Almost five years making sewing patterns
and what can I tell you about that?
Not much, really, if I include the obvious: “it has been a wonderful yet challenging experience” or “It takes a lot of ‘back and forward’ work to get results” or “You need to consider so many details at the same time that that 'toxic perfectionism' everyone recommends you let go of, dangerously becomes your best ally" or “When you think that everything is relatively well put together, someone always introduces themselves and, very kindly, suggests that perhaps you could have done it better in 'this other way'.”
Now that the obvious has been put aside, I tell you with all candor that I have had a hell of ride! Working as the sole soul behind Atelier Circulaire has taught so so much: patience, consistency, focus, open-mindedness, resilience, self-confidence, the list could go on but I think one of the things I would like to highlight is how much it has taught me in the Customers Service department.
To give you some context, you should know that I’m a “recovering” people pleaser and, although it sounds quite pathetic, the mere idea of having to meet the demands of clients, put a stop to my desires for creative endeavours for years. For a long while, I literally didn’t dare to show my work, or if I did, it would be very faint-heartedly — even though I had put a great deal of effort on whatever I had done. I know! ridiculous right?! but I did think like that!. Any how, as much as I tried with no success to skip the obvious about enjoying my sewing pattern making job at the beginning, this time I’ll definitely spare you from going into detail about how that dread of judgement, was just a super useful defense mechanism in my childhood — which has been diligently outgrown thanks to therapy, for the must part at least.
So, now that’s been cleared out, here are the few things I can say after 5 years of sewing pattern making:
1.- Clients are not always right
Clients are right in the sense that they are 100% entitled to express Atelier Circulaire’s sewing patterns experience. Their suggestions turn out to be extra valuable for me, abling me to improve my work and to access different perspectives that I wouldn't otherwise.
But on the other hand, there are clients who sometimes overlook details that are actually there:
Like I said, she helped me notice that I had skipped some steps in the video, but the rest is there ( I didn’t mention the measurements but they’re exactly the ones shown in the description of the Item in my Etsy Shop.) All I needed was to politely correct what wasn’t right.
I know it sounds obvious, but my sewing pattern making peers are never comfortable with this subject either. Sewing is not a cheap pursuit.
2.- Sometimes you need to rethink your ways
You can spend years following a list of steps in one direction and it turns out that the most convenient way to do it is in exactly the opposite direction.
At Atelier Circulaire, so far, I have created about 12 handbag sewing patterns — not including the ones that never saw the light of day. Up Until Pattern N° 11 this was the course of action:
I came up with the idea of the bag,
I drafted the pattern digitally,
I outlined the making steps with graphics,
I described it words and
then I made the video tutorial.
Pattern N°12 changed everything and it add value to my way of working, it became more
organic, therefore much more pleasant. Now I work this way:
I still come up with the idea of the bag first,
I still make a first digital draft of the pattern,
I make the video tutorial while testing the pattern, which allows me to make changes on the run without fear of losing hours of work. From test to the final prototype, everything is recorded on video,
I use take stills from the video to create the graphics,
and finally add text confident that everything is there.
The added bonus of this new way of working is that, by documenting every single thing in photos and videos, I manage to create content for social media consistently.
And lastly,
3.- Curate your art not your social media
What I mean with this somewhat pompous phrase, more for algorithmic purposes than anything else, is basically this: don’t waste so much time in social media, it’s much better to focus on your art, Instagram — or whatever social you enjoy — can wait or simply be done in a more organic way, focusing on documenting on a daily basis instead of trying to find the perfect strategy, with the perfect colour palette just so your post appears in the random feed the algorithm has decided you’re worth of.
Well, I think I've covered enough of my experience in these last 5 years, for which I am immensely grateful.
I’d really love to hear from you soon — please comment your thoughts . And I always appreciate likes and restacks, sharing goes such a long way!
If you like this free newsletter, here are the best ways to support my work as a self-employed sewing pattern maker and artist:
SHARE WITH A FRIEND! I really want to connect with other artists, creators and writers!
SHARE ON SOCIAL MEDIA! It helps! It really helps!
BUY MY SEWING PATTERNS! I’m really proud of my tiny project Atelier Circulaire. You can find them here This is the best way to keep all of this going!
More soon, much love!