A Day in the Life of Backstitch

It's time for another dose of fly-on-the-wall fun as we go behind the scenes of lovely sewing businesses. For this month's A Day in the Life, Alice Synge tells us all about what she gets up to running her gorgeous Cambridge haberdashery Backstitch, as well as how she got started. Guess what time she gets out of bed?

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"Hello everyone! First off I’d like to thank Tilly for including me in the Day in a Life series and giving me the ‘Miss September’ spot. My days vary as I work in the shop some days and at home others, but let’s look at a shop day as that’s where the action happens!

I’m a reliably bad sleeper so I usually wake between 5.30 and 6.30am. I creep downstairs in my pyjamas and brew strong coffee as quietly as I can. I have an office at home that I sneak into and will spend an hour or two on business paperwork and emails until the rest of the house wakes. Once my husband and two boys (aged 4 and 7) are stirring I then emerge from the office and get involved in the usual family breakfast dramas of mopping up spilt milk, cutting fruit and answering questions about time and space.

The shop doesn’t open until 10am so during term time I have the privilege of walking my boys to school which I really love – the youngest is starting proper school this September. It’s amazing how much important bonding chat we have in those ten minutes every day, that’s if they are not racing ahead, and I am glad that I can give the kids, and myself, the stability and reassurance of seeing them into their classrooms.

We live in a village 15 miles from Cambridge and after the school run I make my way to the shop which is a twenty minute drive. The shop is located on a gorgeous farm complex of 15 retail units called Burwash Manor Barns just outside Cambridge and just off the M11 and it really is a lovely place to be. We have the benefit of free and ample parking and a great community spirit. I love being on site, all the shops look out for each other and there is a lot of popping in and out of each other’s units. I spend a lot of my time trying not to spend too much money in these other shops!

Backstitch is a bright and airy space with a lovely outlook and I still get a thrill opening up and getting the lights on and music going. If we have a morning class I quickly get absorbed in talking to the students and making tea – the atmosphere when the shop is full of people sewing is the best. Once all is underway then I get stuck into the days tasks.

The daily jobs are varied in the shop and I enjoy my customer-facing days. It is so important that I remain the face of Backstitch and in touch with my customers – and I love to do it! As well as serving in the shop we fulfil internet orders, answer customer enquiries, restock our basic ranges and keep the shop looking fresh and tidy. I also use shop time to have meetings with suppliers and spend time choosing new ranges – our stock is constantly expanding and I’m always looking for new lines that will fit in at Backstitch and make my customers happy.

At about one o’clock I stop for lunch. I always sit down at our big workshop table and if there is more than one of us working we’ll eat together – sometimes I’m lucky enough to have friends join me for lunch in the shop too! I usually have a salad or leftovers (leftover lunches are my favourite) or I may hop over to the deli on site and grab a sandwich or some other delicious lunchy thing from their counter.



Afternoons are often more busy with customers than mornings, but if I have time I will crack on with work on my laptop – I might write a blog post, photograph some new products or work on our class schedule. I always seem to have about a million things going on at once so I have to be quite strict with myself about keeping focused!

I began Backstitch about four and a half years ago. I was working from home at the time and had been searching for ‘The Business Idea’ for a while. I finally decided to start selling fabric online and got going on a limited budget from my home office. I haven’t looked back and eventually gave up my day job a year ago and then 6 months after that, in March, I moved Backstitch out of my home and into the retail premises. The business has changed so rapidly in the last year and I’m really proud of how far it has come but the changes in my daily life have also been huge. I had been working from home, for myself and for others, for the previous seven years and had become a bit of a hermit – I’m still getting used to being back out in the big bad world! I have a number of grand plans for the business and have many pots bubbling away in the back of my mind... All top secret of course!!

I love being self employed, and it has always been something I wanted to do, but it is fantastically difficult. Some of the imagined benefits of working for yourself are not having a boss breathing down your neck and being able to take time off whenever you like, but in reality I am the toughest boss I have ever had – very hard to please and a total slave driver! But it is rewarding work. I love being in the shop and talking to our customers about what they are making, and enthusing them to sew. The most amazing thing is facilitating people’s creativity – the palpable pleasure exuding from someone who has made their first project is priceless.

Backstitch shuts at 5pm, and if I’m going into Cambridge for an exercise class then I hang back and work on, but otherwise I try and get out pretty sharpish. I love to be active but struggle with finding the time to do everything that fulfils me and I’m carrying a couple of injuries at the moment too. Currently I try and regularly involve myself in swimming, running, capoeira (a Brazilian martial art) and yoga.



On the evenings I’m at home I spend a couple of hours with the kids before dunking them in the bath and reading stories. My husband and I eat with the boys when we’re eating family favourites like pasta, but our love of spicy food wins over fairly often and then we will eat our food later – favourites are roast vegetables with hummus (my husband makes a mean hummus), curry or ratatouille with sausages. We are guilty of eating these later meals on the sofa in front of the TV – especially as it’s getting cooler now and we like to light our wood burner in the front room. After dinner I usually get my laptop back out and carry on working. I’m trying to get better at relaxing in the evening, but the work is never done, so it is a bit of a battle!

I tend to get to bed by about 10pm and spend a short while reading my book before my eyes give up on me. I like to read fairly low-brow novels and have the ability to read, and enjoy, book after book without retaining any information such as the book title or author. So I can’t tell you what I’m reading right now, it’s some period drama with peerage tussles and scandal, it’s certainly ticking the escapism box!"

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Aw Alice, you've created such a wonderful business... thanks for sharing your day with us! Readers, be sure to check out the lovely things Alice has in stock at Backstitch, and if you enjoyed this post you can read more Day in the Life interviews.

A Day in the Life of Liesl Gibson (Oliver + S)

You all know Liesl Gibson, right? The designer behind no less than FOUR sewing pattern brands - kidswear Oliver + S, Lisette patterns in partnership with Simplicity, Liesl + Co PDF patterns, and Straight Stitch Society accessories. (Just reading that list is making me need a little nap on her behalf!) Well today we get to find out what it's like to be superwoman Liesl by spending a Day in the Life in her company. How does she manage her time to stay on top of it all? And what does she wear while doing it? Let's see...

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"My typical day right now is pretty atypical. For 10 months of the year, my daughter S is in school (she’ll start fourth grade in September), and we have a regular schedule: wake up, breakfast, to the school bus stop by 8:20, work, afterschool program pick up by 5:55, dinner, homework, bed for her, more work for me, and then sleep.

But July and August are different. S spends all of July with her grandparents—two weeks with my husband Todd’s parents in Michigan and two weeks with my parents in Wisconsin. They all love the time together, and Todd and I enjoy the adult time. Then we usually do a home exchange for the month of August and spend that month together as a family somewhere interesting. This August, we’ll be in Barcelona. We still work while we’re away, but the change of scenery and pace is always inspiring.

So right now, my typical day is much more unstructured than usual. This morning I woke up at 8:00. I start the morning with breakfast—usually eggs or a little granola. Todd and I have just started doing the Seven Minute Workout together in the morning. S and I recently started taking violin lessons together, so I practice violin a little in the morning—I absolutely love playing! After that I shower and get dressed. Today I chose a pair of linen culottes that we’ll be releasing as a Liesl + Co. patterns this fall. I paired it with a white embroidered blouse I bought at Zara a few years ago and with some new sandals.

Todd and I left together for the studio around 9:00 today—which is quite late for us. Todd usually bikes to the studio while I take the subway. But today there was a thunderstorm forecast and a flash flood watch for the afternoon, so he took the subway with me. (The afternoon ended up being sunny with no rain. Go figure.)

When I first launched my business, Todd was working as a management consultant and helped (“forced” might be more accurate…) me to write a business plan before I did anything else. Having a solid business plan really helped me through the first two years. Whenever anyone asks me for advice about starting a business, I tell them they have to have a good business plan before they launch. Todd hadn’t originally planned to work with me, but that changed about a year and a half after the company started and we saw the potential in the business. We’ve been working together for five and a half years now. I do product development for our four brands of sewing patterns, and he makes the business run smoothly.

We live in Manhattan’s East Village, and our studio is four stops into Brooklyn on the L line which runs under the East River. We can make it there by bike or subway in about 20 minutes. But today I needed to stop at the art store to pick up some materials for a Straight Stitch Society photo shoot, so I got off one stop early.

From there I walked to the studio. Our space is in an industrial neighborhood that is undergoing rapid change. The small manufacturers are moving out, and their large spaces are being carved up into artist studios and workspaces for creative businesses. The floor where our studio is located used to be a book bindery, and you can see sewing machine needles nestled between the floor boards. I moved into this space six years ago, shortly after I started our first brand, Oliver + S.

I was one of the first tenants in the building after it was converted, and I really like it here. We’ve become friends with some of our neighbors who do interesting things like creating paintings, designing wallpaper, recording music (and arguably being the coolest woman in the world), and making artisanal beef jerky. Until recently, we even had a small bourbon distillery in the building.

I usually start my morning at my desk, responding to email and corresponding with many of the freelancers who help us create our patterns.

What I do after that depends on where we are in the production cycle for each of our brands. I could be designing new styles for kids or women (for Lisette or Liesl + Co.), figuring out how to construct a new style, writing and illustrating instructions, or formatting patterns for the printer. Every day is different. We often have work in different stages of development for our brands, so some days I’ll be working on something early in the production cycle at one time and then switch to something later in the cycle for another brand. I usually spend Mondays writing blog posts, but right now I’m trying to finish the fall patterns, so I’m really focusing on all the details that are so important to our patterns.

There aren’t any convenient places to eat in the neighborhood, so Todd makes lunch around 12:30. We have a sandwich press in the studio, and he puts together hot sandwiches of some kind. Today’s lunch was sponsored by the letter P: panini (with prosciutto, pepperoni, provolone, plum tomatoes, and pesto), pickles, and potato chips. We pair lunch with some fruit that I pick up on my way to the subway in the morning. Today it was cherries.

 In the afternoon, it’s more of the same activities. This afternoon I cut out a dress that we’ll release this fall under our Liesl + Co. brand, and I worked on formatting the pattern sheet for another Liesl + Co. pattern for the fall.

We left the studio at 7:15 and stopped for a quick dinner of vegetarian burritos and nachos at La Gringa Taqueria which is near the closest subway stop. We were home by 8:15. I practiced violin for a while and then we put on an episode of Boardwalk Empire which I’ve checked out from the library. While the show played, I opened my laptop and made cutting layouts for the patterns I was working on in the afternoon. After that, Todd headed off to bed and I stayed up for a while finishing the layouts, finally turning in around 12:00. Tomorrow I leave for a series of trips: flying to Nashville to teach for one of Anna Maria Horner’s sewing workshops, then home to see my family and to pick up S, and then we all leave for Barcelona a few days later. I guess this is one of my last typical/atypical workdays in the studio until we return home in September and school starts again!"

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Thanks for letting us spend the day with you, Liesl! Readers, if you liked this and want to read more Days in the Life of inspirational people who have made a career out of their love of stitching, there's a whole page of them - from Colette Patterns to Sublime Stitching to Figgy's. Enjoy!

A Day in the Life of Guthrie and Ghani

It brings me great pleasure to introduce the next interviewee for A Day in the Life - a woman whose ambition and drive I admire greatly, and who I am grateful to call a good friend - Lauren Guthrie. Lauren and her husband Ayaz have invested a crazy amount of work into turning a derelict building into their beautiful Birmingham-based haberdashery, Guthrie and Ghani. If you've been lucky enough to visit, you'll know what a special place it is, full of sewing and knitting delights, with a beautiful space upstairs for workshops. Let's hear from Lauren what a typical day is like managing the business...

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"Hello Tilly and the Buttons readers! It’s so great to be here and sharing my day with you, so thanks a million for inviting me, Tilly!

The alarm usually goes off at about 7.30am, I wake myself up then have breakfast at home while catching up on BBC news. It’s easy to so caught up in things and forget about the outside world sometimes so I try to tune in when I can. I always have a bowl of muesli and honey and a coffee. It keeps me going for hours as I don’t usually have lunch till later in the day. Pretty much every day I’m wearing at least one thing I’ve made, but I’m one of those peeps who are always cold, so I usually layer up.

I head over to my shop about 8.45am to get there for 9am where I meet Lucy, my assistant. At the moment we are building a house behind the shop so eventually my commute will be even shorter! We have half an hour to set the shop up, warm the coffee machine, turn on the lights, tidy up and sort out the to-do lists for the day. At 9.30am we open up the shop. We’ve got such a huge big bay window at the front of the shop and the light just floods in, even on a dull day.

The first jobs for the day are to pick and pack the online orders and get them sent out. We also have to log the workshop bookings placed online in the diary too. I then try to get on top of my emails while Lucy makes sure the shop is looking lovely and well stocked. Every day is different, sometimes I might work on blog posts which is great fun. Other days I’m planning or teaching workshops. Other days it's more organisational things like liaising with different tutors or designing some of my own workshops that I teach. Some days I have to just knuckle down and deal with the paperwork side of the business like paying bills, figuring out stock levels and placing orders. Working out what to buy and order for the shop and, most importantly, how much to order is a constant learning process for me. When I first opened the shop I found the choice of goods to stock a bit overwhelming so I had to just go with my gut and order what I liked myself. I found it gets easier with time as I learn what my customers like and what is more popular.

Some days I’ll work in the studio above the shop where we hold all the workshops. It’s a really big spacious room and the light floods in there as well. I’ve now got my own little book shelf there with all my books and fabric stash so it feels like part of my home really. I’ve always got a least one sewing project on the go, but I do try and finish one thing before getting really stuck into the next.

If there is no evening workshop, I usually leave the shop around 6pm and head home. I might go out for a run or go to a class at the gym, or just try and chill out while doing a bit of knitting. My new rules are to try and switch off from the business in the evenings, but it’s easier said than done, so I might check a few more emails or work on a blog post. The evening workshops usually finish between 9.30 - 10pm so quite often I leave the place a bomb-site to clear up in the morning to head home and crash out.

I used to be a physiotherapist in the NHS, working regular during the week hours so my routine is completely different now. Its easy to loose track of what day it is and you lose that end of the week ‘Friday feeling’ a bit but on the other hand, I don’t ever get that Sunday night feeling either! I’ve always had a passion for being creative, not just in sewing but lots of different crafts, and although my initial career path didn’t take me down that route I always dreamed of doing something creative full time. At first I didn’t really know what it would be. A few years ago now, I joined the online e-course called Do What You Love. Over 6 weeks the course took you through a series of daily tasks or activities aimed at helping you figure out what was important in your life, what you dreamed of, what you were scared of…. all the soul searching stuff and it really put things into perspective for me. It made me realise that working for myself and being creative in my job was so important to me that I would have to change career completely.

Still not really knowing what to do, Ayaz (my husband) and I had another situation going on with a building that we owned. It’s a long story but the building was pretty much derelict and we didn’t really know what to do with it. That’s when we had the idea to turn it into a shop and creative studio, solving two problems at once. I would get my career change and the building would be saved. And so the rest is history! After almost 2 years of planning and renovating, we opened the shop and launched the website and online shop in April 2013.

As if we weren’t busy enough, during that planning phase I had the amazing opportunity to be part of the BBC’s The Great British Sewing Bee. I made so many lovely new friends, learned so much about how I could push myself and challenge myself and by complete coincidence, honestly, the timing of the show coincided perfectly with the shop opening.

Lauren and Tilly on launch day

So really there is no set routine anymore, everything is changing, every day is different. Sometimes its scary, sometimes its stressful, sometimes I feel like I don’t know what I’m doing and have to figure it out as I go along, but most of the time it’s lots of fun and that makes up for everything else. Owning your own business means that work will never end, the to do list is never finished, there will always be something to sort out or deal with, no-one else to take up the slack or pick up the pieces. You really need to try and get over that feeling that you’re not skipping school when you have a day or afternoon off.

In terms of what’s coming up, I’m really looking forward to the next year! Now that the business is up on its feet and I’ve got more of a handle of looking after it, it will be easier to branch out and be involved in some other projects. I’m hoping to be part of some of the sewing and crafts shows, and in September I’ve got the launch of my first book. I really can’t wait for it to come out! I’ve been working really hard on that over the past 6 months and not been able to share the details so it will be a really exciting time!

There is no doubt that running your own business takes more work, energy, time, motivation, drive, determination, bravery and risk-taking that you can ever realise before you start. People will tell you it’s challenging, but really you don’t understand until you are in the situation. That said, there is something about working for yourself, on something that you are passionate about that is totally different from any job that’s working for someone else. So as long as you have that passion and drive and confidence you just have to go for it, there is no one to stop you!"

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Very well said - keep up the good work, Lauren and Ayaz! Readers, if you liked this, you might like to read more A Day in the Life interviews...

A Day in the Life of Figgy's

Do you ever look at kids' sewing patterns and wish they fitted you? I do, especially when they're designed by Shelly Figueroa of Figgy's. Those are some seriously stylish children. So what's it like to be as talented a lady as Shelly? And what does she eat for lunch? Let's spend a day in her company, in this month's A Day in the Life...

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“Hello Tilly and the Buttons readers! What terrific fun it is to be here today and have this opportunity to share my A Day in the Life! Thank you so much for inviting me to join so many great artists that have shared their day. Here goes…

I awoke today 30 minutes before my alarm. I think it’s because I have so much on my mind these days that it’s causing me to not sleep well. Today is my day to awaken with the boys. My husband takes the morning shift two days a week and on those days I sleep until 9am. I used to be able to sleep until noon if given the opportunity but it seems age has altered by inner alarm clock. Today I’m just going to lay with my thoughts until the alarm dings softly.

It’s 7.45am and time to get my sons up and ready for the school bus. I like to wake them slowly because I used to despise having someone wake me with a bright light or loud noises, so I try to offer them a little peace when they rise. I make them breakfast of eggs and toast, pack the lunch bags (I put in a little joke or note) and fill the water bottles. I check my phone calendar to see if they need bus passes for a friend date after school and if they don’t I kiss and hug them out the door. Once I see them off I like to sit in the quiet for 10 minutes with mint tea before I get ready for my day. I like complete silence and try to clear my head.

Depending on whether or not I need to leave the house for errands or if I have a class to teach affects my choice in what to wear. If I’m teaching a class I try to wear at least one thing handmade because my students love to try and guess which item I have on was hand made. I can’t work without shoes on, I feel like I’m a modern day Mr. Rogers. My work attire consists of skinny jeans, tank top with a high low tee layered over top and my grey booties. I dress a lot like how my pattern line is described: simple, modern and contemporary.

My office is just two flights of stairs up so I mix my morning protein shake and head up at 9.20 am. I open email first and the responding begins. It usually take me close to 2 hours before I’m done, but on some days I find myself done in just an hour (woohoo). I have a blog post for Michael Miller due tomorrow so I need to edit photos and finish my post to mail out by the end of the day. I’ve been pretty good at doing a little here and a little there that it only takes me an hour to finish up and email. I wish the next thing on my list is sewing but I have volunteer duties at the school today working with the HOPES committee so I’m off to the school.

The HOPES committee is hosting a “Sewing for Shriners” day in the school gym on March 15th. The day will include kids coming in every 1.5 hours to sew a hospital gown for a child at the hospital. We hope to have at least 100 gowns finished by the end of the day to donate to the hospital. It’s quite a lot organizing this big day but it’s very special to my heart and that makes it all better. It’s 1pm and I need to get back in the studio.

Back in the studio, I’ve printed off a new pattern I’m hoping to release at the end of the blog tour in February. My graphic designer sent back my sample pattern so it’s time to sew and test. I trace, cut and sew my muslin. It’s a fairly quick sew, but after looking at the finished product I noticed some tweaking that needs to happen. For this pattern I’m working with another designer (I can’t reveal this information just yet) so I snap some phone photos and jump back on email to see if she agrees with me about the changes.

Crud!! I forgot to eat lunch again. I run down to the kitchen and grab carrots, hummus and gluten free pretzels. I run into my mom and she gives me a little speech about how I need to stop skipping meals and eat some protein. I know, I know!! Did I mention my family shares a home with my parents? I call it living European style in America.

With a little food in the belly, I’m back at it and it’s time to set up for class. I check my calendar to remind myself which group is coming in at 3.40pm for class. Today is Figgy’s Fashion where the kids are making garments using Figgy’s patterns. I love this class because I love to see how the kids will take the pattern and make it their own by adding something special to the garment or using a fabric I never thought to use. Yesterday I had a birthday party with eight girls in the studio and they all made super cute bags.

It’s 3.20pm, so I pop organic popcorn in coconut oil and make sure all is ready to go. At 3.40pm, six kids have jumped off the bus and into my studio for some super fun creative time. I’m so grateful to have my mom here to greet my boys when they get off the bus and feed them a snack. My husband rolls in about 4.30pm and begins homework duty and that is a huge score for me because homework was never my favorite thing to do. I often fantasize about opening up a storefront, but if I did that now I wouldn’t have this great home studio where my children can simply walk up a few steps if then need a minute with mom. I believe doors of opportunity open when it is time for them to open no matter how often we know or bang on the door. Having my own pattern line and teaching studio has taught me two main things: you will never be able to please everyone all the time and PATIENCE.

It’s 5.40 pm and parents begin to show up to gather their children. It seems a tornado has come through my studio so for the next 30 minutes is cleaning and vacuuming. The smells from the kitchen are calling my name and it’s time to sit with my family, say grace and talk about our day. I only have dinner cooking duty twice a week thanks to my amazing mom and one pizza night a week. The days it is my responsibility I try to prepare something in the crockpot or I prep the dinner in the morning and my husband will cook during my class. ☺

Tonight is busy beginning after dinner. Jules has basketball practice and Franco is off to youth group so we split up and go our separate ways. Meeting back at the house by 8pm it’s time for bath and books. Reading to my children is my favorite part of the day. I get to escape with them into some fun fantasy book for at least two chapters, then prayers and lights out. I cross my fingers that I only get woken up by one of them once tonight.

My husband is currently in college studying to become a paramedic, so he studies and I hit social media for work until we meet at 10pm for some husband and wife time. It’s not much these days but we’re doing the best we can as we work towards our goal of having our own home one day. I end my day usually how I begin, with a hot cup of tea and silence. By 11.30 pm I’m reading, my husband and children are all snoring and I have a little quiet time until 12am when it’s my turn for lights out. Tomorrow it all begins again where I get to create something new, volunteer at school, design and love my family as much as possible.

Thank you for spending the day with me!”

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Thanks for giving us a peek into your day, Shelly! Readers, if you have little ones to sew for, check out the new patterns from Figgy's, they are seriously cute.

Want to read about more Days in the Life of inspirational people who have turned their love of stitching into a career? Spend a day in the company of Christine Haynes, Lucie Summers, Colette Patterns and more! 

A Day in the Life of Plush Addict

It's time for another instalment of A Day in the Life, which takes us behind the scenes at a sewing business. This month, the lovely Kellie Rose gives us an insight into a typical day at Plush Addict, the fabric emporium she started herself last year and which has quickly grown to employ a whole team of people. What's it like getting to choose pretty fabrics as your job? "And is there an official term for the feeling of unbridled excitement one can experience when confronted with said fabric?", I hear you enquire. Let's see if Kellie has the answer...

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"Plush Addict was a happy accident and I have my gorgeous 2 year old girl to thank for my blossoming online fabric business. I had a successful career in London for a software company but quit in search of something more fulfilling and started to train to become an acupuncturist. My acupuncture college went bust three quarters of the way through my first year of study and I then found myself pregnant! The world of opportunities for a pregnant, unemployed woman in her late 30s were quite slim and so I filled my time researching, planning and sewing for our new arrival. I discovered the wonderful world of modern cloth nappies (they are a million miles away from the white terry towelling square your mum used, honest!). These days cloth nappies can be beautiful works of art and I wanted to try creating my own. I was soon frustrated that you needed to shop in several different places (including the US) for the supplies you need so I decided to become a one stop shop for cloth nappy making supplies. The business took off from day one. We have expanded our product lines really extensively and now have a very diverse range of haberdashery and fabrics from quilting cottons through to waterproof fabrics,  which we sell online through our website to customers all over the world.

I get up at 6.45am every morning. I’ve always believed that rising before the hour of 7am means I’m being sleep deprived and I thought running my own business would mean a later start to the day, alas I was very naive! Mornings are always a bit of a rush to get us all washed, dressed and vertical but somehow we usually manage to cobble it all together and leave the house by about 7.45am and are at the warehouse by 8am.

I usually start the day with a strong cup of coffee and catch up on my emails and messages though our Facebook and Twitter pages. Managing social media and marketing is something that I look after and first thing I put together are photo collages and blurb for our social media posts. Once that’s all geared up I’m often found running round the warehouse with a laptop and a trolley checking stock, changing photos, doing colour matches and answering customer questions and doing any general fiddling jobs that I’ve spotted need doing.

After that my day can really go one of a few ways… Fabric buying is a big part of what I do and has to be pretty up there with one of *the* best parts of running Plush Addict. I’m the luckiest girl alive as the business gives me a completely legitimate reason to indulge my ridiculous fabric addiction. I know I’m not alone here when I say that fabric gives me a physical reaction when I see some I love, or when we get a delivery arrive my chest tightens, I get a bit flustered and I generally squeal high pitched and very loudly, something we’ve termed in house as a “Fabricgasm”!

Often I’m placing orders for things that are months away from delivery, yesterday I was perusing Christmas fabrics for 2014 which is pretty bonkers seeing as the decorations aren’t even up for 2013 yet. Buying so far in advance means a bit of crystal ball gazing as to what might be popular in a couple of seasons time so I am a slave to Bloglovin for hints and inspiration. I try to keep the range as diverse and rich in choice as possible. Not everyone likes the same things and I do try to plan our purchasing considering all tastes and I don’t just shop with my fabric loves in mind (I love the camp, kitsch and weird Japanese stuff - not everyone’s cuppa!). We're striving to be a “one-stop shop” where you can buy all that you need for your project in one place as we know how annoying postage charges are so I’m always on the look out for the next thing to add.

If I’m not fabric buying or researching then I’m probably found tinkering in Photoshop or writing a blog post. Recently I’ve had my head buried getting to grips with the Adobe Creative Suite which I have loved! It’s been a wonderful way to pamper my inner geek and be creative at the same time. It’s been a huge eye opener for me in to how fabric prints are designed and I have already started work on designing my first fabric. One of the more niche fabrics we stock is a waterproof fabric called PUL and we are hoping to launch our own range of PUL prints next year if all goes to plan (get me!).

We have a brilliant team of lovely local ladies that all work very hard to get our customer orders out on the same day they are placed. I’ve got the family roped in too and my mum (nick named Nanny Plush), my sister-in-law and hubby are all on board these days. The team all stop for lunch together around 1pm and it’s about the only time of the day we get to sit down so everyone relishes it. Lunch choice is about the only thing I miss from my previous life working in London, I even have dreams about Pret! The downside of having a warehouse full of fabric means we are on an industrial estate. There is a sandwich van that comes to visit but it’s not quite the same. We do make up for it with good coffee though. And cake. Lots of cake.

Since my husband Jon joined me full time in the business about a year ago, he now looks after the very important day to day operations that are needed to get all of our customer orders cut, packaged, checked and dispatched. We set ourselves tight targets for the speed we turn orders around in (who wants to wait for their fabric fix?!) and he’s way better at the practicalities than I am and actually thrives on the hustle which always stressed me out. It’s brilliant that we each get to play to our individual strengths and I do feel very privileged that we get to work together. The day gets pretty hectic around 4pm most days when we are trying to get all the orders in the post sacks before the postie comes at 5pm.



We usually leave the warehouse around 5.30pm. When we get home and after we’ve eaten and our little lady is in bed Jon and I usually carry on working. One thing about having your own business is that it’s very hard to switch it off and the evenings and weekends is when I’ll do most work on my blog writing tutorials or fabric guides. I do wish there was more time in the week for sewing but it does sadly seem to be the last task and gets squeezed in around everything else. We get way more time together as a family than either of our previous jobs would have allowed - on Thursdays Jon looks after our daughter and Fridays are my day off with her which is amazing. We both feel blessed that Plush Addict allows us this perk so evening and weekend working doesn’t feel like such a bum deal.

Next year we’re hoping to take the office space above the warehouse and set up sewing workshops and have a drop in social sewing space with big work tables and machines to use. I’ve been networking locally and have several very talented ladies interested in running classes and I hope to run some myself too (although that feels very scary!).

There’s a lot more that goes on behind the scenes than you’d think and since starting Plush Addict my days have never been busier. I’ve never worked such long hours or been so consumed (and stressed!) by anything, but I wouldn’t change it for the world :)"

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Aw... thank you for sharing your day with us, Kellie! Can I come over to play sometime? Readers, take a look at all the lovely fabrics that Plush Addict has on offer. I've got my eye on this flannel for some glow in the dark PJs - yes, glow in the dark!!

A Day in the Life of Mr X Stitch

Finally - this month's A Day in the Life interviewee is a man. A man who embroiders atop mountains, no less. Mr X Stitch, aka Jamie Chalmers, is known as the Kingpin of Contemporary Embroidery. Making a living as a stitching blogger, curator and artist, he's basically living the dream. Wanna know which vitamin keeps the kingpin's fingers nimble? Read on, my friend...

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"Life as Mr X Stitch is very full. As well as running Mr X Stitch, the world’s best embroidery and needlecraft, I also run Rollin’ News, Europe’s best roller derby news site, so it’s fair to say there’s a lot of variety.

I try to wake before 6am if I can, as it gives me an hour to do some retweeting and processing of emails before I wake my girlfriend with a cup of tea. We have eggs for breakfast most days, scrambled with all kinds of veg in it. It took a while to get used to but it’s lush, and we have a Berocca each day to get the essential 971% of our daily allowance of B2(!) Once Mary has gone off to work as a physiotherapist, I get the house to myself, as I work from home in a nifty home office. We’ve recently moved into the countryside from living in Milton Keynes and are enjoying village life. Honesty boxes filled with fudge for £1.50 a pack are the new rock’n’roll.

There are several strands to being Mr X Stitch, and while I’d love to say that I spend my days stitching in a sun-filled room, it’s more than likely that I’m staring at computer screens and squinting for the first half of the day. I’ve become a bit of a coffee snob, having been to Guatemala and Indonesia and learning about how coffee is grown. I’m also an Aeropress convert and so I run on good quality caffeine until the middle of the afternoon.

There are innumerable factors that affect how the working day progresses, but on the whole I try to process as many little bits and bobs in the morning, to allow time for more profound writing before Mary comes back from work. On Mr X Stitch, there are over a dozen contributing columnists, so before I’ve even starting writing my own posts, there’s usually an amount of admin in keeping on tops of things. The site is over five years old and there’s a lot of updating to be done – it’s the little things like correcting the SEO on images that you uploaded four years ago… Exciting stuff!

Lunch and I are strange bedfellows. If I’m travelling around I’ve trained myself to buy little salad bowls from M&S, as they are filled with superfoody stuff and I feel fancy when I eat them. When I’m at home there’s no knowing what I’ll have. Mary and I both like cooking, so sometimes there are some pretty groovy leftovers to be warmed up the next day.

In the afternoon I’ll try to get some blog posts done. Some things come easily; the stitchgasm posts are short and sweet, whereas the Cutting (& Stitching) Edge posts are more like mini art reviews and take some critical thought. I just tend to do whatever comes next in my list of things to write about, so if something gets too challenging, I stick it in a safe place and come back to it later. Most times I can get a fair few things done, and of late I find I’m doing interviews and writing for magazines, including my monthly X-Rated column for Crafty, so I can usually find something to suit my mood.



If I get really stuck, I’ll pick up one of the various cross stitch projects I’ve got on the go and get my stitch on. The meditative quality of cross stitch is great for helping process your mental workload. I’ll often sit for half an hour with my Moleskine next to me, stitching and writing down the ideas that bubble up from my subconscious. It’s a great way of getting rid of the mental clutter and as a fan of Getting Things Done I value that process. On a good day, I can fill my notebook with things to do and get the head space to get on with them, which is much nicer that whirling around my Inbox getting nowhere.

Mary gets home around five, and I try to make sure that I can stop when she comes back. I’ve spent a long time working too many hours in the day and I’m realising the value in stopping from time to time. I might end up doing other bits of work in the evening, but the pause when we cook dinner and catch up is an important one. In an ideal world I might go for a jog before dinner as a way of compensating for being sat on my butt for most of the day; it’s either a good health choice or a form of punishment, I still can’t quite decide. Evenings are spent trying to design cross stitch patterns, relaxing in front of the TV with a bit of cross stitchery, or getting out and about. I still do the odd bit of skating with a roller derby league or if the weather’s good I’ve even been known to do a spot of impromptu weeding at our allotment.

Making a living from a website is great if you can manage it, but it’s a neat trick to generate enough revenue to pay the bills and not something I’ve completely mastered yet. I’m really proud of how Mr X Stitch has developed into a great resource of embroidered inspiration and ideas, and has enabled me to bring out a book – PUSH Stitchery – as well as get to a position where I can teach cross stitch and do presentations to all kinds of great people. I’ve taught 8 year olds to cross stitch and I’ve taught 80 year olds, and it’s an honour to introduce people to the power of embroidery. I call cross stitch a gateway craft, as it leads you on to harder crafts, and it’s fantastic to see people connect with it. I’ve been stitching for over ten years and I still enjoy it, however there’s an irony to my life in that my love for cross stitch led to the creation of Mr X Stitch, which keeps me so busy that I rarely get time to cross stitch!

If I’ve learned anything from the Mr X Stitch experience thus far, it’s that you really must love the work you do, particularly if it’s a craft and you want to make a go of it, because you’re going to be doing it for a long time. I didn’t necessarily think that Mr X Stitch would still be going after five years, but we’re going from strength to strength and it’s great to be a part of the movement that is changing the way people think about craft and helping everyone engage with the power or making."

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Thanks for sharing your day with us, Jamie! I'm feeling inspired to bust out that embroidery hoop...

A Day in the Life of By Hand London

By Hand London have taken the sewing world by storm with their range of super trendy sewing patterns. It's been so inspiring to watch how the budding business, founded by friends Charlotte Hintzen and Elisalex De Castro Peake and later joined by Victoria, has set down its roots and blossomed in the past year. If, like me, you're curious what it's like to start a company with friends, you'll love reading their Day in the Life. Plus, as always, we find out what they eat for lunch. What's not to like? Over to the BHL ladies...

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Victoria, Charlotte and Rachael (shiny new intern helping us out! Read all about her sewing adventures). Grabbing a second in between filming a tutorial video (hence the juicy cerise backdrop)
to go over a pattern in the works

"So, this has actually been a little more difficult than we imagined and caused quite a lot of discussion! Basically, in the last nine odd months since our first patterns, there has been nothing resembling a 'normal' day - and we're pretty sure all of the other ladies featured here would agree! Anyway, we'll do our best and try to tell the story of what kinds of things keep us running around and over excited on a daily basis.

Our early mornings are all pretty different. Elisalex is getting her young son ready for school, Charlotte is clutching coffee and scheming and Victoria is making her odyssey to the studio from where she lives far far away (due to move in with Elisalex soon though! By Hand boarding house...). Depending on what we're doing, the studio is either Elisalex's sewing room (for sampling and general sweat shopping or designing) or Charlotte's studio apartment (photo shoots, video shoots and master plan constructing).

Time to pack some orders! (yesyesyes, we will get that label maker working one day)

When we're all together, cue the first hour disappearing in a flurry of coffee, high speed chatter and some cackling laughter as we catch up and talk about what we wanna get done that day. One of our favourite things to catch up on is any new examples of our patterns that we've spotted online. All the creative women out there supporting us, making each garment look so completely individual continues to quite simply blow our minds. The rest of the morning is then typically spent planning DIY tutorials and blog posts, press hustling, going through progress reports on sewing patterns in production and posting out orders. If we're lucky though, we'll get to spend the morning blowing some of the budget fabric shopping...!

Lunch is something we really stop for and value. There is something wonderfully peaceful about all just sitting down over a meal and taking some time out together. Particular favourites at By Hand HQ is a scrummy charcuterie board selection of hams, cheeses and hunks of fresh bread or overdosing on Jamaican takeaway. Truth be told though, this is definitely a beginning of the month scenario - towards the end of the month fish fingers is more likely!

Elisalex working on some sketches for a new dress design

In the afternoon, to a soundtrack of Choice FM (Victoria), Destiny's Child (Charlotte) or old-time country music (Elisalex) we set about actually getting things did. This may involve sewing up samples of a pattern, preparing DIY or sewalong tutorials for the blog or checking over pattern packaging and instructions for the gazillionth time. We could also be in the super exciting early stages of making the first toiles and blocks for a new pattern! One thing's for sure though, somehow, at around 2pm, between trying on all the samples and checking fit, we all end up a little naked - and we've come to call this tradition 'Naked Hour'!

Over the last few months, one thing that has been taking up a significant chunk of our scheme time is 'Our Next Move'. It's still in the early stages, but well underway and we cannot WAIT 'til we're able to share our new product with the world! For now though, we shall say no more...

Gone our separate ways for the day and post dinner, we shouldn't, but totally do, get straight back to work and finish off admin-y things or some sewing, passing out around midnight. If we've got something to celebrate though, it's all about donning our finest handmade garms and our highest heels for a night of dancing all together!

If anyone is reading this and thinking about starting their own business, ummmm, DO IT! And, we also absolutely cannot recommend enough setting something up with pals. The whole own business shenanigan is tough and it's totally been a bit of a baptism of fire at times, but to all of us this is by miles and miles the best thing we have ever done.

Elisalex, Victoria and Charlotte in a still from a video tutorial.
Yup, this really is one of the better photos we have of the three of us...

Thanks for reading our story!"

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Thanks for sharing your day with us! Can I come round to play, please?

Want more where this came from? Catch up on TWO YEARS' worth of A Day in the Life!

A Day in the Life of The Thrifty Stitcher

One of the best parts of being a blogger is getting to meet incredibly inspirational people who get to sew all day for their job. Taking a peek into their everyday world is what the Day in the Life interviews are all about. This month I'm excited to introduce you to Claire-Louise Hardie, the sewing consultant on The Great British Sewing Bee. Not only that, but CL is also a talented costumier and runs her own sewing studio, The Thrifty Stitcher, where I taught a Miette skirt workshop this Summer. Wanna know how she fits it all in? Let's find out...

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"I’d like to say big thanks to Tilly for including me in such an amazing and inspiring group of stitchers. I feel very honoured to be here. I live in Old Street in Central London, in a small flat with my fella Tim. Luckily for me I have a 350 sq ft sewing studio in Stoke Newington, so I escape there to do my creative stuff. I’ve been sewing all my life, and has given me an income my entire adult life. I can’t imagine never sewing again, it’s both my job and my passion.

As a freelancer I juggle several roles, so really my days are never the same. Here are the jobs I juggle:

1. Freelance Theatre Wardrobe Mistress and Costumier - most recently for the play The Audience at the Gielgud Theatre. This involves preparing Costumes before each show. I’ve been lucky enough to have toured the globe - I’ve pressed togas in Michigan for Sir Patrick Stewart, fixed trousers in New Zealand for Sir Ian McKellan and darned Vanessa Redgrave’s hem in Greece.

2. As The Thrifty Stitcher I teach sewing in my lovely studio in Stokey. My passions are helping people conquer their fear of the sewing machine, and making dressmaking simple.

3. Sewing Advisor to BBC2’s The Great British Sewing Bee. This involves sourcing tools and fabrics needed throughout the series, collating and researching patterns, and answering lots of questions the production team have about anything sewing related. I’m excited about the forthcoming second series which is my next big project, but I’m sworn to secrecy about the details.

The strangest thing I’ve ever sewn was a silver leather jock strap for a dancer. That was an awkward fitting… The sewing I’m most proud of - it was a real privilege to sew my sister’s wedding dress and help her have the dream dress she’d designed. Things I wish I’d never sewn - as a teen in the 1980s I made a lot of very hideous clothes. Thankfully none of them exist today to haunt me.

My morning starts anywhere between 7am and 11am, depending on the day ahead and what I’m juggling. I am definitely not a morning person, so I try to do all the mundane tasks first thing. My “weekend” is a Monday, and that’s when I have a lie in. I cannot start my day without breakfast, usually just cereal, or porridge, and I need at least two cups of black tea before I’m human!

Before setting out for the day, I catch up with my admin. I usually need to plan the logistics of the day’s tasks, as I am not only juggling roles, but different locations too. Late morning I try and do any shopping or class prep at the studio, as this is near to my home. Running a small business means wearing many hats, so once I get to the studio, I mop the floor, make sure the biscuit tin is full, organise patterns /materials and get the room ready for classes.

I squeeze a lot into every day, and eat my lunch on the run. I’ll have some salad or soup and coffee. I’m very lucky with the location of my studio, it’s opposite a fabulous park, and if the weather is dry, I’ll sit out in the park to eat lunch. Just a 15 minute breather in the fresh air really clears my head! Once I’m done with lunch it’s a bus and tube hop from Stoke Newington into the West End. Travelling gives me time out, and I try and carry a book so I can zone out. I’m a total crime nut, and have worked my way through a stack of very gory books.

My afternoons are spent preparing the costumes for the evening performance. Unlike regular clothes, costumes in the West End are worn every single night, and anything next to the skin needs laundering and pressing every day. Items like dresses and suits are pressed or steamed every day. There’s around 3 hours of pressing/steaming and sock matching on The Audience every day… Luckily I have a couple of assistants help me with this.

At the end of every show there’s a list of repairs to do before the next one. If I’m lucky this is just a loose button, but I’ve had days where sleeves have ripped out, loads of hems are down, shoes need cobbling, and there’s a massive rip to be darned. On those days, I have to ensure I allow extra time to get everything done in time. In the past that has involved some very scary sewing, including finishing sewing a new zip into Dame Helen Mirren’s dress 15 minutes before it was needed!

Between 5.30pm and 6.15pm I usually get a break, and often this is when I’ll try and catch up with all the things that inspire me, whilst I eat my dinner. It’s so easy to get bogged down with work, that you don’t keep up with the things that make you happy. Throughout the evening I am on standby in case an understudy needs costuming, or a repair crops up last minute. I have been called to the stage to sew up Peter Pan’s trousers whilst he swung above me in a harness. My evening ends at around 10.30pm after I’ve sorted all the washing.

On Sundays I try and hang out with my man, as he’s on tour and we don’t see each other through the week.

The best advice I’d give anyone wanting to start a sewing business would be to follow your heart. Sewing for a living isn’t the same as sewing for pleasure, and you need to be prepared to sacrifice having a hobby. Having sewn professionally for 21 years though, I can’t imagine doing anything else."

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Aw... thanks for sharing your day, CL! Readers, catch up on more Days in the Life of inspirational stitchers, including Tasia Sewaholic, Lucie Summers and Sublime Stitching.

A Day in the Life of Grainline Studio

Don't you just love Grainline Studio? Their sewing patterns are modern, semi-androgynous (in a good way) and wearable styles, and the blog never fails to inspire. Jen Beeman is the brains behind Grainline, juggling her business with a part time job as patterncutter for another company. "But what's in her sandwich?" you enquire. Read this month's A Day in the Life to find out...

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"Hey guys, Jen here from Grainline Studio! I’m pumped to share a day in my life with you, though I’m still not quite sure what a typical day for me is I’ll do my best. Each week I have two types of days. The first is when I’m at home working on Grainline Studio and the second is when I work as a patternmaker for a local designer. I’ll start with Grainline Studio first.

GRAINLINE STUDIO DAYS

The majority of the week I work from home on Grainline Studio. On these days I usually get up around 8:30 or 9am. I’ve never been much of a morning person so my day skews towards the later hours. I roll out of bed and head straight to the tea kettle before I even think about doing anything else. After some tea is brewed and consumed, my brain begins to function properly and I can change out of the pajama situation into something more appropriate for working. I have a bit of a studio uniform, skinny black jeans cuffed twice, a tank, an oversized t-shirt, button up, or sweater depending on the season, and softsole Thunderbird Minnetonkas. At that point I usually check my email, blog reader, etc. out on the back porch while drinking tea until I feel like I can eat breakfast. I’m one of those people who can’t eat right away after waking up, but once I do I also have a seasonal breakfast uniform. Summer time is Greek yogurt, homemade granola, honey, and berries, and winter is oatmeal with brown sugar, dried fruit, and chopped nuts. I just love a good rolled oat, what can I say.

After breakfast I start working on one of various projects depending on what I have going on at the moment. My studio space is in my apartment so I don’t have to travel far to get to work. I got incredibly lucky and landed a cute 2 bedroom apartment in a beautiful neighborhood so the smaller bedroom (which honestly I would call an office) houses my machines, desk, and computers. I don’t have much of a living room, instead of a couch or TV I have an industrial cutting table and a stool. To each their own I suppose, though you’ll see the problem with this setup when I describe my typical evening later on. My rolls of paper, fabric, and rack of patterns are out in the living room studio area as well.

What I’m working on from day to day varies immensely depending on what I have going on at the moment. It could be anything from sketching new designs, drafting and testing new patterns, working in Illustrator on new patterns and technical illustrations, sewing up variations on existing patterns, or photographing new garments. I’m sure there are a million more things that I am forgetting as well. I also am semi-obsessed with Instagramming so that happens a lot during this time, perhaps you’ve noticed.

I don’t have a designated lunch time, I just take a break when I’m hungry which occasionally means forgetting to eat, but I’ve been obsessed with this particular sandwich lately. Toasted bread (gluten free for me!), a fried egg, feta, Valentina hot sauce, half an avocado, salt, and pepper. I literally cannot get enough of this sandwich. While eating lunch I check my email again and sort of regroup on what I’ve gotten done so far and what I still need to do. After lunch I usually turn off NPR and start listening to music while attempting to finish my endless to-do list. I keep working in this manner until around 6 when I go for my evening run. I’m really into the evening run with no music. It gives you time to digest and reflect on your day and really clear your head. I have a 4 mile loop I do around my neighborhood that I’ve finagled to go down only the most garden filled streets. When I get back from that, I shower, eat dinner, and unless I can rope someone into going for gelato with me at our local gelato place, Black Dog, I quite possibly start working again writing new blog posts or doing accounting work until I go to sleep. That usually happens sometime between 1 or 2 am if I’m lucky.

ALICE PADRUL DAYS

Long before I started releasing sewing patterns and actually before I had even begun blogging, I started working at my current job as patternmaker at Alice Padrul Bridal here in Chicago. I actually had to look at my resume to see when I started working for Alice - 2008. I fell into this job while I was still in school when one of my patternmaking professors had to leave and offered me her job there. On the two days a week I work for Alice, I don’t have to be at work till 10 so I usually get up, have some tea and breakfast, relax around the house with my cat and maybe check my emails or do some crosswords. I usually leave for work around 9:30 and I’m lucky enough to be able to walk there so long as it isn’t raining.

Once I’m there I’m on my feet all day drafting patterns for new dresses for our line, drafting or correcting custom client patterns, and assisting Alice with muslin fittings for our brides. Around 1 I’ll take about a 15 minute break for tea and yogurt then get back to it. We’re in our busiest season now so there’s always a million things to do. We have quite a lot of vintage dress reworkings and reproductions at the moment as well as a few historical projects we’re working on that are really interesting. As the only native English speaker there I’m also responsible for the company blog. At 5pm, work is over and I walk back home to continue on with Grainline Studio work. I’m pretty into this job, Alice is a really talented designer and artist (you should see her watercolors) and I often refer to her and her husband Gene as my Russian parents to my friends and family. When I slammed my finger in my door one afternoon at home it was Gene who drove me to the hospital. They really are a sweet pair - I really hope everyone is lucky enough to work for someone so appreciative and caring at some point in their lives. It’s amazing how much harder you want to work for these people!

Having your own business can be an incredibly rewarding and stressful endeavor. The fact that any success I have is directly related to the amount of hard work I put into the business is both amazing and terrifying, but ultimately pretty empowering. I sort of just fell into this though requests for the patterns of garments I’d posted when Grainline was nothing more than my personal blog but now that I’m doing it, I know for certain that there is nothing else I’d rather do. Every time I get an email from someone who loved a pattern or see a new garment made from one of my patterns I’m so excited. I keep waiting for it to get old but it literally never does. I love that I’m enabling people to have confidence in their own ability to do things themselves successfully and the pride they can take in that. As far as any advice I’d give to someone looking to start their own business - imagine how hard you think you’ll work, then multiply it by 10. Follow your instincts, try not to doubt yourself, and be honest with yourself and others. Talent is great but talent without work ethic is nothing. It doesn’t hurt to pick up a hobby completely unrelated to your business either. You’re going to need it!

As far as what’s next for me, more patterns, more tutorials, and we’re inching towards those printed patterns I’ve been talking about forever. It’d be great if I weren’t such a perfectionist!"

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Jen, you are officially awesome. Readers, check out Jen's new Lakeside pyjama pattern - want!

If you reading A Day in the Life, catch up on previous posts with other fab people who have turned their love of stitching into a career - including DIYcouture, Victory Patterns and Ohhh Lulu.