Domestic Sluttery's Mums take over! Frances' mum gets kitted out in Clothkits

As a child of the 80s, while the trendy kids in my school were embracing batwing jumpers and ra-ra skirts with panache, I was sporting a slightly hippy look, courtesy of my Mother, mostly based around cord and knitwear. While at the time I longed for a pair of spandex purple cycling shorts, I now look back on the photos of that era and can say, 'Mum, you were right'.

You see, my mum was a folky type in her youth (you may have deduced this by noticing the pretty embroidery on her blouse in her picture) so while me and my brother and my sister were growing up she liked to dress us in Clothkits: kits of pretty patterned fabric, pre-marked up so you could sew them together yourself. She tells me it even made my mischievous little brother look angelic, back in the days before he moved onto wearing his signature look of WWE T-shirts. There were even designs for adults too. Being such a core part of our wardrobes, she was delighted to learn that some of the designs were back in production again.

The newly revamped Clothkits have done some fab fashionable collaborations (such as this skirt we featured last year) but unsurprisingly Mother Ambler's tastes tend towards some of the original designs.

I used to wear something very similar to this Doves and Cherries Pinny kit but how 'on trend' does that dove pattern look now? Dear old Mum is eagerly awaiting some granddaughters to dress in this ... I suspect she may be waiting for quite some time. This kit costs £19. Those with less inclination to sew will be pleased to hear they offer a 'Clothkits Couture' service where, for an extra fee, they put them together for you.

I got quite excited when I found out they were still making one of my favourite dolls, the Cloth Kitty doll. Made from cotton, she comes with her own clothes including that wonderful folky dress in the picture. Just how wrong is it to have fashion envy of a doll? She costs £25.94 and is the perfect gift for any young (or young at heart) girls you may know.

It was Mum who first taught me to sew and who gave me her old sewing machine so, perhaps for Mother's Day I should be thinking of a little appropriate something to say thank you to her for both giving me my love of sewing and also for helping me escape the worst excesses of eighties fashion. Handily, the Clothkits site also includes a range of homewares. You can get a tea towel that uses the flat pattern for the Cloth Kitty doll, some great designs featuring Rob Ryan illustrations but I think I'll plump for this fishy print cushion.

Having grown up in Grimbsy, the great fish illustration by Jane Foster is close to our family's heart while the reverse of the cushion is a pretty red polka-dot pattern. And it also reinforces another valuable life lesson I learnt from my mum: thriftiness. It used to be £15.33 and is currently reduced to £11.49. I just need to get that sewing machine out now...