Sian Phillips’ Needlepoint

The star of BBC’s I Claudius and the hit musicals Pal Joey and Gigi is also a gifted needlewoman. She was encouraged to take up needlepoint to help her give up smoking and it became an abiding passion.The basics of needlepoint are simple – you need only ever learn one stitch – but the possible variations of pattern and colour are endless. Sian shows how you can copy a design onto a canvas, suggests sources of inspiration – which can be ancient tapestries at the Victoria and Albert Museum, cosmetics packages or doodles – and advises on rescuing disasters. Her projects range from a spectacle case to a carpet, and include contributions from friends and colleagues in the theatre and gossip from the dressing rooms and rehearsal rooms in which they were made.