What I learnt about running a sewing business this year
Wow what a year that was! There was a whole lot of creativity from our students, consolidation of skills from the Made My Wardrobe team and on a less positive note, a hell of a lot of carrot-dangling from big companies when it came to commissions and collaborations!
Let’s start with the good stuff. We sold out and had the joy of running over 50 sewing workshops this year. Thank you so much to each and every one of you who joined us. As you can see below, our 2025 calendar was busy but our brilliant team of teachers were up for the challenge. I’ve always felt like our workshops are a co-creation between the preparation and care we put into designing them and then the energy our students bring to the room. Sprinkled on top of that is a magic ingredient which you can’t guarantee (but comes when the time is right) and that is the friendships and connections that naturally form between those in the room. I feel so lucky to have met so many wonderful people through teaching. It’s also been lovely to see our newer team members grow in confidence and transition from assisting workshops to running them. That transition has only been made easier because of how lovely our students are.
This year I knew I needed to take the plunge and do something that scared me. Back in the spring we launched our Sewing Teacher Training online course. I had never seen anything like this run before and I had no idea how many people would sign up, but when we began we had a full online classroom of 50 students. I absolutely loved consolidating what I have learnt about teaching sewing over the last decade into manageable sessions and the engagement and thoughtfulness of the group during the Q&As has really stuck with me. It’s been incredible to see this cohort go out into the world and start teaching their own unique sewing workshops.
We will be running our Sewing Teacher Training again in 2026 and if you feel like this is the right time for you, we would love you to join us. The course starts in February and applications are now open…
I’ve always been more drawn to teaching in-person than online, however, running the Sewing Teacher Training in the online space made me realise you can still really connect with your students - even if you are not in the same room. This gave us the confidence to launch Quilt Clubhouse in the Autumn. A three month course designed to guide folks through the process of making a patchwork quilt from start to finish.
Each week I see photos of more and more beautiful, personal quilts made by our Quilt Clubhouse group and so I’m delighted to say we will be running this course again in Spring 2026. I’m also very excited to let you know we are busy working on some brand new in-person workshops for 2026 which will be announced soon.
As usual with running a business, the harder stuff happened behind the scenes. I’m going the christen 2025 the year of the carrot-dangler because I had so many bigger companies get in touch saying they wanted to work together and after we had spent lots of time agreeing on a concept, design, fee and deadline they would suddenly back out. This often seemed to be because someone higher up in the company had decided to pull the rug at the last minute. Due to the amount of time wasted, in 2026 I’m going to change the way I consult on commissions and collaborations, and charge an initial consultation fee, (which I hope will deter time-wasters) and mean I can give my full focus to collaborators who really do want to make things happen.
So I guess that’s a good way to wrap up, let’s make more things happen together!
I’ll see you at the sewing machine in 2026!
Lydia x
