Lessons Learned From 10 Years of Seamwork

Podcast Transcript

Haley
Welcome back to Seamwork Radio, where we share practical ideas for building a creative process so you can sow with intention and joy. Today, I am stealing the mic from Sarai to celebrate Seamwork's 10th birthday. In this special birthday episode, I'm going to be asking Sarai about the last decade of Seamwork Seamwork. I'll ask her all about how it started, how it's going, and the lessons she's learned that you can apply to your own creative life. Okay, it's time to break the ice on this birthday episode. Happy birthday to us. Happy birthday to us. We need a cake.

Sarai
Oh, we always need a cake.

Haley
Yeah, we don't need birthdays for cake. So, my icebreaker for you, Sarai, what is your favorite Seamwork pattern of all time and why?

Sarai
We were just talking about this before we started recording, and it was really hard. Can I name a few? I think, and this reflects my own sewing, but I think if I were going to choose one that's my favorite because it's something special that I made. I think that would be the Frankie. I just love that pattern. I think it's so pretty, and I love the version that I made of it, the red silk version. It's so pretty. It's just something special in my closet, and I love the shape of It's just gorgeous.

But I also want to choose something that I wear a lot because I think that's the other side of my sewing. I like to sew things that I get a lot of wear, even though they might be very simple. I think for that, it might be the Alice Tee, which I'm wearing right now. It's just a perfect long sleeve T-shirt. I love long sleeve T-shirts in the winter, and I get a lot of wear out of all my Alice Tees. It's a very simple pattern, but I love it.

Haley
Yeah, that's a good one. I need to make a couple of those. My wardrobe desperately needs some long sleeve T-shirts. Man, I don't know. Like I said before we were recording, I'm like, this is choosing a favorite child. There's so many patterns I like. I'll do it similar to what you did. I'll do two. My first one will be something that I enjoyed making the most, and that'll be the Larkin bomber. I just really had a fun time sewing that. I made it for my husband, Eric, and he just looks so cute in it. So that helps that I have an adorable model to help me appreciate its beauty. The other thing I really liked about it was I found a ribbing that was just like such a good match to myself fabric.

Sarai
Oh, that always feels good.

Haley
Which felt like good sewing karma or something. Yeah. And then another pattern, I haven't made this one yet, but I'm very eager to make it as the Otto vest. I was very pregnant when it was fit approved and just was not, there was no way that it was going to fit me.

Sarai
It's not a maternity pattern. Not a maternity pattern.

Haley
I had a lot of Otto vest envy. And now you can definitely wear a vest in the winter time, but I really want to make a linen version in the spring-summer, so I'm just sitting on it waiting. But I'm excited to make that in the next... Well, probably in four or five months, let's be real.

Sarai
Yeah, I should make one of those in the spring, too. I wanted to make it for winter, but I just had too many projects in the queue.

Haley
It's hard to choose. So Seamwork patterns, they're great.

Sarai
There's a lot of them.

Haley
There's a lot of them. All right, that was a fun icebreaker. But I'm excited to dive into this episode and interview Sarai, our founder here at Seamwork, and learn some things along the way. I'm going to jump straight in.

Sarai, it's 2014. Paint a picture for me of what your sewing pattern business looked like in that moment in time.

Sarai
All right. Hopefully this will set context for you guys, especially if you haven't been with us since the beginning. But before Seamwork started, I had another sewing pattern company called Colette, and that started in 2009, I want to say. I think it was 2009. That was a real labor of love and something that I had worked on really hard. I'd written a book and had built up this brand. It was all built on the blog I had at the time. I loved it. It was really fun, but I had this idea for doing something that's a little bit new.

Just to paint a picture of where I was at the time, I had moved out of my house, so it was no longer a home business. I had a small studio. I had one person working for me part-time just as an assistant, and we were making patterns and photographing them, doing everything ourselves. It was definitely a small business. I mean, it's still a small business, but it felt very small, and it felt like I was doing everything all at once all the time. So it was very stressful, but very rewarding.

Haley
Yeah. And then you had the idea for Seamwork. So just to add a little bit more on. Tell me about your initial concept for Seamwork, and how did you come up with it?

Sarai
When I came up with Seamwork, so I should fast forward a little bit. We'd moved into a little bit bigger studio. Kenn, who's my husband, is working for the business at this point. He had started helping out with the website and everything. Now he was working with me. We had a couple of employees, one full-time, I think the other might have been part-time. It was a little bit bigger, but still pretty small. I just had this idea of creating something that I hadn't seen out there, which was an online sewing magazine. Sort of like Berta Style or Vogue Patterns magazine or something like that, which is something that I feel like these pattern magazines were a concept that had taken off in Europe to some extent, but there wasn't anything really like that in the US. I thought, let's bring it into the digital world and the online world, because I was already... I'd been blogging for many years, I'm very familiar with creating content online. I thought that would be really cool if we could create this publication that could provide people with patterns and all the learning to go with them and ideas and fun tutorials and things like that all in one place.

That was the original concept of Seamwork. It was just this vision in my head. At the time, I think I was... I've never been very risk averse, so I just wanted to go for it. I was just so excited about it. That's how we got started.

Haley
The concept of Seamwork has come a long way, but the spirit to me seems so consistent throughout, which is like fun, like a cool thing to see.

Sarai
Yeah, I think the implementation has evolved, but the idea behind it is really pretty much the same, which is we're providing people with all the resources and tools they need in one place to improve their sewing skills, to have fun, to get more ideas, and to really express themselves in the way that they want to.

Haley
Yeah. Okay, so when Seamwork got started, what were some of the unexpected challenges that you ran into, and how did you end up approaching them?

Sarai
Well, I think the biggest challenge…we were going from producing a few patterns a year to producing two patterns every month. I don't know why I thought this was feasible. Looking back on it, I don't know why I started so ambitiously. Instead of ramping up over time, I was very naive and overly confident, I think, at that time. But it worked out in the end. We figured it out in the end. It just took a while for things not to feel internally quite so chaotic. I think the biggest hurdle was figuring out how to produce those two patterns every month. To do that, I mean, I credit a couple things, and I think this gets at a lesson that you guys can apply to your own sewing, your own creative processes. I think there's two things. One of them may be a little bit less applicable to you, which is I think Robin deserves a lot of the credit for really creating a solid process. But there were steps along the way before that. I think one of the things that really helped me was thinking about it as a process and really studying how things are done in manufacturing and really studying from other people what works operationally.

From that, I learned a lot about the idea of continuous improvement and how to address bottlenecks and think about a process as a chain. In a chain, if you want to improve a chain, you have to improve its weakest link. Looking at where the problems are and focusing all your effort on that one weak link in the chain is the easiest way to get better and to grow. The reason I think this applies to you all who are listening is I think this can apply to sewing, too. I think if you want to make progress fast and really build your skills, it really helps to look at what the weakest part for you is and focus on that.

For example, if you really have a lot of trouble putting in zippers, for example, you're really scared of zippers, so a few projects that focus on zippers and really focus on that one skill, and you'll have so much more ability to create a wider variety of garments. You don't have to look for patterns that don't have zippers anymore. You can really expand what you can do, and then you can move on to the next skill, the next weakest link in your chain.

I think that's something that I learned through Seamwork, but I think it applies to so many different areas of life. Along with that, along with thinking about what is the weakest link or what is the bottleneck, is also thinking about just this idea of always getting better and always working on ways to improve. Because for me, that's really gratifying, is that sense of progress and moving forward. I think for a lot of people with sewing, it's part of what makes it so gratifying.

Haley
Yeah, I agree. I think you could almost apply the same logic in a bunch of different ways. Thinking about your creative process and the things that you don't enjoy as much or the things you enjoy the and how you can build your creative process around that.

Sarai
Yeah.

Haley
That's so cool. I joined Seamwork nine years ago, and the improvements that we've made along the way are pretty amazing. Robin really tidied up that process.

Sarai
Yeah, she deserves a lot of the credit for what we have today and what an amazing process we have now. She really came in and applied a lot of the things that she had learned in her previous work, and it's night and day.

Haley
Okay, so aside from assessing the weakest link, what are some of the biggest lessons you learned in your first few years of Seamwork?

Sarai
I think looking back at some of the challenges I had before starting Seamwork with running Colette patterns, and like I was saying, doing a little bit of everything all the time. I definitely had a lot of problems with stress and with being really overwhelmed and lost my interest in even in sewing. I didn't have enough time to do it a lot of the time, and I really suffered for that. So one of the things that I think changed within the first few years of Seamwork is really making sure that I scheduled time for what mattered and scheduled time for creativity. This applies in a couple of ways. I think for me, sometimes that means actually scheduling time for things like sewing. I still have this. I still have time in my calendar just for sewing and really have to protect that time. Otherwise, it's really easy for me to just get really so invested in work that I don't do anything else. I definitely have workaholic tendencies that I fight. But also it means finding time for creative thinking, for writing, for all the creative tasks that go on within the business as well, because I really don't want to lose my spark again and lose lose that passion I have for it.

I think ever since starting Seamwork, I've been on the right track in terms of really enjoying what I do and feeling well-rested enough that I can think creatively and bring new ideas and just be excited about things. I think that benefits the business as a whole and benefits the people around me. I think this is something that probably resonates with a lot of you is that if you don't protect your time and really set your own priorities for your time, that other people are going to always fill it up. Other people are always going to... There's nothing malicious about that. Just other people have other things they need from you. If you don't pay yourself first in terms of time, then you will probably lose it. That's just something that I think I learned in the transition between club patterns and seam work.

Haley
When you're in a high demand position, whether that's being the founder of a company or being the head of your household. There's always going to be a lot of demands, and you're going to be pulled in a lot of directions. Sometimes, I think oftentimes, the creative parts are what get sacrificed first. But I agree. I can see how that applies in my day-to-day life and in my professional life as well.

Sarai
Yeah. I think most people can relate to that. Yeah. I don't think any of us feel like we're not busy. If you don't feel like you're busy, then I'm very happy for you because that's my goal. I'm not happy. I'm jealous.

Haley
Just kidding. I am happy for you.

Sarai
Tell me how you did it. I'd like to get there.

Haley
Write a book, you'll make a million bucks. Okay, I want to talk about the evolution of Seamwork. How has it changed through the years? Can you tell me a bit about that evolution?

Sarai
I talked about earlier how it started as this concept of an online pattern magazine. That was the original idea. In some ways, like we were talking about, I don't think a lot of it has changed fundamentally, in that it's still this concept of creating all the resources people need to really enjoy their sewing and feel inspired and learn new things. But I think the way it has changed is it's gone from being this we're putting out content for you to consume thing to being more of a community. That's really gratifying to me. I wanted to share this quote that I read. I just saw this quote last night, and it really resonated with me. This idea that if you put out the kinds of things that you feel inspired by, that other people are going to be attracted to that. I feel like that's been really true for Seamwork. But it was this quote from Carl Jung, and he said, No matter how isolated you are and how lonely you feel, if you do your work truly and conscientiously, unknown friends will come and seek you. I think that's been the case with Seamwork. That's been my approach, is putting out the kinds of things that I want to see in the world and building a world that I would want to inhabit.

Then other people find that and they feel attracted to it. It organically creates a community with the feeling and the values and the emotions that you want around you. I think that's really cool.

Haley
Yeah. So I can have this tendency to be very solitary a very me-driven activity. What I appreciate about something we've done is we've... I think there's always been the desire for it to be an us thing, and all we had to do was create a space for it. That really just blossomed, and I think now that's one of the most beautiful parts of what we do.

Sarai
Another really interesting thing about sewing is, even though it is solitary, is that you are crafting a vision of what you want esthetically. Even that really does attract people to you. I think about our recent Stitchfest event that we just hosted and how all these people came together and everybody was expressing their own unique style in a different way. We could come up to each other and just talk about what we were wearing and what we'd made. You already felt like you knew something about the person because of the way they were expressing themselves. I think that sewing offers us this really cool opportunity to build our own little universe, at least esthetically, that can attract people in that way. I think that's really a cool aspect of self-expression.

Haley
Oh, I love that. What's something that you've learned more recently from Seamwork?

Sarai
From Seamwork, but also I think this is just something I've learned more recently, generally, but it definitely manifests in my work, and I'm sure this is true for a lot of other people, too, which is that perfectionism can take a lot of different forms. This is something I've learned more recently.

Back in the day, I never really considered myself a perfectionist because, like I said before, I'm not risk averse. I don't have to have things be just perfect before I'll put them out and see what happens. I'm experimental. I like to try different things and improve them over time and see how things go. I never really considered myself a perfectionist, but after learning a little bit more about perfectionism. I realized that I am. It just takes a different form, which is for me, personally, it's more of trying to do too much and trying to do everything and be everything and not saying no to anything. I do feel like there are all these different kinds of perfectionism, and understanding maybe which type you're more vulnerable to can be really helpful to put boundaries on yourself and limits and make sure that you're protecting your own sanity.

That's something that I've learned in just the last few years, really.

Haley
Yeah, over performing is definitely a form of perfectionism. I think you can see that, too. Sometimes I do it with even my sewing. I'm like, I'm going to do this and this and this and this. There's a certain point where it can become stifling, where the quantity takes over the quality. Yeah.

Sarai
But I think if you recognize that in yourself, it really helps.

Haley
Yeah, definitely.

Sarai
For me, personally, I have a lot of trouble simplifying things. I always want to do more. But I recognize that simplicity is really valuable, and it makes a lot of things easier. I really have to work on that and, figure out ways around my natural tendencies in order to make things simpler.

Haley
Yeah, I am the same way. I married someone who's all about simplicity. He's my external bumper on that, but I'm constantly working on adding my own bumpers.

Sarai
Yeah. Maybe that's another lesson is just figuring out what boundaries you need in your life, in your sewing, in your creativity. What are the boundaries that are appropriate for you? I mentioned before, boundaries on your time. There's boundaries on the external things that might intrude, but there's also internal boundaries of what can I allow myself to do and what do I need to put rules in place for myself so I don't overcommit or I don't overextend myself. Or on the other side, there are definitely people who won't finish anything because they're so afraid of doing it wrong. Like I said, it can take a lot of different forms, but understanding how you can better understand yourself and then put things in place that are going to help you has been really, really valuable for me.

Haley
Yeah. So what would 2014, Sarai, think about Seamwork in 2024?

Sarai
I mean, I think she'd be pretty happy about it. I think about when I started Seamwork, when I first started, I was in this small business group with a few other people, and I think there were two other businesses in it. There was another couple that had a business and then another business in it. And We were talking about this whole concept of Seamwork that I was thinking about building. I remember one of them said, Wow, that's so cool. Someday you could have 10,000 members to this business. I was like, Wow, yeah. Now we're just about double that.

I think in terms of what I had envisioned for growing Seamwork and building Seamwork, we definitely have surpassed what I even imagined back then. But I also think that in some sense, that doesn't really matter all that much, and that one of the things that I've really learned is not to define success by anybody else's criteria. I think we all, we have so much social pressure to do things a certain way, and that success is this category that you have to do X, Y, Z to fulfill. I think that's all... I don't think it's true.

I think everybody has their own definition of what's going to them happy. I was just listening to this audiobook in the car, and it was talking about the story of the ugly duckling, which I think most of you probably know the story of the ugly duckling. It's born and imprints on the first duck it sees and thinks that's the mother, and all the other little baby ducks make fun of it, and it thinks it's really ugly until it realizes it goes into a different context and realizes that it's not a duck at all, it's a swan. Within that context, it's beautiful. I think thinking about the context you're in and how you define success within that context might not be the way you would in a different context. If you can create your own vision of what is going to actually make you happy and pursue that relentlessly rather than thinking about how other people are going to perceive you, then you end up a lot happier in the end. That's a lesson I think I still have to learn over and over again, like most of us, but I think it matters a lot, especially if you have a business.

But I think for anybody, I say especially if you have a business, just because there's a lot of expectations around that. But it's true in a lot of different contexts as well. It's true in most jobs, it's true in families. It's true in a lot of different ways.

Haley
I think something that sewing allows us to do in a more microcontext is that we think about the way we want to present in the world. A lot of the times, it's when you're coming from the ready-to-wear influence, you're modeling after what you see in magazines, what you see in stores. When you sew, You take that creative power back and instead of... Of course, you can totally draw inspiration from places, but you start to turn your inspiration more inward. And I think it gives you this gateway to learning what beautiful or good or pleasing means to you based on your preferences and your beliefs and not based on what is modeled for you. That's the same thing, just in our own little personal context of sewing and addressing.

Sarai
Yeah, that's true. I think we're all pursuing certain feelings that we want to feel a certain way, and that there are a lot of different ways that can achieve those feelings. If you listen to the messages around you, they'll tell you, Well, you have to look this way, or you have to have this much money, or you have to be this way if you want to have these feelings. That's the part that I think is not true. I think there are many ways to achieve those feelings, and some of them do not require that you complete certain tasks or live your life in a way that is not aligned with what you want. That helps me to just think about how I want to feel and what's the way I personally can get there.

Haley
Yeah. Okay. My final question. What are your hopes for Seamwork in the next 10 years?

Sarai
Well, going back to what I was just saying about wanting to feel a certain way. I think a lot about what motivates me and what drives me. For me, I really feel motivated by learning. I love learning new things and then sharing whatever I learn and just continuing continuing to build up this world that other people can join in. There's a lot of themes in this discussion today that I feel like really all are interwoven. I think this idea of continuous improvement and always trying to get better, this idea of learning, this idea of building community, I think those are all really intrinsic to Seamwork. I just want to keep doing that, keep creating this world, have other people participate, have them help build it so that it just gets bigger and brighter and more beautiful and attracts even more of the people who are interested in it. That's my vision for Seamwork.

Haley
I can't wait to see it unfold the next decade. So amazing. It's been a really fun ride to be on and to see.

Sarai
Yeah. Well, thank you for being along on it, Haley, and for all of you listening, too.

Haley
Oh, my gosh. Most of all, thank you to you all. So amazing. Thanks, Sarai, for letting me pick your brain about Seamwork.

Sarai
Yeah, I hope these lessons were helpful for you guys, too, or maybe something resonated, or maybe made you think about something in a different way, just because these are all things that have shifted my thinking over the years. So hopefully somebody out there gets something out of it, too.

So I want to wish you all a really happy holiday season and a super creative new year. Haley and I are going to be taking a break for the rest of the month, and we're going to re-air our favorite episode of Seamwork Radio starting in the year 2020. The first episode of Seamwork Radio aired in 2015, and I interviewed a bunch of people from our creative community. Then we ended up taking a break from the podcast in 2017. In 2020, we brought back the podcast with Haley and I as co-hosts. Now we have over 200 episodes.

We're going to be re-airing a whole bunch of those episodes, and I hope you enjoy them. I think if you haven't listened to them, you're going to be in for a treat, they're going to be really fun to listen to and revisit again. I just want to give a shoutout to our community.

I know we've talked about it a lot in this episode, but we are really lucky to have some of the nicest and most helpful sew us that you can imagine in our private community. Our team, along with thousands of Seamworkers, are really here to talk to you and to cheer you on in the community. You can ask questions about sewing with absolutely no judgment. You'll always get amazing answers. You can also share your finished projects, and you can create goals in our community.

And that will do it for us. I'm Sarai.

Haley
I’m Haley.

Sarai
And this is Seamwork Radio.