embroidery up,” says Sara. “You don’t have to come in knowing anything at all, I’ll show you how to use your needle and scissors and all of the equipment, and then we’ll learn all of the different stitches and techniques that you have to use to create the design.

“They take a bit longer than the two and a half hours to finish, so you get to take the embroidery kit home and finish it in your own time, using everything I’ve taught you,” says Sara.

And what are the designs?

“One is my version of a Christmas wreath, obviously stitched, no foliage involved,” says Sara. “One is a gingerbread house, which is one of my favourite designs and it’s a really good one for you to learn embroidery.

“And the other one is a brand-new design, that isn’t finished yet, so people have kindly been putting lots of faith in me and booking on to the workshop without seeing the finished result. But it’s cats in Christmas jumpers - I’m so excited!”

To find out more about Sara’s embroidery kits and workshops visit her website, pixelsandpurls.co.uk or follow her on Instagram @pixelsandpurls