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It is the time of year to talk about the old and look forward to the new. Here at Folkwear, we spend the last week of the old year looking at inventory (and counting), reviewing what worked and what did not, and reflecting on the past year's accomplishments. And then we spend the first week of the new year planning for all the things to achieve and work towards in the next year!
So, I will lay out a some of our 2019 work - what we did at Folkwear - to help usher out the old year! What were some of your favorite accomplishments of 2019?
New Office! First, maybe our favorite thing was getting a new office
/studio space. In April, we moved to a much larger place (with heating and air!) that fits all our inventory, our samples, a sewing/design area, an office area, a (small) library, and a small "store front". Customers can now visit us and buy patterns, notions, and fabric at our store! We have been hosting local sewing groups and have had a few open houses and love it when Folkwear fans come by! This is how it looked just before we moved in (at least this half of the space). I should do a tour of the studio soon!
Growth in sales. It has been great to see Folkwear pattern sales steadily increase. I love that we are reaching more sewists, costumers, and creators with these informative, interesting, and beautiful patterns.
We launched a small Folkwear Clothing line, and that has been fun, though I found that running a clothing line requires a lot more time and effort than I (or anyone at Folkwear currently) has time to give it. We are definitely focused on patterns and sewing!
YouTube Channel and videos. This has been a fun thing to start. Our patterns have so much information in them that I felt having a YouTube channel to share some techniques, show the patterns, and show off the garments would be a great asset to sewists. There are a few videos with techniques specific to our patterns (getting the yoke oriented correctly for 142 Old Mexico Dress and sewing the Padded Jacket for 112 Japanese Field Clothing). Some videos show embellishment techniques, such as embroidery stitches from the Romanian Blouse. And, we just started a series to show off our sample garments for featured patterns each month.
Patterns:
Tutorials:
My Favorite Folkwear Makes: I love (and am pretty much living in) my 137 Australian Drover's Coat. My 226 Princess Slip dress is at the bottom of this post. I made an amazing 251 Varsity Jacket from cashmere scraps and silk (why do I not have pictures!?!?). I absolutely loved the Padded Jacket I made from the 112 Japanese Field Clothing. It is stunning. I also enjoyed the very simple Romanian Blouse pattern I made (pic at top) from some gauzy cotton.
Travels: We led our first group trip to NYC - fabric shopping and museum hopping. It was a lot of fun! We will probably do this tour every other year. We may do an Asheville sewing tour this fall! I also traveled to Romania in September for an amazing trip to see textiles and ride horses.
Other fun things: I attended (and Folkwear sponsored) the first Asheville Frocktails! So fun! I spoke at a local sewing group's Folkwear garments show at the Asheville Quilt Show. And, I have sewn quite a few samples for new patterns that we will have coming out in 2020!
Finally, we have hired a new assistant for Folkwear who will be doing lots of sewing, instruction writing, tutorials, etc. in the new year. I will introduce Cynthia in the coming weeks. We are so excited to have her coming on!
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January 08, 2020
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