My Sewing Blog

I sewed something! Quite a lot of somethings actually! I had started off the year with big plans to sew things but then changed my mind because I didn't have loads of spare cash sitting about to spend on sewing supplies. We also ended up being quite busy with a major renovation that involved us making furniture, something we'd never done before. Things like sewing, and even my shop, ended up on the back burner for a bit. I started a job as a freelance transcriptionist so I've been making some cash now. It's not well paid but it sucks that I can just about earn more in a day doing that than I do with my shop on an average month. I did have a great month in July with my shop though, making several sales a week. Then August happened and it was just like tumbleweed. I thought I was going to finish August with zero sales but I've had two in the last couple of days, which is good. My shop is at 80 sales now! Only 20 more to meet my goal of 100. Since I had some s...

I got this pattern from Etsy ages ago. I think it might have been called Flowers in the Sunshine? I started sewing it up just before we moved house with the intention of having it in my bedroom, which I was going to paint grey. I did paint my bedroom grey, but I never finished the quilt. One of the seams ended up not matching very well and unpicking the whole row was a bit of a thought, so I'd abandoned it. I pulled it out recently and I think it looks really nice! This is where it all went wrong! Those seams in the centre are supposed to meet up, making a perfect cross, or a roughly matched one at least. I don't know how it got so off. I suppose trimming all the blocks when they were done might have prevented it. I'm not sure how much you'd notice it though. Obviously I'd know it was there, but I doubt it's the first thing anyone else would see. The fabrics are from Moda's Feed Company range, which they probably don't make any more since I s...

I'd like to do more sewing overall this year, not just business sewing. I have so many patterns and I'd like to get some use from them. I also have a fair bit of stash fabric that I'd like to use up. I was looking at the contests over at the Pattern Review site. I've been a member there for years but never actually joined a contest. I think I'm going to try and do that this year. This is the contest schedule: January - Active wear February - New to you technique March - Red carpet outfit March/April - Jeans April - Thrift it up April/May - Wardrobe contest May - Sheath dress May/June - Handbag June - Fabric manipulation July - Match your shoes August - Draped garment September - Denim skirt/jacket September/October - Bargain fashionista October - Costumes October/November - Hats November - Colour blocked November/December - Fabric stash December - Menswear Obviously I've missed the active wear contest, and now the new to you technique one....

I haven't blogged in ages and I'm a bit late with my plans for 2019 considering it's March now but I thought I'd write about it anyway. I'm sure this will be a long and rambling post (as usual!). Starting a sewing business definitely didn't turn out like I had hoped. The market has changed a lot in the last 10ish years. WAHM nappies don't sell like they used to, however, cloth pads seem to be quite popular. I went into this with the goal of making around £100 a month. Like, £100 profit, after materials and fees etc. I know it doesn't sound much but that would make a difference in my life. I didn't make that goal. In fact, I've ended up around £600 in debt... I don't often hear WAHMs/makers discuss how much they're making, so it's hard to know what would be a realistic income to expect. I thought I'd write about earnings, in case anyone reading was considering starting up a sewing business. My best month was September, when I s...

Yet another post about a sale! I decided to do a 20% discount for Black Friday, through till Monday. Things have been dead in my shop over the last six weeks or so. August and September were quite good months and at one point I hardly had any stock left, but during October I think I only had one sale. November has been quiet too up till now. I sold an item last week, finally hitting 40 sales! I had another sale yesterday when I started my Black Friday sale so I'm now at 41 sales. I'm still unsure about whether to continue with this business. Sometimes I feel quite positive about it, but other times, like where there are no sales and I still have a ton of credit card debt, I feel like it's pointless. Any new ideas I have involve me having to spend money on new/different fabrics, so they're not worth pursing at this point because I can't afford it. I can't even afford to sew any personal projects for myself at the moment. I think my plans for now are to try an...

I decided to have a 10% off sale on my cloth pads to celebrate the Women's Environmental Network's Environmenstrual Campaign. This is my first ever sale! I've sold two things so far, but who knows if it's because of the sale or not.  There are more discounts from other companies  here  on the WEN website of you're looking for a bargain!

I haven't updated here in about a month. I haven't had much to post about though. I think I'm still a bit burnt out after all the summer sewing I did. The weather hasn't been great either. Even though it's warm inside my workshop I don't always feel like trekking through the rain or cold to get there. I'm actually thinking about bringing my sewing machine inside to make a new batch of cloth pads. I still haven't finished the sweatshirts I started, mainly because it involves re-threading the overlocker and I don't like doing that! I need to make an effort though because it's sweatshirt weather now. I uploaded a few things to my shop earlier this week. It's always disappointing when you upload new stuff and it gets zero views. It might be that it takes a bit of time for the items to make it into the search results or something. I also uploaded some more cloth pads about two weeks ago. I've been selling a few things here and there, but ove...