Dear readers,
One of the issues of blogging only sporadically is to remember to give some contexts to whatever I'm about to say. Over the last few months, I mentally wrote several posts so I feel like you are up to date with my train of thoughts when in fact, not at all! So let's recap a little. Since moving back to Haiti exactly a year ago, I have moved from one challenging and time-consuming job to another even more challenging and time-consuming one. Who would have thought that was possible??
But possible it was, and this is the situation now... In parallel, I also found that if I thought that being the single working mom of an infant was not an easy job, being the single working mom of a toddler is a completely different game. Basically, I have two very tiring jobs....
So where has my sewing time gone? Well, it's not entirely gone, the proof is that today I'm including in this post pictures of two of my personal samples for Just Patterns, the Kate Bias Top and the Yasmeen skirt. But my personal sewing time has also been diverted by the attempts to keep Just Patterns (barely) alive. I haven't been able to do much more than responding to customer requests and some occasion Instagram posting so that people know that we are still active. I'm disappointed because I had basically two patterns to release since the beginning of the year, but it has not been possible and I don't see how it will become easier in the coming months.
Pattern
Pattern Link - Just Patterns Yasmeen Skirt and Kate Bias Top
Size - 34
Amazingly, the patterns have continued to sell! Compared to last year, we did very little marketing effort, released no new pattern and yet we are on track to sell more patterns... This makes me so happy and proud. It also makes me realize the this little pattern project means a lot to me than I initially thought. I regularly day dreams of running away from my job. I can't help but think that if I dedicated more time and effort to it, it could turn into something else. My job is stimulating and rewarding but it is also extremely stressful and it has me outside of the house/away from my daughter 12 hours per day. I'm definitely not ready to quit and start living the sewing life, but there are days when the temptation is real...
Making
Fabric - Raspberry silk from stash (bought years ago in the NY garment district) and blush linen twill from Mood Fabrics in NY.
Notions - Invisible zip and grosgrain waistband from stash
In the mean time, I need to re-assess how I commit my time and my energy. I'm starting to realize that the idea of maintaining two blogs, one here and one for Just Patterns is completely unrealistic. I don't have time to produce enough content and I never got used to the more neutral tone for Just Patterns. The way I write on this blog feels much more like me. There are also other considerations, such as never really liking the interface of the Just Patterns site or the name of my own blog "Sewing Tidbits". When we launched Just Patterns, I just used a standard wordpress website, which doesn't allow us to host a proper e-shop. It was fine then but now it looks a bit sad.
So I have been thinking about creating a new site for Just Patterns and moving my blog there too. That way I would only maintain one blog, with my rea "voice" but also the tutorials we do occasionally for Just Patterns... I still have a few technical and time management concerns, but mostly what I would like to hear is your opinion. Since Eira and I launched this project, I have tried to be as transparent as possible with you and listened to what readers and customers had to say. So I thought I would ask you, would it be weird to have it Sewing Tidbits and Just Patterns under one virtual roof?