Show Notes

• Sarai’s Spring 2023 Sewing Plans


• 
  Sarai’s 2023 Round-up: With over 20 projects, including knitting and accessories.


• Sarai’s Spring 2024 Sewing Plans


• 
  Design Your Wardrobe: Our popular course that helps you plan the sewing projects you'll love to wear.


• 
  Style Workshop: This hands-on workshop helps you define your core style. It's FREE for Seamwork members and just $10 if you aren't a member.


• 
  Podcast listeners get half off an unlimited Seamwork membership when you use this link, plus you get to keep that price as long as you’re a member!


• Tell us your idea for the next icebreakers for makers!

Podcast Transcript

Sarai
I'm Sarai.

Haley
And I'm Haley.

Sarai
And this is Seamwork Radio. Welcome back to Seamwork Radio, where we share practical ideas for building a creative process so you can sew with intention and joy.

And today we're talking about five lessons we've learned from having a design process as part of our sewing.

So we're going to be talking about Design Your Wardrobe, which is the process that we both use. But these tips are applicable to any consistent design process that you might follow. We’re going to cover how we use a design process for sewing, the hardest part about design and what we do about it, and our best tips for using design to make your sewing both more practical and more fun.

Okay, our icebreaker for today. So, Haley, you and I both design in seasonal collections. So my icebreaker question for you today is, do you have a favorite collection that you've designed and sewn?

Haley
Oh, I love them all in such different ways. They're like my children.

Sarai
Yeah.

Haley
I think that maybe sometime around 2021, 2022, when it became kind of apparent that work from home was going to be the way of life and working moving forward, for us, at least, I made a collection that was work from home specific, and I like that one because I wear it, elements of it, a lot.

It was only, like, I want to say about four, maybe five pieces. And I incorporated some UFO projects into it, which made it really kind of low hanging fruit. And I wear a lot of those clothes still today. It had a really good balance of form and function, and it fits into my everyday wardrobe. So right now, that's my favorite. But ask me in six months, and I might have a new one.

Sarai
I think it's interesting because I feel like the more you wear the things that you make, the more attachment you have to them.

Haley
That's so true.

Sarai
I've been thinking about that a lot lately, and I find that if I make something and I wear it right away, then it gets me wearing it more often, and then I become more attached to it. So when I make something now, I try to wear it immediately after I've made it, like, the next day or at least that week.

Haley
Yeah. Sarai, coming in with the hot tips already. I love it.

Sarai
Yeah. It's helpful for me because I have a tendency to make something and I see the flaws in it or why it didn't come out exactly the way I imagined it or whatever, and then fixate on that and not wear it because of these weird little negative hang-ups, whereas if I wear it, then I see the beauty in it immediately, and I see how practical it is. So that's helpful for me.

I think my favorite collection that I've designed well, I'm really excited about the one I'm making right now for spring. I'm about halfway through all the projects, and I love each and every one of them. I'm really, really excited about it. But that might just be a recency bias.

I think the one I made last spring, which had a 90s romance theme, might be my favorite. I just feel like it's really me. Everything I made is really, really pretty, and I've worn the things that I've made quite a bit, at least in the warmer months, and found ways to incorporate some of them into the colder months. So I do feel like it was really practical and just made me feel like, it just made me feel like me.

And I think that's really important and big reason why I do design as part of my sewing.

Haley
You are just such a spring girl, so I knew it was going to be a spring collection.

Sarai
It's funny you say that. I guess I am. I really like wearing a dress and sandals because it's so easy. But I do like fall clothing and winter clothing, too, so I do feel like my best when I can just make pretty dresses and wear them with sandals and call it done.

Haley
I had to put myself on, like, a dress diet at some point because all I wanted to sew was dresses all year round. And I'm like, I really don't even have a need for this many dresses. I just love sewing dresses.

Sarai
Yeah, I've been trying to wear more skirts this winter because that's what I like to wear. I do like to wear jeans and pants, too, but I really like to wear skirts. And so I've been trying to wear more skirts with tights and boots, even though I'm usually working from home and the only time I leave the house is to walk my dog. But still, it makes me feel good. So, yeah, it's interesting to think about what season resonates with you the most and why.

Well, that was a really great icebreaker, and if you have an icebreaker question for us, we will probably use it on a future episode if you leave it for us at Seamwork.com/go/icebreakers. If you're a Seamwork member, that will take you to a thread on our community where you can leave your icebreaker question for a future episode for us.

All right, so let's talk about design. So Design Your Wardrobe is the process that we've developed at Seamwork. And we both personally use to really conceptualize and plan what we're going to sew each season. And it's been around as a process for more than five years now. We've been running it for more than five years, and we used to run it twice a year, but now it's so popular that we're actually running it four times a year so that you can plan your sewing each season.

And I really like this because this is how I have been using it, at least for the last couple of years, is to do smaller collections more frequently, which I just think is really a fun way to design. And so we're kind of bringing that to everyone by doing it four times a year now, which I think is really cool.

So in that time, in that five years, we've just learned so much, and most of it is from you guys, from the community, from everybody who participates in Design Your Wardrobe, which has been thousands of people at this point. There's just so much to learn from it.

So how many times have you done Design Your Wardrobe, Haley?

Haley
Well, we've been running it for about five years. I want to say that the first couple years, I did both sessions every year. Since then, I've probably done it once a year, maybe six or seven times. But even on the seasons that I don't participate in a formal sense, I still follow kind of the same framework.

Sarai
Yeah, same for me. I've done it almost every single time. There have been a couple times when things in life happened and I wasn't able to, but even if I'm not able to, I do sort of, like you said, like a sort of informal version or a quicker version of it just to kind of get my ideas down. So I really, really enjoy the process.

Haley
I find, too, that even when I do it kind of informally and solo on my own, I'm always creeping the Seamwork community, because there's a huge community aspect to Design Your Wardrobe and looking at what other people are making and getting inspired by that and commenting on things, just because it is nice to have that sense of being in it together with a group of people.

Sarai
Yeah, absolutely.

Haley
What do you find is the hardest part of Design Your Wardrobe?

Sarai
Ooh, that's a good question. For me, the hardest part is definitely editing. Coming up with ideas is not a problem for me. Developing a concept around those ideas. I think picking out fabric is really fun. Making a palette for the season is really fun for me.

The part that I struggle with is just whittling down all the ideas, and Design Your Wardrobe has a process for that, which is very, very helpful for me. I think I always kind of feel like I can do more than I actually can.

So over time, I've learned to really whittle it down and not take on as much as I might imagine that I might want to. So that's been the biggest struggle over the years for me, but something that Design Your Wardrobe has actually really helped with at the same time.

Haley
Yeah.

Sarai
What about you?

Haley
I would say that my challenges with it are adjacent to yours. I think a lot of times my eyes can be bigger than my stomach, so I have a tendency—I really like editing.

Sarai
Yeah.

Haley
I feel very empowered by making cuts. It makes me feel very in charge.

Sarai
Yeah, you've mentioned that before.

Haley
I am a decision maker, so it's not that part. It's just that I talk myself into, “yeah, I definitely can sew, like, three garments a month over the next three months.” No, I probably can't.

Sarai
Yeah.

Haley
I mean, I could if I had less other hobbies and not a four year old that's, like, attached to me at every moment, a little barnacle. So I think that it's, like, over planning in a sense, and not leaving enough room for the Wild Cards and a little bit more play.

I've learned over the last couple of years, especially, that when it comes to planning, I really like a less is more approach. I really just like making collections of, like, two to three things I'm really excited about and leaving room for things as they come up, because we're always developing new patterns here at Seamwork. And the really fun things about working here is that I got early access to those things. So sometimes I just want to sew that.

Sarai
Yeah. I always try to incorporate what's coming up into my plan. So if you guys want a sneak peek of patterns, you can often see them in my Design Your Wardrobe collections, either on the community.

Haley
Or on YouTube, or look really closely at any YouTube video or behind the scenes video at Seamwork HQ, and you'll see people wearing things in the background.

Sarai
Yeah, I feel the same way. I get really excited about things that we have coming out and want to sew those, or I get excited by an idea I see or a detail that I see and I want to add that in. So I totally agree. Leaving room for those wild cards is really important for me to stay just kind of flexible and creative.

Haley
Yeah. And it's been one of the benefits of repeating this process over and over again is that even though it's something that I have struggled with and have an affinity towards struggling with, I've recognized the pattern enough that I can kind of work around it now.

Sarai
Yeah, exactly.

Haley
What do you find is the benefit of designing in the form of a collection?

Sarai
Oh, I love it. I love to design in the form of a collection because I feel like it's really changed the way I sew and I've made things since doing the Design Your Wardrobe process, but also honing it over time, doing it repeatedly. I've made things that I actually love, love wearing, and that didn't used to be the case. I would make things just because I thought it was cool or I liked the fabric or the pattern seemed really interesting, and I would often make things that didn't really go with anything else in my wardrobe that didn't really match my style exactly. It was just cute.

And that's a fine line, I think, between just what you like and what you actually need or want to wear. And designing in a collection really helps me to think more deeply about those questions before I sew. And that's really the big benefit to me, is that I'm coming up with an overall idea, an overall concept, thinking about how things are going to fit together, thinking about how things are going to work with what I already have, thinking about color and fabric choice and where I'm going to wear it and how I'm going to wear it and what I'm going to do when I'm wearing it.

Just thinking through those kinds of questions before I start sewing is incredibly helpful for me, and it really leads to projects that I wear more, which leads me to be a lot more motivated to keep sewing. So that's been the real benefit for me.

What do you think?

Haley
I agree. I think the intentionality that it lends to your sewing process and your wardrobe specifically, and how all of those elements fit together and reflect your personal style, it's hard to match that when you're sewing in a more, I don't know what I would call it, more intuitive kind of a way.

And I feel like your success rate is just greater.

Sarai
Yeah, absolutely.

Haley
You just find that there's less of those sewing misses. And so many times I feel like we get the question, how do I have more sewing wins? Or I feel like I sew so much, but I never wear it. And to me, there's, like, two main answers to that—or three, there’s three questions. The big one is planning and really honing in on your personal style. The second one is learning about fabric, and the third one is learning how to fit your body and I think that when you can begin to, I'm not going to say master those three elements, because I think that all of those things are a perpetual pursuit in education. But when you intentionally pursue the knowledge of those things, your sewing is just going to become so much better and also so much more rewarding, which is really more important, I mean, to me.

Sarai
Yeah. And when it feels that way, when it feels good, then you just want to keep going. You just want to keep doing it, and it's really become such a positive outlet for your creativity and your self expression. I feel that way more since I've done more design work as part of my sewing than I ever had before.

Haley
Yeah. It's also like the nerdy designer part of me is that's just the way I want to design everything is with a really bird's eye vision of the direction that a brand is going or like my closet is going, or if I'm designing a room, it's just how my brain has been trained to think about these things.

Sarai
Plus, it's really fun.

Haley
It is fun.

Sarai
It is really fun to plan things out and really to come up with a vision and then execute that vision. That's fun.

Haley
Yeah.

Sarai
I think it makes sewing just such a good time.

All right, well, let's share some tips. If you are thinking about incorporating a design process, or maybe if you have one and you're thinking about how you might revamp it or how you might add to it, we're going to share some tips and lessons that we've learned from having a design process.

And the first one I want to share is one we've just touched on just now, which is that when you're designing a collection, less is more. So Haley and I both mentioned that a lot of the times it seems like our eyes are bigger than our stomach when it comes to sewing, and we think we can do a lot more than we actually have time for. So designing a really small, tight collection of pieces, like Haley mentioned, even just two to three things for an entire season, for spring, summer, fall, or winter, that can be enough, especially if you want to leave room for those more spontaneous projects that we talked about. It doesn't have to be a big thing.

I think the important part is really the thinking about it and the planning and really kind of going through the questions with yourself.

And even if you only come up with two or three designs out of that process, that can be where you find the most success. So I think we both are in agreement on that.

Haley
Yeah, I think that the collections I've been the most disappointed in are the ones that I just kind of set myself up for failure.

Sarai
Yeah. Because if you only do half of it, you feel like, well, I didn't really accomplish the vision that I had.

Haley
Even though, like, half of six things is amazing.

Sarai
It's plenty. You don't have to sew a lot.

Haley
No, you don't.

Sarai
I think a lot of people really put a lot of pressure on themselves to do so much. I mean, in life, not just with sewing, you don't necessarily have to sew that many things to have a collection or have a group of things that are really meaningful to you.

Haley
I think most people are surprised to learn that in an average year, I probably sew about ten things. And maybe half of those things are just kind of, like, replenishing basics, like a new beige sweater because my old one is just totally busted, or a new T-shirt for layering. But that's because I've found my sweet spot in the years that I feel, like, more inspired, I sew more, but I don't put that pressure on myself anymore.

Sarai
Yeah, I was surprised. I did a roundup video at the end of 2023 with all my projects, and I was surprised that there were over 20 of them.

Haley
Wow.

Sarai
Because I don't feel like I have sewn that much, but I guess I do. I just really enjoy it, and I think Design Your Wardrobe helps me to sew a little bit more than I used to. 20 is not like, I'm not sewing like a new project every single week. So there's really a range, and where you fit in that range is very personal to you. And if you do find yourself stressing out about how much you are or aren't sewing, maybe just take it down to the bottom of that range.

Haley
Yeah, I agree.

Sarai
And try that on for size.

Haley
I think that's such a great tip.

I'm going to jump into our next tip or our next takeaway, which is having a design process helps you to be super specific.

So, I find that it helps you one to really hone in on your personal style. Having an intentional design process that you follow time and time again helps you to notice those patterns a lot more clearly.

And on top of that, it helps you to recognize what you actually need. I think something I really like about the Design Your Wardrobe process in particular, is that it really helps you to take a look at your closet and what you currently have and incorporate that into your sewing plans really.

Another way that I think it helps you to be super specific is it really encourages you to design for specific contexts in your life. So, for instance, I've done, like, loungewear collections. I've know that there's some Seamworkers who have done, like, a single date night or a lingerie collection or a collection of pants. And so I think that it gives you a little bit of that permission to really get into your niche for that season.

Sarai
Yeah. And also to think about what is important to you in your life at that moment, which I think sometimes, for example, with your work from home collection or with a loungewear collection, it can help you to really just think about what would I actually wear right now? What am I actually going to get use out of in my life right now? What's going to be motivating to me right now in a way that you might not if you were just sewing whatever looked cool to you at the time.

So I think that's a really helpful part of it.

The next takeaway we have is the more you do it, the more it really becomes a core part of your sewing. So I think for a lot of people, when they first start any kind of design process, it feels a little bit clunky, a little bit difficult, but it does get easier the more you do it, and it kind of becomes ingrained. And over time, it actually becomes part of the way you look at things and evaluate new projects and new ideas. And you really become a lot better at editing and figuring out what you want to do, how you want to prioritize things, how you want to use your time.

Sort of like going back to what I was talking about before, where I feel like editing can be difficult for me. I think having a design process, and especially a really structured design process like Design Your Wardrobe, forces me to make those choices, and then I become more comfortable making those choices over time.

So, if you're like me and you're kind of a more, more, and more person, and you always want to do more, then having structure around your creative process is really essential, at least for me. And it really just helps you to learn where to focus your energy and your time. And I do feel like doing it a few times and having it be this cyclical thing that I do every season has ingrained new behaviors and new habits and new ways of thinking for me.

Haley
That's what I was going to add, is that even outside of following this specific process, you'll find that the decision making process through your Wild Card type projects is also going to change, which a win is a win. And if I can have more of them. I'm here for it.

Sarai
Yeah, you're right. I think even with those kind of one-off, spontaneous wild card projects you add in, you start to see them in the context of everything else that you're designing and creating. And you might make different choices because of that. You might see something, and maybe this thing would have appealed to you, but you don't really see yourself wearing it with all these other things that you're making, or you see something and you realize that, oh, well, I can make it in this fabric, then it'll go with this other thing that I'm making. And I think you start to make those choices a little differently, too.

Haley
Yeah, definitely. Even the seasons that I do a lighter planning or even no planning, it really affects my decision making process.

Okay, so our next takeaway is that, and this kind of leads right into what I was saying, your experience will always change. It'll be different from season to season, year to year, and even different from everyone else who's experiencing it at the same moment as you.

Something that I find is that the different parts of the process will resonate with you at different times. Some seasons, I'm really into mood boarding, in conceptualizing, the really high level stuff, and sometimes I already have kind of a direction I want to go, and I can glaze over that part a little bit more. But I get really into creating my sewing queue and creating some structure for myself to follow. And it just, for me, comes in waves and allows me to kind of settle into those a little bit. And being familiar with the process really helps with that.

Another thing I've noticed is that sometimes you get, like, it can be kind of emotional because it requires a lot of self-reflection. And at certain times of your life, that can be an emotional process.

Sometimes it's just purely practical. It's all business, and sometimes you just get to have fun with it. You don't take it quite as seriously.

Leaning into those bursts of creativity and the feelings that you're naturally associating in that particular moment, I feel like it just like, I don't know. I like feeding off of that. When I'm practicing creativity and leaning into those feelings, I think it leads to authenticity in our life and what we create. So kind of just go with the flow, man.

Sarai
Yeah, I've noticed that, too. It definitely feels different for me at different times. And oftentimes it's a reflection of larger themes in my life, things that are going on in my life or changes I'm noticing in myself or in my life. And it becomes kind of a really interesting way to almost journal through some of those changes and watch yourself evolve through your personal style and the things that you're creating, which I think is really interesting.

Haley
Yeah, I enjoy the introspection of it.

Sarai
Yeah, me too.

And our final takeaway is that I think a process like this is a lot better with other people, with friends. And so I think for Design Your Wardrobe in particular, the community aspect of it really brings it all together. And having a community around you to do this with is just really fun. And you walk away with so many new ideas, even beyond the scope of the program itself. I really enjoy that aspect of it, and I feel really inspired by the things that other people make and the things that other people plan. Even if it's totally different for me, it's really interesting to see how people think about it and how it reflects who they are as individuals. I will never forget. The one that came to mind as we were talking about this earlier was Marcella's Big Cat Energy collection.

Haley
Such a good collection and name for a collection.

Sarai
I loved that, and that's something I would never have come up with on my own. But just seeing that is so cool and so inspiring and forces me to think a little bit more outside the box, a little bit differently from how I normally would.

So I really, really love that aspect of Design Your Wardrobe in particular, and that there's this community built around it that really is sharing in that creativity and kind of feeding each other with creativity. It's really cool.

If you have taken Design Your Wardrobe before and it didn't really click, you might try leaning into that community aspect more heavily. And I think that the people who really participate in the community and share and cheer each other on are the people who get the most out of it, in my experience.

I would encourage anybody who's thinking about doing it or has done it before, you want to do it next season to try that out. It's really, really cool and really helpful.

So those are our five takeaways for having a design process around your sewing. I'm just going to recap them for you guys real quick.

The first one is that less is more. And remember that you are constrained by the amount of time that you have.

Number two is that it helps to be really specific. So Design Your Wardrobe or a design process like this really helps you to become more specific in your designs.

Number three is the more you do it, the more it becomes a core part of your sewing, and it's that repeated, cyclical nature of it that really changes your thinking around what you're creating.

Number four is that your experience does change over time, and it's going to be different from anyone else's.

And number five is that it's really fun with a community built around you, and that can really add to the entire design experience.
So those are our big takeaways about Design Your Wardrobe. What's your number one takeaway today, Haley?

Haley
It's not really a new takeaway for me, but it's something I'd like to revisit and emphasize to people that if you have the feeling that you are maybe a little disappointed with the things that you're making, the three areas that I always recommend focusing on is creating and following a design or following a design process. You don't need to create it yourself, because we've made a really great one for you, if I do say so myself.

Learn about fabric, learn about fitting your body. If you can pursue those three things, I promise you, a year from now, you're going to be so much happier with the things that you make.

Sarai
Yeah, absolutely.

I think, for me, one takeaway that kind of came up as we were talking today that I think would be really interesting is to go back and look through my previous collections and kind of see the evolution not just of my style, but of my life throughout that time. I think that would be really interesting.

I honestly have not done a great job of cataloging all of them because I do them analog in a binder, and then usually I don't know what happens to those papers. I throw them out, maybe eventually. I don't know. I don't know what I do or recycle them, but I do post them in the community.

So I would like to kind of go back and revisit some of the collections I've done before and be a really interesting way of looking back at my life.

All right, well, I just want to mention the community one more time before we go today, because we have some of the nicest and most helpful sewists that you can imagine in our private community. Whether you're participating in Design Your Wardrobe or not, just year round, it's a great place to go.

Ask questions, get cheered on, share your projects. And our team, along with thousands of Seamworkers, are there to talk to you every single day.

So you can ask any question about sewing. There's absolutely no judgment, and you'll always get some amazing answers.

And you can also share your finished projects, you can create goals, and we'll even email you reminders to keep you on track with those goals if you want.

It's the perfect place to go if you need a quick boost of creative energy. So definitely join us there if you have the chance.

And if you like this episode, you can leave us a review. We have a review today from Gemma's Grammy. Thank you, Gemma's Grammy for the five star rating. She says, “I absolutely love this podcast. Anchored by two knowledgeable and professional sewing women. There's just enough fun to keep it light. I love the way you structure each podcast with an icebreaker, then kind of an outline for the info you're going to share. Thank you.”

Oh, that's great. Thank you so much. That's a really sweet review. And if you would like to leave us a review of your own, we read all of them and they really, really help keep us motivated and we just absolutely love them.

We super, super appreciate everybody who takes the time to leave us a rating and review. It's really appreciated and it helps other people find the podcast too.

And that does it for us this week. I'm Sarai.

Haley
And I'm Haley.

Sarai
And this is Seamwork Radio.