Evolution of our Pattern Envelopes
Bit of a trip down memory lane today... You may have seen that we recently gave our sewing pattern covers a makeover, which got me reminiscing about how the artwork has changed over the years. I had a dig around and found different versions of the covers - I thought you might like to see how far we've come!
But first, our amazing assistant Jenny made a little video to showcase our new envelopes... isn't it cute?
You might find today's post particularly helpful if you're starting your own venture and are stuck on trying to make everything perfect from the outset. Launching and growing a business involves starting where you can and iterating regularly to improve over time. I definitely started small with Tilly and the Buttons, and it's still a work in progress every single day. I've written more about this in a couple of posts before - tips for turning your hobby into a business and achieving your goals.
I launched my first sewing pattern, the Mathilde blouse, in January 2013 (over five years ago now - how time has flown!). At the time, I had grown a large blog following and my readers were asking for me to share the patterns I was making for myself. I had no idea if anyone would actually get out their wallets and buy something though, so started small to test the waters, running my fledgling business alongside my day job in the film industry.
The first pattern was PDF only, available to buy directly from my blog. The instructions were text only, supported by in-depth photo instructions on my blog for people who needed more help. I went on a course to learn how to create "flats", or garment technical drawings, and created a very simple cover myself.
Looking back, it's clear that the pattern cover was, ahem, very basic!! But this was a great place to start at the time. It didn't take too much time or financial investment, which was a great way to start a business as I could test the waters while working a day job and without having debts hanging over me. Also, there was a mountain of other tasks to focus on to get the pattern out there - finding the right grader, developing a sizing chart, setting up download and payment systems, creating the blog posts... Getting things done - especially something that feels so momentous and scary like launching your first for-sale product - involves knowing when a task is finished, and as good as it needs to be.
By the following year I was feeling more confident about the demand - sales had far exceeded my expectations and I'd followed the first pattern with the Miette skirt. I'd also landed my first book deal, which had given me the final push to quit my job and focus on Tilly and the Buttons full time. So I decided to invest in getting my patterns printed.
Again, this involved a whole load more work - finding a large format printer, convincing them to work with me (I remember my original printer coming round my flat and calling my set up a "cottage industry", which gave me a push to grow it to prove him wrong!), working out postage costs, setting up a distribution arm (AKA my boyfriend and me stuffing envelopes on the kitchen table while I shouted at him to work like a machiiiine), learning about wholesale...
And working on the envelope design. I'd developed a good rapport with the designer assigned by the publisher to work on my book, Arielle Gamble (yes, she was so good I named a pattern after her!), so I asked her to work with me freelance on my pattern booklets and envelopes. As well as updating Mathilde and Miette, we created covers for my next pattern - which, I didn't know at the time, would continue to be a bestseller to this day - Coco.
I recently stumbled upon these quick sketches I'd done to imagine what the covers could look like. I loved the idea of the garment being on a hanger, as if it were hanging in your wardrobe or you'd picked it up off a shop rail, with a monochrome graphic border print to make the products look fresh and modern.
We're yet to create that pinafore pattern on the left, but we used the name Bettine later for a different dress :)
