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Heya! Welcome to Cucicucicoo: Eco Sewing & Crafting! My name is Lisa and I am the main creative force behind this platform. Let me tell you a little about Cucicucicoo.
Cucicucicoo: Eco Sewing & Crafting was born in early 2009 as Cucicucicoo: Ecological Living to spread the word about home-sewn cloth products for baby and lady, but over time has become one of the most beloved websites for beginner sewists to learn how to approach their sewing machine and make something amazing.
Here at Cucicucicoo there are hundreds of tutorials, lessons and free downloadables for easy sewing and crafting projects that even beginners can do. The great news is that, even if you’re a busy woman with little free time, you can still make something incredible that showcases your creativity and unique style! And, because we need to take care of our planet as well as taking care of ourselves and our families, most Cucicucicoo projects and patterns feature repurposing, use up scrap fabrics, or create items that can substitute disposable products!
This is what I believe, in my heart of hearts:
1. Anyone can sew.
You don’t have to be an expert to create something. Even the most accomplished seamstress started out completely clueless. All you need to do is start from the beginning and have the patience to continue, even when things don’t work out exactly as you’d planned. And when they do work out as you’d planned, you bask in the glory!
Just to show you, this is the second thing that I sewed in my life. I must’ve been about 12. It is a “Pigcushion”, a pig-shaped pincushion that I sewed for my sister. I made it with scraps from my very first sewing project, a purple pencil skirt which I unfortunately have no photographic proof of. The snout was my very first experience with embroidery. Poor Mr. Pigcushion has since lost one of his googly eyes, but he still lives in my sister’s mending box.
2. Creating is meant to be fun above all other things.
Sure, it’s great when you’re able to sew an intricate item with absolute perfection. Or at least I think it is. I don’t know because nothing I sew is absolutely perfect. Do I care? Nope!
I sometimes just love sewing a few lines of stitching. Sometimes I just quickly throw something together which is far from perfect, such as this bag I sewed for a wedding literally as my husband was waiting for me in the car. But I alway find it fun, and I just love the challenge of figuring out how to make something, and thinking of ways to personalize it in my own unique way.
3. Making something with your own hands is good for your health.
Sure, you’re bound to make mistakes. But there is nothing else like that feeling when you wear something that you made yourself, or give a handmade gift, or decorate your home with things that come from your sewing machine rather than some anonymous chain store. And when people can’t believe that you made it yourself? It’s nothing short of exhillarating!
But the benefits of sewing, crafting, knitting or any other manual art goes far beyond that in terms of elevating one’s spirit; it can be downright therapeutic. Creating has helped me through depression, anxiety and many difficult times in my life. And it isn’t just me. I have received so many amazing messages and emails from extraordinary women who have gone through terrible trials of life, and have found learning a craft, such as sewing, to take away some of the pain, focus on something concrete, and take each day one at a time as they learn to live their lives in a new way. Their stories are truly inspiring, and the power of creating with one’s hands is demonstrated time and time again.
Who is Cucicucicoo?
I am the main force behind Cucicucicoo, though I do get help behind the scenes. Click here to hear some really funny stories about me and my awesome team!
How was Cucicucicoo born?
I created a blog called “Cucicucicoo” in January 2009, exactly 10 years ago from when I’m writing this new and updated About page. Here’s how I came to make this decision that would change my life forever.
My first child, Sofia, was born in August 2006 (incidentally on our second anniversary). I spent my pregnancy stuck in a windowless office from 9-6, Monday-Friday with virtually nothing to do, so I spent most of the day surfing the internet, looking at baby things. I realized that a lot of the items that spoke to me and that I wanted for my baby were things that I could easily make myself. My mother had taught me sewing basics when I was in 6th grade and I’d sewn a few random projects since then, but I didn’t even have a sewing machine or other supplies, save a couple of hand needles and cardboard spools of crappy thread from free sewing kits.
I went to a sewing machine dealer and bought a sewing machine five days before my daughter was born. I started sewing any and everything with the limited knowledge that I had, making so many mistakes and learning from them. I started reading sewing manuals and learning better ways to do things. Bit by bit, I got better and could do more. Above you can see me working on my first home-sewn Father’s Day gift for my husband, a pillow which is still a permanent fixture on our bed and which can be seen in some pictures on this website (for example, behind me in the photo of my polka dot fleece Evening Primrose Pajama Pants).
Motherhood also awoke a concern for the environment in me. Before Sofia was born, I knew that I wanted to use cloth diapers and other reusable items for her, but I couldn’t find them anywhere in Italy at the time. I was about to order them from abroad, but my husband talked some sense into me. Our clothes never fully dried in the rainy winter season in our damp home. How could I expect to have cloth diapers always clean and dry? So I decided to just sew some cloth baby wipes and cloth nursing pads. (Click here to see my revised patterns for these and other cloth products in the Cucicucicoo Patterns shop.)
Almost two years later, we were living in a different apartment (with heating) and I had gotten much more accomplished with sewing, so I bought a cloth diaper pattern and studied all about the specialty fabrics and other materials for sewing them. There was a lot to learn and most of it I learned through making mistakes, but my little girl became a cloth-diapered toddler.
Around that time, I had a miscarriage. (This is how sewing helped me cope with my due date when it came around.) Getting your first period after miscarriage is a terrible reminder of what you’ve lost, and I decided to do something for myself with my cloth diaper-making skills: sew myself cloth menstrual pads.
I’d always had very difficult periods. They were always extremely heavy, irregular and painful. I’d been on the pill more than once to get it under control. I’ve suffered from chronic anemia and even ended up in the hospital from extreme blood loss. I found that cloth pads made me feel more pampered and helped me find a little peace with my menstruation and the loss of the baby who I’d wanted so badly.
I was getting loads of compliments on Sofia’s beautiful cloth diapers and I was feeling so much better about my menstrual cycle with cloth pads, that I decided that I wanted to spread the word. I started a blog on the free Blogger platform to talk about sewing reusable cloth products with the intention of making them to sell. This was January 2009.
I wasn’t really sure what to write about, and over the first few years I started writing some simple sewing tutorials. They really resonated with my readers, but many continued to say the same thing to me, over and over: “I’d love to make this project, but I don’t know how to sew!”
I am a teacher of English as a Foreign Language, and my strong point has always been teaching absolute beginners. So in 2014 I created the “Learn to Machine Sew” course for beginners. My goal was to make it easy for somebody with no sewing experience to learn how to use a sewing machine from step zero. I used my teaching experience to put together a syllabus starting from the very beginning and working up from there. Each lesson builds upon the next and is paired with a practical tutorial to use the skills learned up to that point. I am continually adding to this course which has taught an incredible amount of women and men to sew.
I also opened my Cucicucicoo Patterns pattern shop in 2014, with fun, simple projects that can be customized in many ways. Most of my designs are beginner friendly and are meant to be ecosustainable, just like the majority of the projects on my blog are. Hence the name, “Cucicucicoo: Eco Sewing and Crafting”!
Why “Cucicucicoo”?
I came up with the name “Cucicucicoo” as a bilingual play on words. I wanted to convey happiness, warmth, comfort, love. My focus was on cloth diapers and sewing. What do you say to babies when tickle their tummies as you change their diaper? “Coochie coochie coo!” In Italian, cucire means “to sew”, and cuci means “you sew”. So I joined my two languages and cultures in a name that virtually nobody understands or knows how to pronounce, but I like it all the same!
And yes, you pronounce it just like what you’d say to a baby: “Coochie coochie coo!”
Now what?
Intrigued? Read some ridiculous stories about me and the rest of my team!
Even more intrigued? Sign up for the Cucicucicoo Newsletter here to get weekly awesomeness right in your inbox! Get comfy with a cup of tea or glass of wine and find out about new projects, tutorials and sewing patterns! To thank you for subscribing, I’ll give you access to the private area of Cucicucicoo where you can view and download tons of free sewing patterns, crafting templates and other cool and useful printable files! Hooray! Click here to get in on the action!
Want to work with Cucicucicoo?
Fantastic! I collaborate with brands, services, products and other websites in all sorts of ways! But there are even ways for readers to collaborate with Cucicucicoo to save and even earn money! Read this page to find out about advertising, sponsor and partner opportunities with Cucicucicoo!
Subscribe me.
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Hi, Ellen! I’ve just sent you a private email
Hello,
We’re interested in advertising on cucicucicoo.com
Can you please direct me to the best person to speak to about this?
Thanks!
Max
Hi, you can write to lisa@cucicucicoo.com
Vorrei iscrivermi alla newsletter
Ciao Ele, mi fa piacere che ti vuoi iscrivere! Basta riempire il modulo con nome e indirizzo in questa pagina: https://www.cucicucicoo.com/it/iscriviti-newsletter-cucicucicoo/ Fammi sapere se hai domande!
Ciao ho acquistato un tutorial gonna a ruota na non so dove viene archiviato
Ciao Elena! Ti ho inviato una mail privata ☺️
Hi there!
I hope this comment finds you well! I’ve put together a collection of our most popular user submitted projects, and you’ve made the list!
You can see the page here: https://allfreesewing.com/Miscellaneous-Projects/Our-Top-Reader-Submitted-Patterns
I can’t wait to share this in an upcoming newsletter and on our social media networks. We hope you will share it too!
If you include this article on your blog and link back to us, please fill out the form for our blogger traffic program! I’ll link it to you upon your response!
Hi,
I was hoping to write a blog post for your website, which shall benefit the both of us. I will provide you a 500-word blog that is relevant to your niche and in return, you can let me add a backlink within the body of the article. I pledge to deliver high quality content, which has not been posted anywhere else.
If you find my offer reasonable, we may proceed. I look forward to hearing back from you. Have a good day!
Regards,
John Adam
healthnic1@gmail.com
Hi Lisa, I am sorry but I still do not see a place to click to make my camera work here.
By the way, I know that we had some things in common, with how we tried to learn to sew, ESL, and also I have miscarried 5 times and had 2 adult live children. I wanted children so badly and after having my first at age 16, then miscarrying 3 times and then another live birth after 9 years of marriage and then another miscarriage after that, I went into the education field. Even though all my students were not biological to me, I loved each of them over the 22 years I was a teacher. Maybe I am not doing things correctly with showing my work here. Help?
~~kay~~
Hi Kay, I responded to you privately
Hi, I’m interested in working together with your company. Are you open to partnerships?
Basically what we can do is get you featured on NBC, FOX, CBS affiliates and 100+ more media outlets.
It also means you can add “As Seen On: NBC, FOX, CBS” to your website as well – which has been proven to boost conversion rates up to 48%!
On top of that it has SEO benefits and drives free organic traffic to your site from the articles we publish about your brand.
If you’re interested in having your company featured, we can do it for just $297 (includes guaranteed publishing).
You can find out more on our website: https://brandfeatured.com
Or can you shoot me a quick email for a brief discussion!
Cheers,
Jeffrey
Hello,
We’re interested in advertising on cucicucicoo.com
Can you please direct me to the best person to speak to about this?
My E-mail is gsalex958@gmail.com
Thanks!
Alex
Ciao, Lisa,
Da molto tempo non ricevo più la tua newsletter, che mi piace molto molto e mi è di ispirazione. Va tutto bene? Spero che sia soltanto per mancanza di tempo e perché sei impegnata in mille altre cose.
Io non sono molto loquace, non ti ho mai scritto ma ti seguivo con simpatia e affetto.uh
Un bacione.
Rosanna
Grazie Rosanna, sei molto cara! Sì, va tutto bene, sono semplicemente molto piena di cose da fare, lavoro a scuola e finalmente anche le ferie! Ho intenzione di inviare una nuova Newsletter a breve! Grazie del pensiero e spero di risentirti presto!
This is a joke. I try to get the FREE pattern for the butterflies and all it does when you “ click here “ is keep routing me to the same screen for the “ printable tutorial and pattern.” It also shows it cost a fee. “ free” is not fee based. Please unsubscribe me from your news letter.
Hi Deborah, I suggest you check your email because yesterday I responded to the email you sent me, explaining how to the get the 100% FREE PATTERN. There is no joke, I promise you. I can’t attach an image here in the comments, but I will send you (via email, which you can see if you check it) the screenshot which shows where you have to click. Basically, you have to click where it says “Download the free pattern”. I just tested the link and it works perfectly.
Hi, I have been looking and looking for the pattern for the https://www.cucicucicoo.com/2021/09/wool-felt-banner-diy-upcycled-sweaters/. I’m a subscriber so am able to view the library but I just do not see it there!! Can you please help me? Thank you!
Hi Mary! Actually, there is no free pattern for this project, so that’s why you can’t find it! You can either use my “Celebrate! Banner” pattern, which is available in my pattern shop for a very small fee (https://www.cucicucicoo.com/shop/celebrate-fabric-banner-sewing-pattern/) or just draft your own simple shape template. Please let me know if you have any questions!
Buongiorno, mi sono iscritta alla newsletter, per ricevere la newsletter e anche per avere accesso ai materiali che generosamente sono stati messi a disposizione. Ho ricevuto la mail di conferma, ho confermato, ma non ricevo la mail con i dati per il login. Come posso fare? Grazie mille
Ilaria
Ciao Ilaria, ti ho risposto privatamente tramite email
Ciao Lisa.
Ti seguo da qualche anno e ultimamente non ricevo più le tue mail.
Ho qualche problema io con l’account o non le stai inviando?
Spero non ci siano problemi in famiglia.
Ti chiedevo una cosa (che non c’entra nulla col cucito ma con gli USA si!)
Una amica mi ha portato dagli Stati Uniti un pacchetto di pretzel ripieni di burro d’arachidi. (SOLO UNO )!
Sono già dipendente! Ahahah!
Tu per caso sai se è possibile acquistarli in Italia? Se si, dove?
Scusami x questo messaggio ma mentre li gustavo mi sei venuta in mente tu!
Grazie per l’attenzione e buon proseguimento di lavoro!
Tutto bene, grazie Sara! Ti ho appena risposto privatamente via email.
Ciao, ho comprato due cartamodelli il 22 gennaio (coda sirena e gonna a ruota), ma la mia email ha avuto dei disservizi e non sono arrivati i cartamodelli. Potresti rimandarli? Grazie
Ti ho appena inviato una mail privata
Ciao, Lisa,
Anche a me mancano i tuoi suggerimenti, le tue riflessioni e le tue idee. Hai interrotto questo tipo di attività o sono io ad avere problemi con internet? Spero che tu e i tuoi cari siate in formissima!
Grazie e spero di rivedere presto gli aggiornamenti.
Carissima, grazie mille per le tue parole! Sono stata molto impegnata con il mio lavoro da insegnante e altre cose, ma ora inizio ad avere un po’ di tempo in più per passare sul sito! Ci sentiremo a breve!!
Hi I have just purchased 2 patterns and the payment has gone through, how/where do I find them….no instructions….most pdf providers give detailed instructions on how to access their patterns…please advise
Lisa
Hi Lisa, I just sent you a private email with download details. When purchasing from my shop, you can immediately download the files from the confirmation page or from the email that gets sent to you right after payment via PayPal.
Hi Lisa
For some reason I don’t know of, I am not able to sign up. I did try several e-mails with same result.
Nor can I find your e-mail – so I try here.
Can you help?
Kind Regards, Dukkemor
I’m not sure how to check on an order so I’m trying here. Last night I placed an order for your Reusable Sanitary Pads. Since it is a PDF file and I paid through PayPal I was expecting o receive file within an hour or so. I have not received file and would like to know when I can expect it. Thanks for your response.
Carroll, I sent you a private email
Ciao ho acquistato un tutorial gonna a ruota na non so dove viene archiviato
Ciao Elena, ti ho risposto privata via e-mail
Hi! I’m having troubles subscribing! Could you help me?
Thank you
Jaime
I just responded to you with a private email! ☺️
Provo anche qui
Ho acquistato un cartamodello per 11,95 ma non ho rivevuto alcunche
Ho scritto mail per ricevere informazioni in merito che sono rimaste senza risposta
Ho ricevuto la newsletter il che vuol dire che il sito e attiv
Pessima esperienza
Hi. I subscribed to be able to access your free patterns. Logged in & found it wasn’t actually free! Then purchased a different pattern … payment went through & now nothing. No email or link! Please help!
I’ve responded to you via private email 🙂
Was getting your newsletter for a while then it disappeared.
Hi Cyd! I just sent you a private email ☺️
Ciao Lisa,
Ti seguo da tanti anni e oggi ho acquistato il cartamodello per i leggings da bambina.
Non ho ancora ricevuto l’email.
Mi fai sapere?
Grazie mille
Ciao Chiara! Ti ho risposto con email privata!
Hallo Lisa,
wir haben uns bereits mehrfach beim Newsletter angemeldet, aber es kommt keine Bestätigungsmail (auch nicht im Spam), um auch ein Passwort zu hinterlegen.
Wir sind an dem kostenfreien Schnittmuster für eine Fledermaus (Vampir) interessiert. Was müssen wir machen?
Über eine Rückmeldung würden wir uns freuen.
Liebe Grüße, Sonja Wagner
Sonja, I just sent you a private email ☺️
I have tried twice to join the newsletter. I get the initial email telling me to confirm my email address and then I will get another with the password, but that 2nd email with the password never arrives. I have checked my spam folder. Thanks!
Hi Doris! That’s very strange because I see that it was sent to you. Check your email now, because I just sent you a private message.