Cat Morley of Cut Out + Keep
Cat Morley is a one woman crafty movement. Her kick ass site, Cut Out + Keep, is a community of doers, eager to share their how-to projects for making everything from clothes to cocktails.
Tell us about Cut Out + Keep. How did you get the idea, how long have you been doing it? Does it pay the bills or is it a labor of love?
Cut Out + Keep started as my crafty blog in 2003. I’d post how-to’s of all the things I made. I added hundreds of how-to’s and then one day I thought, wouldn’t it be neat if everyone could add projects to it and then it would be this amazing resource for learning how to make things. At the start of 2008, Tom (my boyfriend) and I relaunched the site and now we have over 6000 projects posted by over 13, 000 members. It’s growing fast and I can’t wait to see what everyone’s going to post next.
As for the money side of things, if I still lived in Scotland, it would pay all the bills and then some, but we’ve moved down to London, which is a much more expensive city. Hopefully it will start to pay all the bills again soon. I don’t mind though, because it’s a dream job and I see it as (hopefully) an investment for the future.
How did you first get into making, crafting and cooking? Any particularly memorable flops or successes?
I was always crafty as a kid, I loved being creative and making my own jewelry, comic books and toys. I use to pretend that I was presenting my own cooking shows when I was in the kitchen and cook up meals for all of my family. I seem to remember that the food was pretty tasty, considering my age, that or everyone was too polite to say.
One of the most memorable thing was at Halloween, when my mum would take me to the fabric store and ask me what Disney princess I wanted to be that year. She’d whip me up an identical outfit to the movie in no time and I was always so amazed. I guess when I grew up and became too old for my mum to be making me princess outfits anymore, I started learning how to do it myself.
I’ve had some major flops with candle making and one time, without thinking, I managed to melt some plastic molds in an oven - which was terrible! My successes have been learning how to put fillings in chocolates, the many wonderful things that are possible with shrink plastic and figuring out how to make bath bombs stick together. According to Cut Out + Keep, my best project is a plushie of a fish that turns in to sushi and back again (9 versions and 441 favorites!).
Any projects you’re working on now you want to tell us about?
I’ve been sewing a coat for the past few months now, I have no idea why it’s taking so long considering it’s freezing outside and that should motivate me. I met a drunk Irish guy last month who taught me how to cross stitch and I’ve been hooked since. I’ve also been busy crafting up stuff for our new house, which is a mews with loads of space.
What do you think the significance of the handmade movement is? Of women,
particularly young women, who are interested in crafting and cooking?
