It's the 20s again!!

Happy New Year!! I am very excited for this year as I have a lot of plans and hopes to build up my sewing business and personal sewing repertoire.

On the business side of things, I've recently separated out my Instagram into personal (@stephlochet) and business (@slochetdesigns) accounts, hoping to get a bit better at regularly spotlighting items I'm listing for sale in my Etsy shop. I'll keep posts about sewing I do for myself on my personal account. I've recently lost some weight (around 40 lbs) and I'm hoping to lose more, so I'm guessing this year is going to be a bit strange for me sewing-wise, learning how to fit my changing body.

This also means I'm planning to list quite a lot of the me-made dresses I have in my closet for sale, as they're too big for me now. Many of these I only wore a couple times, just because I get distracted by shiny new patterns way too easily and use any excuse to make something new! So, keep an eye out a bit later in the year, probably as we head into spring, for listings of many of the dresses I've blogged about right here in the past!

As is typical in the new year, I've spent the last couple weeks cleaning up the post-Christmas sewing mess, and doing a bit of reorganization in my sewing room. On a whim, I decided I was going to start rolling up my quilting cottons for storage rather than folding. I felt it might be a better and more full usage of the space available, and I think it has proven to be true! I was able to fit all my quilting cottons, including a few piles that hadn't already been included, with a little room to spare. Here are some before and after shots!

Before, folded fabric piles sorted by color

Mid-organization, everything is everywhere!

All done!

I thought it might be interesting to show how I did this, as I'm very particular about the rolls being a uniform length. So I popped some true crime podcasts on, measured out the length I was going for with some tape, and went to work rolling. I took fabric that was already folded in half length wise (as it comes on the bolt) and then folded that in thirds length wise, keeping it in between the tape, and then rolled it up as tightly as possible. It did take me longer than I expected (a couple hours a day for several days!) but it was absolutely worth it.

And now, I'm itching to sew again! Tidying and organizing my sewing room never fails to renew my desire to create.

I haven't been great at blogging consistently the last couple years, but I'm hoping to change that this year as I have so many ideas and plans for my business, and will be very intentionally dedicating more time to it. I can't wait to share all the plans and creations I have in the works, including many with the new toy I got for Christmas...but more about that soon. ;-)

If you enjoy seeing my creations and would like to support my work, I'd love for you to follow my new business IG account @slochetdesigns, and/or my Facebook page. Thanks so much, cheers to 2020!