When Sarai and Haley approached the 100th episode of the podcast, they asked a question on the Community.

“What questions would you like us to answer on the show? The questions could be personal, about the podcast, about Seamwork, about sewing, or anything else you’d like us to answer.”

As usual, you delivered some creative questions for them to answer.

Podcast Transcript

Sarai
Welcome back to Seamwork Radio, where we share practical ideas for building a creative process so you can find more joy and intention in sewing. And today we have a really special episode because we're celebrating our 100th episode of Seamwork Radio! Yay. I cannot believe that we're on 100 episodes. That is so incredible. Just thank you guys for listening, because it's really been such a pleasure. Having this podcast and communicating with you all this way has just been so much fun. I know I speak for both of us when I say that it's one of the highlights of my job, I so love it.

So today we thought to celebrate our 100th episode, we thought we would answer some of your questions that have been posted in the Seamwork community in the last few weeks. So we put a shout-out for questions there, and we got a lot of great questions. We got so many that we couldn't fit them all in. So we may do a follow up episode sometime. So just let us know if you enjoy these Q&As, and if you do, then we'll do more in the future. All right, so let's jump in with our Q&A.

Sarai
I'm going to read the questions, but we're both going to try and answer as much as we can. Some of them are directed to you, Haley, and some of them are directed more to me, so we'll kind of switch off as we go.

So our first question is from Marcella, and Marcella says, “How scripted is the podcast, and how much is ad lib?”

You want to take that, Haley?

Haley
Yeah. So the podcast, I would say it's not very scripted. We do one or two weeks before we record. Sarai and I meet, and we go over the topic that has already been decided upon, and we create kind of an outline of some tips and some ideas. We select what the icebreaker is going to be, that kind of stuff. But it's not scripted. I think that we speak mostly kind of off-the-cuff, wouldn't you say?

Sarai
Yeah, I would say so. It's bullet points, basically. Like a bullet point outline is all that it is. And I think the only thing is that sometimes we get to talking while we're writing it, and then we talked through everything we were going to say on the podcast, and then we forget if we were to recorded it because we think, oh, we recorded that episode. No, we didn't. We just talked a lot while we were writing the outline for it.

Haley
And this hasn't just happened once. This has happened, like, a handful of times.

Sarai
We're really bad at remembering which ones we recorded and which ones we haven't.

Haley
Because, sadly, our jobs are not just recording. And not sadly, the other parts of our jobs are fun, too. This one's just extra fun. It's not just recording the podcast. So our podcast days, or every other week, we meet for a couple of hours, and sometimes it just gets kind of like lost in the shuffle, but not incredibly scripted.

Sarai
Yeah. I personally like just sitting here and chatting with you, Haley. It's so much fun, and it just makes the podcast such a joy to record. So I don't know. Hopefully that comes through for everybody. I don't think I could do a scripted podcast unless it was more of a storytelling sort of podcast, like some of our earlier episodes.

So, our next question: “Have you ever been so surprised by your co-host that you’re speechless or rolling on the floor, laughing, and need a pause? What episode?”

This is such a great question because I tend to laugh a lot. I feel like this happens really often, and there have definitely been times where we've been teary eyed from laughing, but it's hard to remember exactly when because it seems to happen pretty often.

Haley
Yeah. Pretty frequently, I would say.

Sarai
Haley's got a lot of great stories.

Haley
Yeah. If you haven't noticed.

Sarai
You do have really funny stories, though. And I often find myself having to stop and take a break because I'm laughing.

Haley
It's because I do stupid things, because at one point in my life, I had very poor boundaries. I feel like it got me into a lot of pickles, but it made for some okay stories.

Sarai
Yeah, there's always a benefit to that kind of thing.

Haley
Misadventure.

Sarai
Yeah, misadventure. Exactly. That's a great question, though. I wish I had a specific example. I think the story of you splitting your skirt when you were dancing in the bathroom. I don't remember what episode that was. I think it might have come up a couple of times, but that was a good one because I could just picture it in my mind.

Haley
I'm pretty animated. It's not, like, very far fetched imagining me, like, doing the butterfly in a public restroom.

Sarai
Thank you for those questions, Marcella. So, our next question comes from Jeanine, and Jeanine asks, “What is something about you we wouldn't know by what we see here or hear on the podcast?”

So you start that one, Haley.

Haley
Two things come to mind. The first one applies to both of us, and that is that we both talk with our hands a lot.

Sarai
Oh, yeah.

Haley
Even as I'm speaking, my hand is wildly waving in front of the camera. So that's the first one. The second one is, I have kind of a bad potty mouth, and I really try to keep it chill on the podcast. Not bad. But I don't really make it a point to watch my language in particular in any other circumstance other than recording this podcast.

Sarai
That's interesting. Yeah. I don't really think about it. I guess maybe I don't curse that much because I don't really think about watching my mouth during the podcast.

Haley
No, you don't. You're so polite.

Sarai
I do occasionally, but I reserve it for certain occasions when it's really warranted. Is there anything else? What do you think?

Haley
I'm sure there's a lot of things. I'm sure there's a lot of things, but, you know, I really do make it a point in my life—maybe I don't make it a point—something about me is that I'm pretty consistent. Like, the way that I show up for my work and the way that I show up to my family and my friends, pretty much everyone gets the same Haley. So I feel like if you listen to this podcast pretty frequently, you actually have a decent idea of who I am as a person. So pretty open book.

Sarai
I would say that's true about you. You're very authentic. I don't know if that's the right word, maybe, but yeah, you're kind of an open book, which I think is a wonderful quality to have.

Haley
Thanks. Some people appreciate it, maybe others don't. I don't know. It's none of my business what they think.

Sarai
Yeah, they're not telling you, and that's a good thing. Hopefully they're not telling you.

So for me, let's see what's something you wouldn't know by what we see here or hear on the podcast. There are a few things. I guess one thing that I think people are often surprised about is that I'm a fairly sporty person. I really enjoy exercise. And a couple of things I really enjoy are the outdoors. I'm becoming more and more outdoorsy. I really like being outside. And then the other thing is that I really enjoy lifting weights, and I lift pretty heavy weights. I've been doing it for a few years, several years now, and I'm pretty strong. So that's something that I think a lot of people would not guess about me at all and are often really surprised when they learn how much I can deadlift. That's one thing that I think most people aren't aware of.

Another thing that people are often not aware of. I don't know if this is important or anything, but I'm a huge Bruce Springsteen fan. My phone wallpaper is a picture of me with Bruce Springsteen. I met him at Powell's, and he did a book tour. And I just love Bruce. And every time we rent a car and it has serious radio on it, I tune it to E Street Radio and listen to Bruce Springsteen. And it's my jam. I really love Bruce. So I think most people wouldn't guess that. I don't know. Maybe you should answer. Is there anything else about me that you think is not super obvious?

Haley
No. I mean, I think that we talk about a lot of our interests and things outside of sewing on this podcast pretty frequently. Those are some good ones, for sure.

Sarai
Yeah. You know, I'm into, like, home studying type of things a little bit now that I live in the country. But I feel like I've mentioned stuff like that. I love gardening, all those things. I think going back to the physical activity stuff, I just think strength is really important to me and being a strong person both inside and out and just feeling the confidence that comes from being able to do those things if you can is important to me. So I think that's something that maybe is not a value that comes through in my sewing life as much because it's just not as applicable. So I think that's something that maybe is like one of the few values that I have that people might not be as aware of.

Haley
Sarai is tough.

Sarai
I just try to be. I endeavor to be.

Let's go to the next question, which is also from Jeanine and she says—and this is kind of related because it's something I've been thinking about ever since she asked, “If you had your druthers and could have a podcast about a non-sewing topic, what would it be?”

So ever since I read this question from Jeanine a few weeks ago, I have been thinking about this and thinking about it because it's just such an interesting—I don't know, I have so many interests. It was hard for me to think of what that would be. I think maybe something related to health, either mental health or physical health would be a really interesting topic. I'm not sure exactly what spin I would put on it because there's already a lot of stuff out there in that space and I think a lot of it is kind of, I mean, the mental health stuff not so much, but the physical, like the fitness world is kind of a mess.

I feel like something in that area would be really, really interesting to me, mostly just because I like to learn about it. And so I think it was a topic I would want to learn about. It would be a good topic to have a podcast about because it gives you an opportunity to learn. What do you thin, Haley? Can you think of what you would do?

Haley
I'm very interested in storytelling. I love nothing more than listening to people's stories. I think that the lives that we lead are so fascinating and there's so much to be learned from listening to other people's experiences. So I think it would be something to do with providing a platform for other people to share stories of their own, personal stories. Obviously that idea isn't really well developed, it's fairly broad, but I think it would be somewhere in that series. I can see you having a podcast about books. You're such like a bookworm.

Sarai
I am a bookworm.

Haley
Every time I talk to you, you're like, I'm reading this book. I'm like, dang it.

Sarai
Yeah, I do read a lot. That would be good. I used to subscribe to a podcast that was well, I've subscribed to a few podcasts that are about books that are just book reviews or interviews with authors, things like that. And that's a good idea. Maybe I will do that in my next life. When you say storytelling, do you mean, like an interview-style podcast or more of, like, a narrative storytelling type podcast?

Haley
Probably more narrative and, like, letting people tell their stories in their own words, where I would do an interview and then cut things together to create a narrative for them. I could interview people, though. I love interviewing people. I think it's really fun conversations with people.

Sarai
One podcast that I really like that combines some of my interests with that format is the Outside podcast, from Outside Magazine, I think it's just called the [Outside Podcast](https://www.outsideonline.com/collection/outside-podcast/) and they do that sort of narrative storytelling about different outdoor adventures, and I'm kind of obsessed with stories of misadventure in the wild, kind of like outdoor horror stories. Outside actually has an entire section of their blog called The Horror Vault. I think it's just, like, horrific stories of things that have happened to people outside. I don't know why I get a kick out of it, but I feel like that would be a great genre for me to tackle. I love mysteries. I love stories of misadventure and conquering the elements. It's my jam.

Haley
I love mysteries. I mostly read mysteries. Those are my twinkies that I read for just, like, turn my brain off at night, every night. Eric, my husband, asked me, what are you reading? And I always say mysterious mysteries. I'm too tired to explain the plot. Just mysterious mysteries.

Sarai
Yeah. I like historical mysteries. Not as books, but, like, podcasts that are about historical mysteries and things like that. It's really fun. Well, thank you so much for that question, Jeanine. It really made me think a lot, probably more than you intended. I'm still thinking about it.

Alright, the next question is for you, Haley, which is, "Do you plan to teach Charley how to sew? Why or why not?”

Haley
I do get this question fairly frequently. For those of you who don't know. Charley is my daughter. If she wanted to learn how to sew, I would, of course, teach her. It's not something that I want to push on her. It's more important to me that pursuing your interests and taking time to do things that you love is a behavior that's modeled to her—that she sees me sewing and gardening and cooking and doing and drawing, doing all of the things that I love doing and seeing me enjoying them and knowing that it's always a worthwhile pursuit to find things that bring you joy. My husband also has, of course, his own interests, which he pursues as well. And it's just really important to me that she knows that she's not just like—life isn't her work. Her life is her life. She's not just like a cog in a capitalist machine. That's what's most important to me, that she finds her own thing. And if it's sewing, then that's, like that would be rad. I love it, but whatever it is, I'll encourage it.

Sarai
Yeah. Not just work, but school, too, which is sort of the training ground for work.

Haley
Yeah.

Sarai
I think a lot of kids have to get that pressure to focus solely on school and not pursue their own interests outside of school at all, unless it's related to getting into college or doing sports or something like that.

Haley
Absolutely. I grew up in a household where athleticism was very important, and back then, I didn't really think of myself as a particularly athletic person. I have different opinions on that now. I don't like team sports. They don't interest me. I like individual things. And I felt like a lot of my talents, it took me longer to discover them because that was the only route—athleticism. That is your interest. And everything else is kind of like, whatever not really an option. So I just want her to know she has options.

Sarai
Yeah. I think for me, I was definitely steered away from some of the things I was interested in, like art. I really enjoyed my art classes, and I went to a school that had a math and science magnet program, which, I like math and science, too, but I was kind of, like, forcibly enrolled in it and taken out of all my art classes. And it was definitely not something I was encouraged to pursue professionally in any way. And so I don't know if that would have been the right path for me anyway. But I think just that pressure to do what's going to make you the most successful in the long run can have unintended consequences.

Haley
I don't think that this is, I don't know, it doesn't seem as prominent to me anymore. But there was always the sense that you could only be good at one thing.

Sarai
Yes.

Haley
I always was really excelled at writing and English literature and things like that. That was my thing. And I was like, why can't I have more than one thing? Because I'm not a one-dimensional person.

Sarai
Yeah, definitely. At least when I was in high school, that dichotomy—if you were good at math, you couldn't be good at English. I don't know where these ideas come from, but I feel like that's a big part of how I got sort of railroaded to pursuing certain things that I wasn't as interested in and giving up things that I was. I think it's great that you bring that attitude towards Charley. I think she's a lucky lady.

Haley
Thanks.

Sarai
Alright, so our next question also comes from Jeanine, and Jeanine asks me, “Will there be another book? What topic or why not?”

Well, Jeanine, I've thought about this and I think there definitely will be other books of some kind in my future because I love writing. It is like my favorite thing to do, whether it's writing out the outlines for these podcast episodes or something for YouTube, down to writing long-form, I love it. And so that really draws me towards the idea of writing another book. But I don't think at least right now, I'd be interested in doing a how-to book. Again, the reason why is—I’ve talked about this a little bit—but when I wrote my first book, The Colette Sewing Handbook, years ago, it was very a difficult experience for me to accomplish that at the same time as running the business. It was just a lot. I did a lot for that book besides writing it handled all of the photography, coordinated the models, the samples, the photographer stylist, all of it, renting the space for it. It was a really big undertaking. So for that reason and also, I think there are just so many great how-to books out there already.

There's so many wonderful books out there already on sewing that that's not really something I'm interested in doing right now. But I'm very interested in some of the other things around sewing that we often talk about on this podcast. Some of the more mindset issues and the process around sewing. What sewing does for you. How it can help you. Why you should pursue it. How to fall in love with it. I think those are all really interesting topics that I don't see written about as much. I think generally, crafts and the idea of crafting, creating things just for the sake of creating them, or because you enjoy the process and the effects that that has on your wellbeing and on your mental health is not something that I see a lot of resources on. And so that's a topic I'm really interested in and might pursue at some point in the future when I have some time to do that—which is not right now. I don't have anything like that in the works at the moment, but I think it would be a really cool thing and something I would really enjoy. So that's my answer to that one.

Although I think writing that book, the how-to book, was an incredible experience and I learned so much from it, and I'm glad that I did it. It was just difficult in terms of the amount of work and time that it took for me.

Haley
Yeah.

Sarai
Alright, so our next question. This one's going to be thrown out to you, Haley. “What is one sewing tool you wish existed?”

Haley
Well, this probably won't be a surprise to anyone who listens frequently, but I do not like cutting. So I would love some kind of, like, robot that just cut my sewing projects for me.

Sarai
That must exist, right? Aren't there robot cutters? I'm sure there are, right?

Haley
Yeah. I mean, there's a big fabric saw, that cuts many layers. And I think there's some amount of automation that can be built into that. But on a personal one-off level, that would be really cool, like a laser cutter, like taking the concept of projector files one step further. And if it just, like, shot out a laser beam and cut out my fabric, that would be really cool. That'd be my dream. I'd sew so much more.

Sarai
Really? Wow. You must really hate cutting.

Haley
It's time-consuming and it takes up a lot of space. It’s a barrier for me. It's a barrier for a lot of people. So that would be really cool if I could just set up for it once a month and my little robot could cut a few projects for me.

Sarai
Yeah, that's a cool idea. I think for me, the things that came to mind are, like, tools that I've used that they don't really make anymore. Like those bound buttonhole makers. It's basically like a little jig, that little metal jig for creating bound buttonholes. I used to have one. They used to make them. I don't think they make them anymore. They might have started making them, I don't know. But things like that I feel like would be a good addition to the sewing market. There's, like little basically pre-made jigs for doing things like pleating or, welt pockets. And when I say jig, it's like kind of like a pre-made template that you can fold your fabric over to create exactly the shape you want. So I think things like that would be really neat.

I think also a better marking tool for fabric. There are some okay ones. I really love the Clover pencils. Those are pretty good. But I just wish there was something that was even better that would stay on your fabric as long as you want it, but wash out really cleanly. Be easy to see, easy to use. I haven't found the perfect marketing tool yet, but the Clover pencils are pretty close. They're pretty good.

Haley
Yeah, those, and then I think it's also Clover that makes it the Wonder Marker. That's my favorite when I'm using light fabrics because it washes out pretty well. But there's no real substitute for when you're working with dark fabrics, which is for me is often.

Sarai
Yeah. So those would be my choices.

Alright, so the next one—the last question was from Brianna—this next question is from Annabelle. And she asks, “If you were stranded on a desert island, what would be your discs?”

So I think she means albums, like music albums. She linked to a show on the BBC about this. So from what I could gather, that was the question. What would be the albums you would bring? Gosh, that is a hard question. I would start with a Bruce Springsteen album, obviously. Maybe The River. The River and Nebraska are my two favorite Bruce Springsteen albums. But Nebraska is very dark, so I don't know if I'd want to listen to that too much if I'm stranded on a desert island, because it sounds pretty isolating to begin with. So maybe I'd bring The River, which can also be a little bit dark. Probably like a Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds album because he's another one of my favorite artists. That would probably be another one. And then let's choose a third. I'd probably go with Tom Waits. Maybe Rain Dogs. I think that would probably be my third choice.

Haley
I didn't know we had to come up with three.

Sarai
Well, she said discs plural, so that's only more than one.

Haley
That's true. Well, I'm a huge Joni Mitchell fan, so I'd have to choose something of hers. Probably Blue. I could recite the entire album from start to finish. That would be one for me. I love folk music, so I would be tempted to just bring, like, all folk music, but then I would be so sad.

Sarai
Yeah.

Haley
Maybe something like PJ. Harvey or something. And then I'd mix it up in, like, a Lil Kim album, like Hardcore or something like that, which is great. It's a great album. And I listen to it when I make Thanksgiving dinner. That gives me a good snapshot of my musical preferences, I guess.

Sarai
Actually, you made me think of another one that I would have to bring, which I would have to bring a Kate Bush album.

Haley
Yeah. I was surprised that wasn't in there.

Sarai
I can't believe I forgot Kate Bush. She's also one of my all time favorites. I’d probably bring Hounds of Love.

Haley
Yeah, it's great. I love she's trending with the younger generation. Right now, all of these teenagers are discovering Kate Bush, and it's so rad.

Sarai
She is an incredible artist. Just incredible and just a shining example of doing your own thing and being who you are and having your own artistic voice. There's just nobody like Kate Bush. I like that you said PJ. Harvey, too. I love PJ.

Haley
Yeah. This is when I play her in the car, and Charley is like, this is angry mommy music.

Sarai
Very angry.

Haley
Very angry mommy music. Well, you're not wrong. Charley really likes Paul Simon. That's her. She, like, always wants me to play Paul Simon. Totally appropriate for her, which is totally appropriate. I love Paul Simon, too, so everyone wins.

Sarai
Yeah. I love Paul Simon. Alright, so our next question is for you, Haley, and it says: "I feel like Seamwork patterns are always exactly on trend. Where do you get your inspiration from? Ready-to-wear magazines, social media. What does the creative process look like? Do you ever have too many or too few ideas for a month? And what do you do when that happens?”

Haley
Well, first of all, thank you. I'm glad that you think that they're on trend, and hopefully that means you enjoy them. So where do I get my inspiration from? Basically, we don't pay for any trend forecasting services here. A lot of times when you work in ready to wear, if you work in the larger company, you pay for trend forecasting services. They tell you what's the colors, the different trending styles, things like that. So I basically kind of do my own trend forecast. And how I do that is I look at ready to wear clothing. I look at a lot of varying price points and kind of try to predict what I think the trend pipeline is. Usually trends start out as more like high concept and then filter their way down to a more palatable version for the general public for everyday wear, so I kind of just look at that pipeline and identify some of the commonalities that I'm seeing in clothing in general. And usually that results in five different mood boards where I can kind of, like, draw inspiration from in addition to looking into trends, which is important, but I'm not super married to.

I also look at customer feedback. I look at what, historically, people have really liked that we've done. I look at our existing catalog and see what the holes are, what we need more of, what I don't need to design more of. And that's how all of those elements help me to come up with concepts. And I usually concept three to six months at a time, and usually I end up with too many concepts. So, for example, for a six month period, I need to have twelve concepts. Usually I end up with, like, somewhere in the ballpark between 15 and 20, and I narrow it from there and I kind of see what things play well together and then get team feedback, and I go from there. I have very rarely in my life come up with too few ideas. That's not something that I try not to, like, have this self-limiting belief that there is a finite number of ideas in the world. There's always, like, more ideas to be had. So I don't even think of running out of ideas as a possibility.

That's like a little snapshot of what my process looks like distilled down to its core. Is there anything I'm missing from there?

Sarai
No, I think that's a great snapshot of what it looks like. Yeah, that's exactly right. So hopefully that answers the question.
Our next question is: “It seems that you followed your passion and made a job out of it. In what way has this changed your love for and perception of sewing, fabrics, patterns?”

So that question is from Nina. So, I can start off answering this one. To be honest, Nina, I don't think that my career has dampened my love of sewing or fabrics or patterns at all. If anything, just the opposite, because I've been able to think more deeply about them than I probably otherwise would. So I can see why a lot of people do struggle with us when they make their hobby into a job. I think the difference for me is that I don't sew for a living. My job is not actually doing the sewing. So when I sew, I'm sewing for myself. Sometimes the things I sew for myself might show up in a YouTube video or something like that, but I'm primarily just sewing because I enjoy it and sewing for myself. And I think if maybe that I was sitting all day at a machine and sewing for somebody else, then that would be different.

So I feel like my job is much more about the creative aspects of running a company and less about actually making sewing into a job, if that makes sense to you. I don't feel like it's diminished my love for the craft one bit. What about you, Haley?

Haley
I think that there is probably there's definitely been times where I've been burnt out on it, but I have developed a pretty healthy relationship with my professional sewing versus my personal sewing that allows me to have a little bit, I don't know, just a little bit more balance there. I think it's something that you definitely have to watch out for. I think that if anything, it's dampened my desire to share on a personal level on social media, which I feel like, for me, the line there has become like a little bit blurry between personal and professional when it comes to sharing my sewing. So that's really like the only place where I've, like, had. I haven't quite figured it out, to be honest. But that's okay because sharing or not sharing my sewing, it doesn't bum me out. Not something that I feel like I need to have a solution to. It's kind of like a non-problem. I feel like I should, but I also know that's not based on what I want to do. It's based on what I think expectations of me are. But yeah, I still love sewing. I love sewing more and more every year, to be honest.

I love it for what it has, the gifts that it has given me, and what it has allowed me to do with my life. I'm just so incredibly thankful. 20 years ago, I thought I could have never imagined this as my career. It's like, beyond what I could have hoped for, truly. I feel just super, incredibly lucky.

Sarai
Yeah, me too. It's interesting what you said about social media, because I hadn't really thought about that. I don't know if you could say I left social media, but I don't use Instagram, which was the only real social media that I used before and I no longer use Instagram and I guess it's partly due to work. I don't know. I think it was a matter of not wanting to spend my time looking at my phone. I think that was the major part of it. And then another part of it was just like it kind of freaked me out. This isn't really related to work so much, but maybe kind of the way that people were forming relationships in place of real life relationships using social media. So like, friends who would just communicate on social media and never call you or never want to actually get together, it was just kind of like freaking me out a little. So that's like a big part of why I left, because I wanted to have more of those real life experiences and not rely on a tool like that. And I feel like there's some crossover there with work stuff just because obviously we have a very public Instagram account and the boundaries there, like you said, could get a little bit shaky.

Haley
Yeah, I think there was also this shift in the way we use social media as a collective, where it became less personal and it became more about creating a personal brand. Like, you're not a person, you're a brand. And that was just really a hard hurdle for me to get over. So I just didn't get over it. Yes, I'm still on social media. I'm a lurker though. I post infrequently.

Sarai
I was having dinner with my dad yesterday as my dad's in town and he asked me, he was looking at his phone. He follows like, a lot of dog accounts on social media. Mostly it seems like all dogs on his feed. He asked me, these young women who post on social media pictures of themselves every day, he's like, what do they get out of it? Why do they do it? Some of them he was talking about, I think, influencers, some of them get paid to do that and some of them just like the attention and trying to explain it to him. But I don't know if there is like one answer to it. But it was funny to hear his perspective.

Haley
Yeah, funny.

Sarai
Anyway, not to bash social media. I know there are a lot of real benefits to social media and I say I don't use social media, but obviously I use things like YouTube and I use Pinterest and it's not like I don't ever look at my phone. So I'm not trying to be high and mighty about it at all. I don't feel that way. It's just personally what things that were affecting me that I don't want to engage in as much as I used to.

Alright, so our next question comes from Miranda and she asks, “What's your process for who you name patterns after” This one's for you, Haley.

Haley
Okay, so as you may or may not know, we have a group of Seamwork brand ambassadors, and sometimes people re-up their ambassadorship and they work with us for a few years, but the ambassador program renews every year. And when people come on as ambassadors, I send out a little survey to our ambassadors and ask them whether or not they'd be comfortable with me naming a pattern after them. I asked them a couple of questions about their personal style, what they like to sew, and from that, I kind of match ambassadors to patterns. I also sometimes name patterns after my coworkers if something in particular reminds me of them. And sometimes I have a pattern that makes me think of no one in particular, and then I just come up with a name I'm very partial to, kind of like I don't know. I mean, gender is dead, but, like, gender-neutral names or kind of ambiguous names or things that I'm on a personal level, very attracted to. I named my daughter Charley after all. But, yeah, that's kind of my process. I always do a little search to see if there's any other patterns out there with the same name because I would like to avoid any confusion between patterns and don't want to step on people's toes.

But naming patterns is, like, actually kind of stressful. It stresses me out a little bit.

Sarai
Really? Why?

Haley

I don't know.

You kind of never know when a pattern is going to be, like, a real hit, and then I don't know. I feel like the name is important. It's like kind of high pressure. I want it to be something that's unique that people can pronounce it's obvious. Make sure that I'm choosing an obvious spelling for it, that kind of stuff.

Sarai
Yeah.

Alright, so we have one more question before we wrap-up today. So the next question is: “If you had one week entirely to yourself, no obligations or expectations from anyone, what would you do?”

Well, Nadia asked this question and I can answer first, Nadia, because I just basically did that. My dad and my brother and I just came back from a four day backpacking trip and it was my first backpacking trip ever, and it was so fun. We went to the North Cascades in Washington, which, if you're not familiar with the Pacific Northwest, it's a beautiful national park that is very far north. It's almost in Canada. It's very close to Canada. And we hiked around. We were on a lake, camped. I learned all about backpacking and what to bring and what not to bring. And I packed way too much food, way more food than we needed, which was a huge lesson learned for me. I was in charge of the food for this trip because my brother and my dad will basically barely eat if left their own devices. And I am not like that. So I prepped, like, a ton of food.

We could not fit it all in our bear canisters. It was kind of an issue, but that was just an amazing experience because there was, like, other than getting from one campsite to the next, there was no real agenda, and we just spent a lot of time once we made camp, just not doing anything, just looking at the water, just hanging out. I brought a book. I read a book a little bit. It was just extremely peaceful and tranquil and beautiful, and the outdoors were amazing. It was just an incredible place, and there weren't very many people there at all. It was really not crowded because it was pretty early in the season. So that's what I chose to do with my week off. So I think that answers the question for me.

What about you, Haley?

Haley
Having a week entirely to myself sounds so just delicious. It sounds decadent. I would probably get on a plane and go somewhere that I've never been before, and I have a little adventure. I would get out in the world. A lot of my life is pretty, like, quiet. I do a lot of reading and sewing and writing and drawing and those more introspective kind of activities. So I would want to go have a little adventure.

Sarai
Yeah, adventure is important.

Haley
It is.

Sarai
I think that's what I loved about backpacking. It's an adventure, and it's also doing something that's hard. I don't know. I enjoy doing things that are hard, I guess. Seems to be the case, anyway.

Haley
Yeah. I love doing things that are hard. I think that challenges make life worthwhile for me.

Sarai
A balance of challenges.

Haley
Yeah, of course.
Sarai
Everything in balance, I guess. Well, that was our last question, so thank you, everybody who submitted questions for us. As I said, we couldn't get to all the questions, but this is a really good sampling of them, and maybe we'll do another one sometime. Let us know if you like it, and we'll plan some more.

Haley
Yeah, guess. Thank you so much to everyone who wrote in for sharing your questions, whether we got to them or not. Also a big thank you to everyone who listens every week. You guys are so amazing, and we're so happy to be able to continue doing this podcast. And cheers to hopefully another 100.

Sarai
Yeah, I can't wait to get to episode 200.