Crafty Kooka

Unique sewing patterns for brave beginners! Hello! my name is Dermot O'Grady and i'm the Irish pattern designer behind CraftyKooka. I live in County Wexford in the south east of rural Ireland with my wife Elisangela and our children, Tommy, Lester, Gil and Alice. Originally Craftykooka was set up by Elisangela to make and sell memory bears. The name "kooka" was a childhood nickname given to her by her dad. I helped out with cutting the fabric and other odd jobs. Eventually Elisangela taught me to sew and for fun I started making toys to give to our children. I found it really engaging and everything I came up with was met with huge enthusiasm by the kids. The collection grew and the toys improved. Over time the store transitioned from memory bears to sewing patterns.

Every pattern takes weeks and sometimes months of development, continually making modifications, and improvements until it's up to the highest standard. Right from the beginning I've been aware that arts and crafts people are visual people. So I make the instructions as clear as possible with lots of illustrations. Hopefully making the whole process interesting and fun.