About

I’m Isbelis, and I have a PhD in engineering. I also cannot walk past a fat quarter without buying it. Those two things feel like they shouldn’t live in the same person, and yet here we are.

Caramba Crafts is where they meet. It’s my colourful corner of the internet for sewing, baking, and the kind of creative chaos that comes from starting six projects and finishing, on a good week, one.

The engineer in me is the reason I check the maths on a pattern before I trust it. I’ve caught tutorials that would have had you cutting a scrunchie twice the size it needed to be, and dimensions on “trusted” sewing sites that simply don’t add up. If a number is going to waste your fabric, I want to catch it first. That habit runs through everything here, from the free calculators to the way I write up a make.

Where I am right now

My baby is seven months old, and we’ve finally landed on a nap routine that gives me real pockets of time to sew and cook again. After the newborn fog, that feels like a luxury. The pace has picked up, I’ve been making more and writing more, and somewhere in all of that I’ve started to find my actual voice for this place rather than the tidy blog-sounding one I began with.

Caramba Crafts has grown into a proper project, not just a thing I poke at between naps. I’m building tools, writing tutorials, and putting together resources I actually care about, and I fully expect to keep it going once I’m back at work. It’s become part of how I think, not a phase I’m passing through.

So what you’ll find here is a mix: sewing tutorials, crafty tools, and the odd recipe that earned its place. All of it made in the gaps of a fairly full life, which is maybe the whole point.

A little more about me

I’m Venezuelan, and I’ve been in the West Midlands for around twelve years now. That heritage shows up in the food I bake and, lately, in the free Spanish-language sewing resources I’ve been putting together for the Venezuelan maker community. Home has a way of threading itself through everything, even a craft blog.

Why “Caramba”?

Because it’s the sound of surprise, the little exclamation when something turns out better than you expected. That’s the feeling I want you to leave with.

Thanks for being here

I’m glad you found your way over. Have a look around, try a calculator, save a recipe, and if you make something, I’d genuinely love to see it. Tag me on Instagram at @caramba.crafts.