Category: Latest News

This is where I have been for the last couple of weeks – MY spot on the sofa.

Not ill – just hibernating!

I was discussing with my eldest last night his lack of motivation to find a new Saturday Job. “But I actually like doing nothing” he protested. And the problem is I totally get where he is coming from.

Having sat on the sofa for the best part of two weeks determined to “HAVE SOME TIME OFF” *she says with a slightly maniacal look in her twitching eye.  It was slightly scary how quickly I have become used to doing nothing.  

Now having just sat back and reread that sentence, it’s not quite correct. I have been doing stuff, just not necessarily work stuff.

• • I have read three books. All of them trashy!
  • I have nearly finished a rather scrumptious jumper from Mrs Moon.
  • I have planned out what seeds I’m going to plant for next years veg crop and where I want to put the greenhouse I have yet to acquire. (More about that later.)
  • I have watched Seven Brides for Seven Brothers for the 10 millionth time. (My daughter was obsessed by it as a littley, and we know all the words to all the songs!)
  • I have researched plant based recipes that might, just might be OK for all the members of my fussy family.
  • I have researched staying Iceland for my big birthday in November.
  • I have joined a new Gym and booked in all the classes I want to do. (Yes I know you can see the irony too.)

And, yes at times I have just sat with my feet up, eyes closed and just thunk thoughts. And yes, a lot of those have been about work.

So I haven’t really been doing nothing. I have just been doing ‘different stuff’. And it’s OK to have time away from what you do everyday. Well that’s what I have to tell myself as I’m not really very good at that.

When you run your own business, and you are the business and the business is you – to a certain extent – it is very hard to switch off.

But with the whole team on a break I have switched off and really enjoyed it too. Time off does have its benefits and the longer I am running my own business the more I am beginning to see that this is actually an essential part of running my own business.

Time off has made me want to come back with renewed vigor! Going Cold Turkey (please forgive the pun) has cleared my mind and allowed me to focus on this new year.

Last year was tough, both personally and professionally. We moved premises, lost team members, commitments to certain projects meant we didn’t produce as much new stuff as I would have liked and I have had to shoulder the financial burden after Charlie’s accident. But I have answered the call and last year we gained a new key team member, grew our audience, doubled our turnover, created 3 new patterns, ran our first sewing retreats and have completed a big new project that will go live next week.

And we have lots of plans for more ace stuff for this year too. I’m excited and can’t wait to get back into the studio on Monday.

If you want to find out about what’s coming and how you can join in sign up to receive our emails  and you won’t miss a thing! Just fill in your name and email and we’ll do the rest.

Happy New Year!

Jules x

This little blog has been somewhat delayed so apologies.

This was a return visit to the Good Life Experience for us. Last year was the first time I had visited this little pocket sized festival of joy and went with @thetallphotographer as his assistant. Well not that I actually know one end of a camera from the other but I was very good at carrying stuff! And we absolutely loved it!

So this year we decided to return, Charlie doing his photo thing and me running sewing workshops. Yes we were sewing in a tent!

We packed up a few machines, fabric, scissors and anything else we could think of and headed for North Wales.

I tried to think of something beautiful yet practical that would be handy to have at a festival, but that would also be easy to sew as well for complete newbies and I came up with a Festival Bag! This handy little gem was made in either robust demin or practical dry oil cloth to keep out the damp. It was fully lined with some simple calico and fastened with a clip buckle. AND you had a choice of colours for the webbing straps. What’s not to love. (It will be available as a pdf pattern very soon.)

It was rather popular and we even had one young lady come back to make another one for her Dad.

We had our youngest ever workshop attendee, little 3 year old Joshua who was very intent on making his own bag without his Dad’s help. My lovely chum Claire-Louise came along to the festival too and popped in to help. She was great and had so much patience with this young man while I helped the others in the workshop to sew their own bags.

The whole weekend was a joy! And although I was teaching during the day I didn’t miss out on the evening’s entertainment. The highlight for me was Friday night with DJ Trevor Nelson taking me back to my clubbing days and throwing some shapes on the dancefloor with CL.

Rather too much of the superbly delicious Rhubarb & Ginger Gin produced by the Harwarden Estate was consumed that night too. But the morning after was worth the night before!  

One of the reasons I love this festival so much is that there is so much to see and do.

We topped off the weekend with a delightful meal at the Glynne Arms Pub in Hawarden village for Charlie’s birthday. A bit of a Busman’s Holiday for me but I thoroughly enjoyed the whole weekend.

And its all due to these lovely people Charlie and Caroline Gladstone (that run Pedlars) who along with Cerys Matthews (yes from Catatonia) and her husband Steve Abbott founded this delight of a festival. It’s ethos is something that resonates with both Charlie and I, particularly since the last time we were here our lives have changed quite considerably following Charlies accident! 

All pictures by The Tall Photographer

Now we are planning on how we can do it better and what we can make on more Festival Workshops. If you go to festivals do let me know which ones you enjoy and what would YOU make at a festival? Would it be practical and useful? Or just fun?

Hopefully you can join us next year, but get in quick as tickets are going like hot cakes!

Happy Festival Going!

Jules x

Are you always the ‘organised one’ in your friendship circle or at work? Are you always sorting out every detail of your life, from booking dinners to sorting out travel arrangements? And do you find yourself secretly enjoying it?

Then we need you!

Sew Me Something is seeking a reliable Office Administrator.

Someone who is motivated and highly organised to help coordinate and maintain the smooth running of everything behind the scenes. 

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Job Title: Office Administrator

Hourly Rate:                      Commensurate with experience

Contracted hours:            Mon – Fri 9:30am – 3:00pm (but could increase to full-time)                        with some weekends

Overview

The main focus of Sew Me Something is to help people, and this should be yours too. It is important to go that extra mile and put a smile on someone’s face to brighten up their day. 

This role is an integral part of our team and you will need to be able to work alongside others but also be happy to work on your own, undertaking administrative tasks to ensure the team has adequate support to work efficiently.

You will need to have excellent organisational and communication skills, be able to work unsupervised, be quick learner and used your own initiative to prioritise tasks. 

We have regular meetings to monitor the progress of the business so you will need to be approachable and friendly, but equally able to voice your opinion if you can see a better way of working. 

Flexibility is also key within this role. Although your hours will be mainly during the working week, we attend a number of exhibitions and shows throughout the year and your participation in some of those will be required.

This position is currently part-time, but there will be scope for increasing the hours and level of responsibility in due course.

Main Duties

Fulfil online orders accurately and timely to meet the high standards our customers expect for service and delivery. Completing the necessary paperwork to maintain accurate online sales records and communicating directly with customers as and when required.

Maintain and add to our CRM system to enable us to track sales and bookings.

Sorting and taking the post. This will mean driving to the local post office at times. 

Receiving and booking in new stock items, photographing new products and uploading them onto the online store.

Help with printing and packing our patterns.

Maintaining and monitoring the online store to ensure its accuracy.

Assist with the implementation of advertising and promotional strategies and activities including social media – Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter.

Assist with the preparation of resources and studio space for up coming workshops and other events.

Attend exhibitions and shows helping to set up and breakdown the stand as well as speaking to the public about our products.

Education / Qualifications

Essential:  Excellent Numeracy and literacy qualifications,

Clean Driving license

Desirable:  Fashion, Textiles, Sewing or Pattern cutting qualifications.

Skills and Knowledge

Essential:   Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

Excellent knowledge of office software applications, Mac or PC

An understanding of social media platforms – including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest

Desirable:  Working knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite – Illustrator or InDesign

Regular user of social media – Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest

To apply please email your C.V. and a covering letter to

Jules Fallon at jules@sewmesomething.co.uk.

Closing date for applications will be 23rd September 2018.

Most of you probably know by now that we have moved out of the Minories Courtyard in Stratford upon Avon to a much bigger studio about a mile or so from the town centre, although we are still getting a few calls asking “Where have you gone?” 

So I thought I would explain and clarify what we are doing now.

This may seem a bit odd because we are still doing what we have always done, running friendly and inclusive workshops where we share our knowledge to help you to sew better to make the clothes you want to wear, designing and producing stylish dressmaking patterns, and providing you with high quality fabrics and haberdashery items.

But we are doing it a in slightly different way now. . . .

The high street is changing and I know it’s annoying and frustrating when you can’t find what you want in the shops in your local town, and I am with you. The choice and variety of shops in Stratford is reducing and we have to look to much larger towns now for most of our retail fixes, but it’s going to continue to change and we as businesses have to recognise that and adapt.

That is one of the main reasons we decided to move ‘out of town’, another being that there just wasn’t anywhere big enough to accommodate us within our budget in the town centre.

But this has brought its advantages, every cloud and all that. It has meant that we had to think about what we do overall, what we do best and how we use this to take Sew Me Something into the future, because we plan on being around for a while yet.

My original plan when I set up Sew Me Something was as a vehicle for me to produce patterns. I am a pattern cutter and would happily design and produce patterns all day everyday and not get bored – EVER!

So the original shop was a marketing tool and platform from which to launch the pattern range. Workshops were a bit of a sideline to attract people to the shop where they could buy the patterns.

Well that was the original plan!

Over the 6 years we have been going now the popularity of our workshops has grown hugely.

Without blowing our own trumpet too much, teaching is something we do extremely well. People have travelled hundreds of miles to do our workshops, and we have ladies that have been coming to them ever since we opened. So the proof must be in the pudding, or in our case the cake, as we have been keen right from the beginning to be as inclusive as we can and to make people feel very welcome.

To this end, teaching and running workshops has become the biggest area of our business. And this is wonderful, I never imagined that this would be the case, but it just shows how your ideas and directions can change.

I also never imagined that we would have our patterns on the telly. The Sewing Quarter have been amazing in their support for our patterns and I have really enjoyed being on screen chatting sewing.

Again this has made us rethink the patterns that we are able to offer and what we want do in the future as our audience grows and we want to help more people to be able to make stylish clothes that fit.

You can see now that the emphasis of the business of Sew Me Something has altered from its origins. This has meant that the retail side of what we offer has changed too. As with so many high streets, footfall has reduced and the same is happening in Stratford upon Avon. It’s a beautiful town but one that has, for better or worse, decided to dedicate itself to the income derived from tourism. This has changed what the town has to offer, and along with other decisions made by the Powers That Be, fewer locals are shopping in Stratford itself, including me.

By moving away from the town centre and losing a ‘shop front’, this has allowed us to focus on what we do best, which is provide excellent levels of teaching in our workshops, to design and produce stylish and creative dressmaking patterns that allow you to challenge yourself while making a handmade, personal wardrobe. And we can support your making by providing you with high quality fabrics and haberdashery either during our workshops or through our online store.

All of this, I hope, explains why we are not just a walk in shop anymore. We do understand if you’d prefer to come and see us in person and that’s not a problem at all, just let us know by phone or email when you’re coming as we may be teaching, or designing new patterns, or shooting a video, or even printing patterns for the next Sewing Quarter show.

Or any of the other stuff we do to help you to sew better and make the clothes you want to wear.

You can find all of our contact details on our contact page, here. And I hope you can join us for a workshop very soon. 

Jules x