10 best adults' craft kits: From sewing to candle making

If you need to lower your stress levels – and frankly, who doesn’t at the moment? – then have a go at making your own clay pots. We were surprised at how therapeutic moulding wet clay into something new could be and can now see pottery making becoming a full time, screen free hobby.

We love that this kit contains enough materials for two people to have a go at the same time. Each box comes with two packs of clay (enough for four small pots or two bigger ones), four wooden shaping tools, two paintbrushes, sandpaper, one pot of white acrylic paint and one pot of sealant – not too shabby for under £40. There’s the option to add extra bags of clay at £9 a pop, making this the ideal activity for a home-based pottery party.

The instructions couldn’t be clearer – there are step-by-step, pictured guides to making pinch pots, plant pots, trinket dishes and more. The clay itself air dries naturally over 24 hours or so, removing the need for a kiln. Once your creation is dry, simply sand it down for a smooth finish before painting it white and sealing it with glossy varnish. To add colour, either add the four pot pastel paint set​ to your order for an extra £11 or pick up some acrylic paints from an art shop.

Delivery is free (and speedy) and Sculpd gets bonus points for donating £4 from every kit to the NHS Together charity.

Chocoholics, this one’s for you. The Cocoa Loco team handcrafts its chocolate in Sussex, using Fairtrade organic cocoa beans from the Dominican Republic. This truffle making kit comes with all you need to make 30 delicious truffles, bar a pot of double cream. We excitedly opened the simple brown box to find a generous amount of good quality chocolate to melt, along with cocoa powder and dark chocolate flakes for decorating.

The colourful guide sheet proved easy to follow and we appreciated the section on what to do if the consistency feels wrong. A fun, even if a bit messy, activity to get stuck into and we think it’d go down well at a DIY hen do. The process takes a few hours in total, as you’re supposed to let the chocolate cool at various points – try to be more patient than we were, or it gets even messier. Our final truffles tasted yummy. The included gift bags and ribbon are a welcome touch, but we’re loathed to give ours away.

Keep the instructions so you can make these truffles again and experiment with different flavours. If you’re keen to get the whole family involved, try Cocoa Loco’s child friendly milk chocolate lolly making kit, complete with farmyard animal moulds. Both kits were hits with our tester, but the truffle set offers better value for money.

We loved House of Craft’s timeless range of craft kits when we were younger, but many of them are suitable for adults as well as children. We found making organic soap a calming activity, thanks to fool-proof instructions that don’t require much energy to understand.

The box contains everything you need to make 16 soaps in four batches. You get a big bar of certified organic soap compound to melt on the hob, four soap moulds, a mini bottle of organic lemon oil for scent and four little bags of aniseed, poppy seeds, linseed and dried marigold petals for decoration.

We enjoyed making our soaps but be quick to pour the molten mixture into the moulds as it starts setting quickly. Ours came out of their moulds with a few taps after an hour and a half in the fridge. They looked good enough to give as gifts – it’s just a shame that no paper boxes or bags are included.

Sian Reynolds started sewing with felt while on maternity leave – she begun making simple felt flowers and little hanging owls. And now, she has a popular shop on Etsy, where she sells ready-made garlands and make-your-own kits.

The set includes all the felt, thread and buttons required to make the eight characters (a fox, rabbit, toadstool, badger, hedgehog, owl, robin and squirrel), which you can hang up individually or string along the included ribbon to make a garland. There are templates included but no needle, scissors or stuffing in order to keep delivery free. Stuffing can be bought cheaply online from craft shops.

We were blown away by how professional these homemade garlands turned out for a bargain price. There aren’t any sewing instructions, however, so you’ll need to turn to YouTube if you don’t know how to blanket stitch (it’s easy, we promise). We’ll be buying these for friends who are expecting and making the nutcracker garland to hang over the fireplace at Christmas time.

You’ll be hard pressed to find a cooler stationery studio than Islington based Quill London. We enjoyed a modern calligraphy workshop there last year and have been practicing our newfound skills during the lockdown.

Those new to calligraphy can give it a whirl with this set of essentials that includes a black pen holder, a Nikko G nib pen, a jar of black ink, a thick practice pad with guidelines, an alphabet guide, a drawstring storage bag and a hardback step-by-step book by founder Lucy Edmonds.

Everything is beautifully presented in line with the brand’s minimal aesthetic. It’s a joy to receive in the post and would make a thoughtful gift for any bride to be who’s determined to create her own wedding stationery. You can buy the kit without the book for £32 but, if your budget allows, it’ll be a useful reference for practicing in the years to come and it sits pretty on a coffee table.

Be sure to check out Quill London’s sublime range of calligraphy inks, too – prepare to swoon over those shiny finetec metallics.

This charming brand started life as a series of London workshops to inspire a modern generation of hobbyists. Soon enough, friends Jennifer and Jen began creating all-in-one knitting and crochet kits to help beginners get started, no matter where they live. Most kits are aimed at newbies like us, but there are some intermediate options available too. There’s so much choice of what to make – from gloves and slippers to jumpers and throws – and the patterns are far from dowdy, reflecting current fashion trends.

Stitch & Story sent us an “easy” hat to try. The bag it comes in has a magical, luxe look, making it prime for gifting. Inside, we found a big ball of chunky grey merino wool (so soft), a smaller ball of pink yarn for the pom pom, bamboo knitting needles (remove these and pay less if you already have some), a sewing needle, the pattern and some basic instructions. The price for the bundle seems fair for the high quality of the materials.

This hat is knitted flat and then seamed, rather than “in the round”, which instantly made it feel less daunting than other hat kits on the market. The instructions were clear and the online video tutorials came in handy when we dropped a stitch and wanted to fix our mistake. Be careful not to knit this hat too tightly or it’ll end up on the small size, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll be ordering more yarn to make Christmas gifts.

Craft box delivery company Makebox+Co makes sure that crafters are never without a mindful creative project to get their teeth into. Every month, a new box designed by craft author and stylist Hannah Read-Baldrey is sent to subscribers, with all boxes also available as one-off buys. We’re big fans of this brand’s sustainable ethos – Hannah shuns plastic and other non-biodegradable materials wherever possible and all packaging is recyclable.

There’s a lot of choice, from paper flower making to macrame, but we chose to test this papercutting box. It’s a craft we’ve been wanting to try, but there aren’t many modern kits on the market that come with all the tools. This affordable set includes a cutting mat, scalpel and blades, along with a selection of sturdy card, tattoo-inspired patterns and even a box frame to display your favourite design.

Hannah shares her tips and tricks to help beginners achieve the perfect cut, but papercutting requires patient focus, so only start when you have a block of time to yourself (a challenge in itself, we know). We found it got more relaxing as our confidence in the techniques grew. Take your newfound skill further with illustrator Poppy Chancellor’s Cut It Out! ​book of 30 pop art style papercut designs.

Candles and self-care go hand in hand, which is why we’ve been stocking up on relaxing candles during the lockdown. We jumped at the chance to try making our own using this beginner’s kit from British candle maker Willow & Finn. This eco-friendly company gets our thumbs up for using clean soy wax in its candles.

Everything arrives in a smart recycled box with a magnetic lid for storing all your gear in between sessions. Inside you’ll find 500g of soy wax, two small amber jars, one big amber jar, a digital thermometer, a whisk, a melting pot, wicks, wick holders and three essential oil blends. We like that there are enough materials in this set to fill the three containers, which are included, plus some left over to fill your own.

Founder Nicola runs candle workshops and her expert notes are included in the box for guidance, along with tips on the best suppliers for topping up. We’d never made candles before but found the instructions stress free to follow and were left thrilled by how professional our results looked – they could have been sold in a shop.

This is one of the pricier kits on our list, but it has a luxe feel to it and the tools can be used repeatedly, so you only need to buy it once.

Pasta Evangelists certainly knows a thing or two about our favourite carbs. Founder Alex Savelli grew up making pasta by hand with his nonna in Italy and is now on a mission to share his artisan recipes with us Brits. This rapidly growing foodie start-up is known for its scrumptious deliveries of fresh pasta and sauces, but it also sells DIY pasta making kits. There’s a range to choose from at different prices, all of which come with hand-crafted pasta tools, specialist ingredients and step-by-step instructions written by chefs.

We tried the basic six-piece kit that teaches beginners how to make delicious ravioli and gnocchi from scratch. We were relieved to discover that 1kg of pasta flour is included in the box as the white stuff keeps selling out at our local shop – it makes enough pasta to serve four people.

If you’re feeling more ambitious, the eight-piece kit includes extra tools to make tagliatelle, while the 12-piece kit adds spaghetti and the lesser-known malloreddus (Sardinian gnocchi) into the mix. We found our kit decent value considering the tools will last us years, but if you’re buying it to give as a gift, bear in mind that there’s no inner box – everything is loose inside the branded cardboard box it arrives in.

With pubs shut, there’s only one thing for it – it’s time to brew your own beer. This New York based home brewing start-up sells a number of kits to help you make your first ale. But we opted for a classic, BrewDog’s signature punk IPA. It comes with enough grain mix, hops and yeast to brew a gallon of beer, or eight pints, and includes all the specialist tools you’ll need – a glass fermenter, airlock, tubing, tubing clamp, thermometer, sanitiser and stopper. These can be reused again and again, making this a worthwhile investment for a new long-term hobby.

The downside to this kit is that you’ll also need multiple big pots, a strainer and some bottles – these basics are easy enough to come by but make sure you have everything before you start. The entire process takes about two weeks but is only time consuming at the beginning when you have to keep the temperature within a certain range for an hour. Don’t be surprised if your beer doesn’t taste like the real deal on your first try, but it’s a fun new skill to practice.