Welcome to Stash Chats! Each week I talk to a different member of the sewing community about their sewing stash! This session with Jenny will be streamed live at 8pm GMT on Wednesday 26th June.
Jenny has been crafting for most of her life and started dressmaking in 2011. She founded the Virtual Sewing Room to provide a space for fellow sewing entusiasts to connect socially from within the comfort of their own sewing spaces. One of Jenny’s proudest makes was her own wedding dress! Outisde of the sewing room she loves cycling and hanging out with her dog Moss.
If you’re interested in joining the Virtual Sewing Room and making some new sewing friends, the next sessions are 9:30am BST Monday 1st July and 7pm Wednesday 3rd July. There are also regular sewalongs and events. Check out Eventbrite for tickets and more information.
Virtual Sewing Room tickets via Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/virtual-sewing-room-tickets-641576290957
Virtual Sewing Room on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/virtualsewingroom/
Jenny’s personal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sewitjenny/
About me: I’m Yvette, co-founder of sewing organiser app Stash Hub. My husband and I have created Stash Hub to help the sewing community get organised and fall back in love with their stashes. Stash Hub is available on Web, iOS and Android. More info here https://stashhubapp.com
[Music] hello hello and welcome to stash chats whether you’re watching us on catchup or if you’re here with us live tonight uh so as always if you’re watching live please do say hi in the comments because I can’t see who’s watching so do introduce yourself and uh yeah just say hi so that we can all get chatting um so yeah I think I’m going to do a little trigger warning for anyone who’s not in the UK uh there’s probably going to be a lot of talk about how warm it is now I’m sure everyone is sick of hearing about this already they probably were already sick of hearing about the weather when we were complaining it was too wet now it’s too hot um but that’s just the UK so that’s your trigger warning and maybe you’re going to need to get your Celsius to Fahrenheit converter up if you’re in the US um but yeah that is standard fair for the British weather I’m afraid I’ve just seen a few more people joining so hello and welcome to stash chat honestly I’ve lost track of what episode we’re on now um but yeah it’s it’s really exciting to be here for another great stash conversation so uh before we get into that I thought I’ll just introduce myself because I actually never do that so if you’ve been watching all these episodes and thinking who on Earth is this I’m Evette so I’m the co-founder of stash Hub which is a sewing organizer app which I run with my husband and it’s actually our wedding anniversary this weekend which is really exciting so we’ve got something planned uh that will be fun with uh stash hob this weekend as well so that we could all celebrate together so make sure you go into your stash Hub app and update your communication preferences so that you can be the first to hear about what’s going to be happening this weekend um but yeah that is my little Spiel so yeah do remember um to comment in the chat if you’re watching live because I love your questions you always ask different things to my usual script which I ask everybody um so yeah today I’m going to be chatting with Jenny who is sew it Jenny on Instagram and also the founder of the virtual sewing room so I know a lot of people will share the sentiment that sewing can be a bit of a lonely hobby we’re all tucked away at home in our sewing rooms and then we try and talk to people that we know about sewing and they’re like what on Earth are you talking about I don’t know what a French seam is and I really don’t care but the virtual sewing room is ideal because you can all get together and chat to people who actually do care about sewing so it’s really good fun I’ve joined quite a few of the sessions myself um but yeah uh I think that’s probably enough of me rambling um and yeah do say hi and get involved because that is always really fun and yeah let’s get Jenny on and hear more about her sewing journey and I’m sure we’ll talk more about the virtual sewing room as well so here we go let’s get Jenny on hello Jenny hi welcome to chat I liked the trigger warning well not trigger warning but the warning for non UK people because it’s been warm today yeah I mean it’s also a disclaimer about like if I start if I start uh shining that’s def that’s just going to be sweat I’m sorry guys it’s GNA happen yeah yeah yeah even when I cycled out at8 o’clock this morning I could just feel the sun cream just like coming off me like I think it’s it’s a brave move to even like be like you know what that’s it cycling today yeah I love cycling um it’s my yeah second love um craft SL sewing has always been first love but cycling for a few years kind of maybe overtook a little bit did do you have all the cycling gear as well then as all the sewing yeah yeah uh I’m a train mechanic technically uh because I work for a cycling charity uh is what they referred to but uh yeah by day I uh promote people walking and cycling Journeys so it’s become very embedded but yeah cycling is a nice Freedom um but also I do that a lot solo um yeah it’s I could talk about cycling but let’s not that’s second to sewing yeah cycling is is when you need to get away from everyone because you can’t even do that with sewing anymore because you’re chatting to everyone in the virtual sewing room keep coming um yeah cyclings being a nice kind of solo I like exploring like yeah the outdoors so from going from inside Hunchback and just breae in the lovely country air so yeah it’s nice a nice balance I feel like you can go a lot further with cycling than walking as well like it feels like you’ve properly gone somewhere whereas if you’re walking you like walk for an hour and you’re like 20 minutes away in the car yes I I’ve done some big Journeys as well it started out very small but I just like the kind of challenge so the solstice has just been here and um I’ve for a few years I’ve done like a solstice Challenge and the first one I ever did was cycling Bristol to Southampton where I’m based uh which was 100 miles exactly which is quite satisfying and uh all part of the national cycle Network and yeah it’s just a lovely route and yeah did it all within daylight and it’s just yeah amazing so I’ve started doing that this year where I haven’t been as fit and not much on the bike I did I went around the New Forest which is really accessible for me and did about 52 miles which is not bad considering my fitness level right now so that’s a nice little thing I do every year so I know that I’ve got a nice Adventure um this time of year amazing um right before we start just doing a whole like hour’s chat about cycling which I’m definitely struggle with because I don’t have a bike I don’t know about cycling and do you want tell me a bit about yourself just generally like yeah what you like to sew and yeah um so I’m Jenny uh I live in Southampton and at the moment I’m working on uh Shelby dress which is just out of shop hang on I’m just gonna move my camera uh that is my current work in progress that’s hung up that isn’t sh is this the sort of zebra printy fabric yes it was a so Haley Jane um subscription box back in I’m in pajamas as well me made though yeah this is lovely and so I’ve hacked this um to have pockets because it bugs me that I’ve got two other Shelby longer versions that have have not got pockets so so have you done them so they’re sort of sewn into the seams um so they’re not in seams so I’ve paneled it like the piatra pants because I’ve just made those um so I created yeah um two piece two pieces rather than the one panel um for the front side piece um following kind of yeah how the Petra pants work and just two pieces just making sure it folded and I was just like oh my God is this going to work dud idea because it makes it so much more like elegant and keeping the lines of the dress than just sticking a patch pocket on it that’s not the biggest fan of patch Pockets I’ve done it on some garments where I think it works like a circle skirt or something like that um I think I’ve done it on the uh Tilly and the buttons lofted dress I think it works on there because but I don’t think it’s forever but that’s my opinion anyway but otherwise I stick inseam pockets on anything but I thought it’d look hippie on that one um yeah so I went that way having done the trousers it just felt perfect so yeah no it’s really smart I’m I’m impressed it works you can do it um that’s what I’m working at the moment but I’ve been sewing for for a while I was saying 10 years but I realized that’s lapsed a bit um so I started so I was inspired like I know many of us by um mothers or women in families so my mom was a quilter in the 90s she used to do like a little quilting Club I I guess with other moms and things and uh she used to go to Quilting shows and like little local like always felt like Community Center kind of things and I’d go along with her and my aunt and um I’d end up picking up fabric and stuff I don’t remember really making much when I was proper young but I was the child and one of four who always got the crafty make this kind of set at Christmas and birthdays my my other siblings didn’t get anything like that I was the crafty one um so it’s always been there and I like all crafts like sewing’s the passion but like uh so my cax unit behind me uh there’s quarter of it is for other crafts but yeah three quarters is sewing which yeah praise how I spend my crafting time but being inspired by my mom one of the first things I ever made first Show and Tell was this little quilt so my mom and aunt kind of helped me do this rainbow quilt and I had to send my mom off to finish it I was like she went to a show me and I was like I need some rainbow fabric to finish it so I did all this um hand embroidery as well and yeah so Sunshine neat for a first Quil as well how old were you when you made that I can’t remember but I think I must have been like late primary school maybe that kind of 11 12 I don’t think I could have been any younger I honestly have no idea but yeah Mom was thr the patchwork on the machine and then do the hand do the hand embroidery yeah yeah and then for some reason I did it through the layer of um like warding and stuff which I don’t think it’s supposed to do but I don’t care well I didn’t care but I didn’t actually sew on so I sent my mom or requested some um this rainbow fabric back when I was 11 or 12 to finish it and didn’t actually start on until I was like in my 20s uh I just didn’t know how to finish it and then one day was just like I should finish this because this is a lovely first ever piece so yeah but quoting is not for me I have made some quiles but it’s too uh accurate and I’m a bit more hap Dash so um yeah then I didn’t really say much through my teens I really wanted to do textiles at GCSE um but I wasn’t allowed because there wasn’t enough people to run the course there was four I was enough students oh yeah so I was really disheartened so ended up doing graphic design which I then did at Uni um and then in my second year of uni I lived with uh no third year of uni we got a new flatmate called Andrea and she was on the textiles course at R uni this is Winchester School of Art and we became best friends and she was doing like amazing corsetry based stuffff and suddenly like I’d realized as well graphic design like Photoshop and all that I wasn’t very good at it like I was good at ideas I’ll give myself that but it wasn’t me so I ended up with the kind of um coursework we had bringing in textiles to that and I ended up so I’ve got a few pieces um this incorporates me and Andrea because she made me that is me in the picture she made me a model for some of her clothing she made this amazing jacket with this like um I think you’d normally see the clasp on like I’ve got it on like a leatherbound uh book but it it was Lauren be inspired and then I ended up printing it off and creating into a bit of art piece uh which was like a poster thing um I don’t know which one to show because they both have rude words in but there was a reason why I did this but is experimenting with textures and things maybe I too late uh so this was based on a uh the topic was scarless boat that’s a whole other story um I’ll cover my hand before I show this uh but another experimental piece um from a magazine so just like textures and things and so then hearding her course Tre kind of inspired me as we left uni to try a bit of dress making and it was a slippery slope uh from there now I have massive room dedicated I’m very lucky to have this room dedicated mostly to sewing oh wow so you’ve got your own sewing room at home yes it is the stipulation uh when we got the house was so we were in a flat uh for a number of years where part of the living room was dedicated for my space just a desk against a wall opposite the sofa next to the TV that that was it was very small desk and whatever I could shove underneath it or on the table as so when we were looking to buy a stipulation was garage for him sewing room for me and then a kitchen so we can meet at lunchtime and dinner it works pretty well we’re pretty happy with the setup apart from we both want bigger spaces now you’ve expanded into the space well I’m just going to say hi to the people in the chat so we’ve got uh Jean Deb and hello thanks for joining um yeah anyone else who’s who’s watching as well do say hi in the chat um and yeah we’ll I’ll I’ll talk about your question in a bit Carrie um but yes you got your sewing room that’s awesome um so yeah we we kind of covered how long you’ve been sewing as well didn’t we because that’s sort of basically your whole adult life yeah yeah and yeah I mean like a lot of hobbies comes and goes um cycling to go over for a little bit uh don’t worry sewing sewing’s very much back now have you like felt like you want to combine the two and like sew cycling shorts and bikes for your bags for your bike and all that sort of stuff or you keeping them separate no no no definitely not separate so this is one of my favorite tops to cycling so I’ve been out and about today in it I’ve done a lot of long Journeys in this top because it’s a Visos Jersey I think I think I saw it on Manera fabrics and it’s bikes so by um but this has been around France with me it’s been around the UK with me it’s been around Scotland this is yeah because it’s just this time of year it’s just this is the L box top I’m a big fan this is like my basic t-shirt kind of thing I lengthen it a bit though because it’s a little bit cropped I think in the pattern but I prefer that bit of length to cover um yeah it’s just nice and floaty for days that we’re currently having um but also layer it up with a tank top underneath so um I’ve also made a jersey um which I think I was telling sewing room the other night about and I’m just trying to think where I put the bit of paper so um day job that I had was a long explanation but I was working with schools and I wanted to make a my first cycle top like Jersey top like you see toor of France and all the um athletes kind of wearing when they’re cycling so um I have the Melissa Fair uh make your own active wear book and I asked her and she gave me the line drawings for the cycle top and um so I went into a school that I was really engaged with for my work and I got them to design a cycle top because I didn’t know what I and so we had lots of kids in this school uh came up with loads of great ideas I gave them a list of things that I like in like favorite colors and things to give them inspiration we got it down to like I think I narrowed down to 10 and then I asked some like colleagues to vote then we got it down to two oh no I went in spoke to a group of kids that I speak to they got it down to like the 10 then I spoke to colleagues and we got this one um and what was really cool was that they designed bikes and I found this on spoonflower and ordered like a meter of their active Jersey or whatever they called it and I made this top and it was amazing like I did a mockup in like the blues and purples but then made it properly and I wore it so much I might have done my Bristol to Southampton ride in that because I made to show the kids that like all did the activity yeah we we did an event a few couple of months later I think they had like a fate or something on so I attended wearing it um yeah and this year six at the time girl who had designed it was there and just like look I’m wearing it uh I loved it it was so useful and the second the kind of like runner up was this rainbow top which is very cool um so it’s been on my mind to make like a rainbow kind of version but I lengthened it so the pockets are really deep so if you put banana in there it’s like it’s gone like that’s how deep the pockets banana for sale appreciate it yeah um yes I’ve done that and I try working in the world of cycling uh try and make cycling look more approachable as well so I try where possible for short kind of local Journeys seeing friends to just wear everyday clothes because there is a kind of perception that you need to have all the gear you don’t like I try and cyc in dresses as much as possible you know I just have leggings on or shorts on underneath for dignity um so yeah there’s lots of me made the tillan the button betin dress in Jersey is one of my favorite go-to dresses just because that stretch helps with the pedaling and dignity and Pockets um but yeah I’ve cycled in all sorts of mades and I always share about it on Instagram when I have just to kind of prove the point it’s not just like C and padded shorts help but you don’t have to yeah awesome that’s really cool I love hearing about like yeah different different um like things that people do as well and then how they can incorporate sewing with that as well because I think it you know when you’ve got a a hobby that you’re really passionate about you you do sort of think oh how can I use it for this as well yeah the job working with schools like uh doing cycling and walking uh there was a lot of creativity that I could use within that so I’m sure I did other stuff uh I was teaching uh so scooter skills in playgrounds with like year twos year 3 so it’s that uh sixish um I made a I just got some white fabric and some black Fabric and I made a zebra Crossing um I’ll sh I’ll find it and share it on my Instagram because I know I’ve shared it recently for someone and I made a zebra Crossing so we’d go around the playground doing all these skills and then we’d stop we’d look both ways and we’d cross sensibly with the scooter so this and you know it’s easy to Chuck in a bag with everything else just to carry around to do a bit of kind of road safety elements and stuff as part of their scooter skills um so yeah I any chance and then I think I made one for a colleague so they could do the same like that’s genius where did you get that and you’re like actually I made it and fabric how much can I get out of it lines easy just done awesome I think we should oh hello uh Helen thanks for joining in hello Sarah as well I don’t think you said hello uh earlier um right I think it’s about time that we talked about this virtual sewing room so what is the virtual sewing room to start with uh so the virtual sewing room is an online space for anyone interested in sewing to connect with other like-minded people from not just the UK but from around the world in a nutshell so how did you like decide oh this is what I’m going to do uh so I think the idea of an online social space for sewists whatever term you prefer to call yourself um I was like why why isn’t there we’ve just been through a few years where we dedicated time to being online and making it work for us Pub quizzes you know connecting with family and friends like why doesn’t this exist um as a thing and so I actually had some time off from work last spring summer to do some cycling and I thought this is the perfect opportunity for me to test it so I did it through my personal um through uh so Jenny and just said so I want to do this tried to do I say bit marketing I just tried to promote it a bit and set up an event Bri i’ use that before use zoom before and thought I’ll give it a go whilst I’ve got this time off from work I can kind of see how it goes experiment and then seven people signed up for this first one back in April the 18th of 2023 and I was like oh people are interested that’s cool and we had a nice conversation for two hours it wasn’t too awkward and so we did it again the next month in May I’d been away cycling but I was like I had a few days before I went cycling again and I was like I’m going to put in another session to test it and some of those people came back and then there were other people there too and it was like okay this is cool and then just kind of opt it to two times a month and then there were suddenly regulars and people just yeah in their own sewing space wherever that is in the Loft in the kitchen in a corner somewhere sharing what they’re making so we always start with who you are where in the world you are and what you’re working on during that time so it started off just two hour hours just you can dedicate that time and it was just nice to connect people and yeah it’s grown from there we now have sessions every at least once every week for the rest of this current year which yes there’s lots of opportunity to connect and have loads of regulars and yeah people from all over the world so we have regulars from America now there’s at least three four maybe from America but we we had many more we’ve got Helen in South Africa we’ve got Judith in Greece we’ve got Lucy from abedine but in Germany Sweden that I love the map someone put together a map for you didn’t know so cool we were talking during a session like oh God we need this all on a map and um Amy who’s a regular from up North she offered some time to do it um and she shared it with me like three days later she’ actually done it within a day I think she just felt a bit geeky but I was like totally I’m with you like I’d love to have done it myself but we’ve got that between us so I updated it recently where we had a staller threads Festival thanks to Mel um and it was so useful to have that visualization so it’s not just the UK although we were very kind of location specific with our table and where we were like you connect to people like I learned we had someone from Perth Australia I think our first maybe only Australian participant but like it was so fascinating to know more about kind of the scene there because yeah timings don’t work currently for that yeah I really want to go fabric shopping on in Australia because like they’ve got so many really bright and fun and colorful prints and I sometimes when I see people make something I’m like bet they’re Australian and then I look and there austral like well I’m going to Perth next year for a friend’s wedding and having had the conversation with oh my God I can’t remember her name I’m gonna say n Nadine Nadia no I’m gonna forget but having been inspired by her telling me about the local shops to Perth she said there’s a really good I think organic linen shop so go I’m Gonna Leave space in my luggage for that yeah definitely yeah we’ve got uh some people in the chat saying where they’re from so Helen’s joining from South Africa we’ve got from Sweden as well is that the word International International yeah um which that that’s been quite a surprising thing is just that reach Beyond because it’s it’s you know doing s till 9 evening here and it’s like what’s that for America you know people might probably still be working if it’s during a weekday um someone who I followed um for years on Instagram and like they have a dog and we always like chat and um she man she doesn’t work Mondays and she’s managed to come a couple of times uh Alicia and so it’s been really nice like I’ve spoken to her now and it’s just like yeah um having those kind of it’s very strange going from following someone on Instagram to meeting them like whether it’s imp person or virt it’s like cool and even when I met um some of the other hosts at so I met B one of our hosts for the first time at the threads Festival she um donated her time to help like uh Steward the stool and so it like I went to go to the lou before it all kicked off and be was there in the car I was like it’s be like be is incredible I’ve met be in person as well because she doesn’t live that far from me um and yeah she’s great like she can just like so I’ve met her at like the sorry so events and she can just Wrangle everyone get sorted out and I’m just like oh thanks B got under control yes I had Mel who she’s not a host but she is an avid supporter and it’s really nice to have M um so I let them use the stool to promote SAR so obviously and the sophisticated event which we uh shared with a lot of people as well so let do that and we had D there as well who’s actually quite local to me and I’ve met twice in person now which is nice um so yeah and I know people had meetups and met each other during the not threads uh Stitch Festival in London a few months ago so yeah that’s when I think I first met Ma so yeah really exciting so we had a question from krie who said what’s next for VSR um I am thinking about stuff um say too much but like yeah there’s a lot of thinking and working out of next steps um which I’m very excited about um there were some conversations at threads uh we ended up getting a notepad out to try and note down all the ideas but we got chatting too much so not many of those made it onto the notepad the one that is stuck is another all day session so we have tested that a couple of times in a couple of different ways and actually um there are some people uh we met at the threads Festival that we’d quite like to speak um and thinking about perhaps a third person or business that we’d like to speak um so that’s something I’m very keen to do in the nearest Future um but I set out goals for 2024 and met most of them um then basically only halfway through the year yeah I mean it was so I did a survey back in November so about six months after it kind of started to get ideas of where to go next and a lot of kind of development comes from attendees so Shannon who’s regular based in Birmingham she suggested doing so alongs it’s like of course we should do soal alongs so a themed day or evening of sewing the same thing together so we started doing the Costa tote bag just as a testex it’s free patterns means it’s accessible for everyone then we did a pants soong pants is in knickers is um February and so I it meant that people can choose whatever pants they want so you can pay for a patent or um we I put together a list of pants that people recommended on Instagram and you know there was I think four or five free and then other ones that were varied in price and then people can pick and choose what they wanted what suits them so doesn’t matter what you’re sewing you’re all sewing the same kind of garment so what else have we done oh we did a charity one and that came again from attendee and a colleague um because she spent a volunteering day making sanitary pads for charity and she said wouldn’t this be great as a so along of course it’s a great cause so we did that and it wasn’t quite what I expected but not in a bad way um it’s sometimes hard to gauge how some things go so we had kind of half of the attendees were uh virtual sewing room attendees and the other half were volunteers for the charity uh patch mama you can go on YouTube and find interview with me and Ella from the charity Ella Ellie Ella um and it was really nice we spent the first kind of half or so learning about the charity what they do top tips all of that and then the second half we kind of started to go into more dress making and how to kind of inspire those volunteers to maybe try a skirt or you know and they were asking questions of us from our side of sewing so it really nice mix and um this week dro regular session uh I know CLA was there carrying on making her Sentry pads to donate to the charity so it’s nice to have that kind of if you had spare time and the right resources to kind of help a good cause with your skills um yeah yeah that’s really cool can you do like sort of one a month now with the seal alongs right um yeah um so the aim for that was to do it quarterly and smash that so we’ve done that one uh we’ve just had the closet core poof so along along which Mandy one of our new hosts suggested and I said of course you pick a date that suits you and so that was one of our quieter sessions but we had some amazing poofs that all seem to be blue and theme um but it was a really nice session quieter than what we’ve had recently which is actually quite nice for change um but we’ve got uh the one for July is uh for scrunchy swap uh which oh no I always get Laura’s handle wrong so got this I think so got this yeah I’m doing my uh preparing my challenge Roundup for stash have this week this it’s a new month next week what’s happening not yeah so that’s that’ll be fun I feel like I don’t know how long the session usually are but I feel like you’re gonna be able to bash out loads of scrunchies we’re doing two hours for that one uh mostly because Laura has little ones so and two hours would be PL plenty for getting to know other people who are doing The Challenge and uh talking about maybe the best patterns to use and things but I think she normally does a post on that I think she’s sharing that again soon so yeah she approached me to ask and it’s yeah um it’s quite a nice thing to do yeah hopefully that’ll be a good one for like beginners to get engaged with as well because it’s like one of the most simple things that you can make isn’t it scrunchies yeah yeah definitely I’ve made a couple before but not many but this is the first I’m actually doing the scrunchie swap so I’m quite excited to do it for once I’m not very good at doing all the challenges I I dabble in maybe like one or two a year at most sometimes it’s coincidence um I tried so we did a blouse so along for the blouse challenge in April I didn’t make a blouse I was there for the six hours but it wasn’t a priority for me because yeah so I had to let that one go do you find that when you’re hosting the virtual sewing room or you sort of watching everyone and making sure everyone’s got a turn to speak can like no I’m too attentive like you as hosts we know that one of the things is don’t bring anything like if you’re working on anything complicated just don’t like hand sewing mending so the other night I was because we did Breakout runs the first time um I just had some just gluing pattern together that I printed off so very simple squares it wasn’t too complicated it was 10 pages or something just I just did that and yeah we don’t get much stuff stuff done as host but even now now that I have a host who can just get on and do the job for me and I can just listen in I still sometimes perhaps pay too much attention when I should take more of a back seat but um it’s quite hard though when it’s like your baby though isn’t it you’re like don’t you know you don’t want someone to come away and being like Oh it’s a bit awkward in Virtual sewing room last night you’re no should have jumped in there they do a great job and yeah um we’ll have our weaknesses as hosts and we help each other out especially when there’s when we all happen to be there or multiple of us so yeah it’s that’s just me I need to let that go and I can get on sometimes when I’m quite passionate or determined I will get crack on and just half listening but yeah most time I’m like they’re fine it’s not them it’s just and you’re really good at like putting stuff on Instagram as well like afterwards like oh we talked about this and this and this and you know here’s this here’s a little survey that we did about the best sewing snack and stuff like that and I feel like that sort of content takes a long time to put together but it you know it can be kind of underappreciated when people are it’s just like loads of stories you’re like J been so long compiling all this info yeah that’s this is me I’m I’m being like yes Jenny stories I appreciate them I’m sure loads of other people do as well but I think like you know since going from sort of you know like a casual sewing person on Instagram to like actually running my own business in the community and when it becomes sort of like work you’re like okay this I’m actually like paying attention to how much time I’m spending on this now and it’s like um kind of crazy but yeah I think I don’t want those Instagram steps because it’s probably quite a lot it’s so important for building a community though isn’t it and like providing that Hub to bring everyone together oh hello Tanya thanks for joining um but yeah I think maybe now should we pivot and just talk a little bit about your stash get a bit of in the stash chat um yes my stash um got all my patterns here not all of them most of them a cricket on your boxes yeah that’s it’s actually hidden under a pile of fabric and patterns and all sorts uh so I’ve kind of got it arranged sorry I’m going to Pivot the screen you on um oh gonna Spotlight yeah de’s not very good at that she needs to get better but she’s get if you’re watching D that’s your disciplinary a I love you really um see I’ve got new and un used but that’s just the go-to kind of places they go cotton and then I’ve got knit underne um I’ve got unwanted but that’s turned into just also yeah it got changed I didn’t want to get rid of the nice crickets it’s a really good one and then I’ve got work in progress and miscellaneous just off the screen but that’s getting quite full um but I found one in there the other day I don’t know why I in there but I did find one which might be interesting because it kind of relates to sewing room where’s it gone I have this nice pile but I can’t see the one I’m after oh here it is so this is a it’s still got the sticker on crepe powder with flowers polyester yeah that’s B white still in there um it’s lovely floral and I got this when I attended the sewing Weekender which the fold line and Charlotte organized in 2018 that was my first and only kind of social event I’ve ever been to in person I’ve done a few workshops here and there and this I think was part of a goodie bag never used it meter of this polyester and I keep meaning to destash this and it keeps like occasionally it just pops up from my stash like oh yes that oh that’s fun but it’s nice and light but um where should I go uh so when we had our first birthday the virtual preswing room um some of the ladies uh some my fellow hosts and I know a few others got together and got me a lovely voucher Which is far too kind um so this is one that I bought with the voucher firm voucher for manura Fabrics this is a jersey I think it’s Atia brunette she says confidently no art gallery art gallery and I just thought I had to have this because it’s got all the crosses on um so that’s going to be a Adrian blouse with the puffy sleeve and the nice swoop um yes it’s that I’m quite looking forward to when I get to it another recent purchase is this lovely linen uh say hi to Mel don’t worry about being late Mel um we’ve only just started talking about Jenny stash so yeah you we mostly just talked about virtual sewing room a minute ago and obviously you know about that and we did give you a shout out when we talking about threads as well I think I think male features in like most of the episodes because M’s like helped everyone with their different projects is a very good egg and she’s been a wonderful advocate for virtual seing room and she pops on actually she said something nice sorry I’m gonna quote you mail but um I think she turned up quite late to a session um I think like you know half hour left to go and she wasn’t sure about coming uh because maybe she’d had one of those days like we all do and it was just quite nice because afterwards she said I wasn’t sure about coming but I felt a lot better just having that half hour actually and just yeah and I did ask on a session recently it was a Monday evening and everyone was just like oh gosh just a little bit grumpy Mondays I think is what I call it because I did I don’t normally ask at the end I was like is everyone feeling a bit better because we all kind of came into this a little bit like just and I think someone said I don’t feel like I’m going to murder anyone so I take that as a whn that uh we do improve mental health just by dedicating time for you to kind of straight fabric work on a project plan organize whatever chat um so yeah that’s what you can put on your Flyers like virtual sewing room preventing Monday murders since one day Tuesday murders too um let’s get back to your uh your fabric before we all to Jail uh so this is a nice linen from where did I get this from in the end Lan no it’s not lanzi lzi um my friend um sewing wife um she’s not very big on Instagram I don’t think I think she’s got private account but she suggested I should make some PES in a dark red and it’s not quite showing as dark red but um it is a slightly darker than what it’s coming up as um so they might make a Pietra or I might be brave and do another trouser pattern with them because I’ve just done a black pair of slightly different linen but I do love the opatra now I’ve got the fit so that’s closet core uh pattern um this is one that I bought from like so amazing so I do stickers I know there’s lots of companies or a couple of people that have got oh you’ve got stickers got stickers yeah like who else is it oh yes um sorry I do my own stickers um so this I bought specifically um for the Bella dress which is a liberty pattern um so I got this from like so amazing to do that but I did the twirl and I didn’t like it it’s like such a Jenny pattern it had a collar it’s pretty dress little sleeves and I don’t like it like just so I now have 2.7 met of this cotton and Poppin and I feel like the the pattern the busyness of the floral love a floral I don’t know what to do with it so that’s now going to proba sit in the stash for a while which hurts because it’s quite pretty and I love the colors but I don’t know and I’m at that point like maybe I should just get rid of it and then I’m like it’s cotton poplin it’s such an easy one to work with and every now and then I just sit with my kind of EX I have a spreadsheet that’s how I keep my Pat um and so I go on there and look like what can I match it to and I just don’t know so this one that I just yeah like to look at but who knows when it will get used so quick let us know your suggestions in the chat and in the comments if you’re watching on cat shop for a nice 2.7 meters of cotton poplin yeah and it has been washed because I was smart enough to write that down um this yeah uh I had a bit of the um Jersy uh Jersey uh Visos to show you but I’ve already shown you the dress earlier so I can throw that on the pile I’ve got ni florals is a theme so the I love a floral we talk about subscription boxes quite a bit in Virtual sewing room because I know a number of people get them and so I did the SE haly Jane one um for a few months she’s very local to me actually picked this one up from her in person um this is fabric I’d never pick like animal prints just not what I’d pick this was November’s box and at first I was a bit put out like oh this is why I don’t do subscription boxes because I’ve spent all this money and got like I’m not going to use but then I think I saw the first person who made something with it I was like hm actually fos which I love it’s you know not in the usual colors you’d see animal print and then I quickly fell in love with it and was like I’m going to do a Shelby dress or maybe I thought uh Lyra but it quickly went into Shelby and then it went into pocket Shelby um so yeah I don’t do the boxes because I just can’t cope with when I don’t like the fabric it’s and these are very full and I can’t do that to myself I’m trying to be more sustainable and use up what I’ve got she says having bought more um more florals because I’m just such a sucker but slightly different um so this is um I think a fabric godmother I don’t know if it was one of theirs it’s definitely from them and it’s a Visos twill but it was one of their remnants which is how I Justified buying it um so it’s only 0.9 um and I think for 0.9 I’m quite um I like a good Tetris and just getting what I can out of a meter CU I if I see something pretty I’ll just get a meter of it because I know I can get something out of it so I know I can do a zero waste cropped shirt out of 0.9 and I have done a so over Alex shirt um which you can see on the grid that’s what I wore to threads a Yellow Version but I patched the inner yolk so all the cut off bits I’ll patch them together because you don’t see that it’s on the inside um you can always use a different fabric as well for the Yol if you need to yeah I think when I’ve done it it’s big enough pieces where it’s like three or like one little small P so yeah so that one I don’t know it’s got little bees on it’s just so cute how can I like not buy it sorry how can I not rehome it yeah Mel suggested the nephrine blouse for the cotton poplin I don’t know that pattern I have to look it up sound the problem with virtual sewing room and there is a disclaimer is that you learn about all these patterns and shops and fabrics that it’s very dangerous so I’m trying to keep to the patterns that I’ve got and I know and I love and um so the soov at Alex top I think it’s in one of their ebooks that’s a really nice kind of blousy shirt it’s very simple shirt it doesn’t have a collor stand but it’s just a yeah I can now I can get it with a short sleeve from a meter I don’t know how um proper Tetris I never follow the lay plans I think the only time I do is uh me uh made my wardrobe because she’s very good at doing it within as minimum as possible um yes I’ve made her hi it’s not hidey bag Hilder bag um and that’s all squares and she does that from very minimum and that’s got paa um bit on so I can use that for cycling some casual Journeys um I can’t remember what I was talking about just fabric my H yeah V is dangerous learning about patn and stuff there’s a lot more patn shops or patent companies I didn’t know about at all I I feel like there’s a lot of new ones that have come out in the last like couple of years as well like I don’t know I thought felt like I was pretty like on it with you know sort of Indie pattern companies and stuff and now there’s like so many new ones and people are talking and I’m like what’s this pattern who’s this designer and I’m like oh no and what’s quite nice is the virtual sing is people are saying I really like these patterns because of XY Z like because they have the different cup sizes or because they’re more size inclusive or um yeah there’s certain ones that get mentioned a lot and then sometimes we discuss patterns where they instruction aren’t very good um or you know people ask for help and mean that’s one of the rewarding things about it is when we do introductions we go right who’s stuck who needs advice you know whether it’s fabric you don’t want to do button color stuck with what does this mean what what are they trying to get me to do I normally do it like this so we have discussed yeah the kind of patent houses that are perhaps poor at doing certain parts of making a pattern and all of that so yeah it’s it’s very dangerous I’ve got a new swimsuit kind of on my radar because of crystal in Malaysia uh patterns for pirates like such a lovely looking pattern do I need a new slimsuit no have I just brought swim fabric yes so it’s to up my skills I’ve got to build a skill set got suits I’ve made last year I just made four cu I could fit a bikini and a one piece out of one meter of fabric like bodging um that’s one of the nice things I found through sewing is so I have I’m very lucky I have a friend who has been into sewing and I spent years without anyone like sewing um within my close friends like no one and then through work found my friend Emma and she’s now my sewing wife she sent me a little sewing wife pin recently and it’s like finally she’s proposed and she’s my go-to we live like a 100 miles apart but we make time for each other for her to come here I go to her we have time either on bikes or sewing or a bit of both and it’s just nice to have that person go to that I hadn’t like that was missing and like I think the virtual sewing room is also a place where people can connect with others and it’s just nice where you can then kind of follow up on Instagram we be like who was it that that said this and yeah someone messaged me the other day about irons because we do talk about tools and things so pointing them in the right direction of who said what about the iron they were using yeah it’s been so like it’s just so nice to have people that you can actually talk to about Hobby when all your other friends don’t care don’t appreciate you know and also that thing of again Mel said it that when you meet someone that also says you go oh that’s a nice top and then you immediately go yeah but look at the this look this this is wrong you know we’re very welcoming Community we go God don’t point out stop pointing it out we don’t care you’ve made all of this by hand you’ve designed you thought about it you’ve made it you put time in you love it and it looks nice so it’s such a supportive Community wasn’t the question you but I wanted to it yeah so lots of friendships being made and yeah that’s must be really rewarding to see as well like to watch like over the last like year when all your regulars like they come back and they you can see they’ve like all got more comfortable and got to know each other a bit more it’s must be really fun yeah sometimes when people have long-term projects you get people popping in it’s like how’s that going and so it’s nice to see so I know jud’s been working on her coat for a long time um and that’s okay we’re here when you have that project that we’re here to morally support and get you through and obviously I’m going to mention Lucy’s quilt it’s been in her family for years pcing together the English paper pattern hexagon pieces you know and she’s almost there you know over the last year I think we’ve helped to get to the end of this super king sized wow quote uh and it kind of becomes a running joke but it’s not a joke you know we love what she’s creating and it’s really nice to kind of be part of that journey to like get her there and finish it so I think there some nice motivation things we’ve had an unboxing of an overlocker oh nice because they’re a little bit overlockers is this big scary thing to some people and it’s just like no open it open it they didn’t have their camera on but it was still nice to be like open it open it you could just hear the excitement and encouragement from everyone else so that’s always quite nice yeah amazing right we’ve only got like five minutes left amazingly anyone who’s watching live and wants to ask a question you got to get that in the chat right now um and then we’ll look so Mel says do you have a Hab aasher weakness she’s a sucker for labels and bias binding um not bias binding um I’ve made my own labels I do have my little pot of labels which is beyond uh reach um and that’s in a little pot I got in Paris with my um sewing friend Andrea um no favorite shopping in Paris no we didn’t no we didn’t no we didn’t that was a long time ago no but we are going to meet up in London she’s based in Birmingham and we’re gonna meet in London and go to Gold hawk or Walton Walton stay um we’re gonna go fabric shopping uh she came with me to Gold HW road to buy fabric for my wedding dress as well but even talk about making your own wedding dress yeah I’m not going to say anymore um no I don’t think so so I’m going to move the camera again um I’ve got these are all my kind of habashy bits and a lot of them have been donated so I try not to buy stuff because I always try and use up what I’ve got so there’s ribbons I’m a sucker for like pulling stuff off of Christmas presents and shoving it in the Box ribbons and bits of bows and stuff yeah yeah just those kind of things so I think aasher wise apart from labels I don’t think I’ve got a weakness it’s a fabric uh hi Sheila thanks for joining and Jenny uh Mel says that there was a thread on the fold line about online groups and she suggested virtual sewing room so hopefully have a new attendee from France that will be good um and Carrie says they’ve learned so much from the virtual sewing room lovely welcoming bunch of people oh that’s really we are and that’s one of the so there’s a few core elements that I’ve always kind of kept in mind and that’s kind of community respect um inclusivity uh what’s my other one but it’s inclusivity oh that’s gonna annoy me but it’s this this connection just having that connection with likeminded people and we make sure that it’s welcoming and friendly so when I ask people on Instagram can you tell me words that how you describe it and we now have a word cloud like it filled my heart that so I wrote down a few words that I wanted people to say and they nailed kind of exactly what I wanted like ticked off my words and even a few extra words I hadn’t thought of that was like yes that is exactly one of these core elements um a thanks Angelica it’s lovely having sewing friends so it’s it means so much that kind of what I wanted to do with virtual sing room has kind of blown up to everything and more and that people are able to appreciate it and have that dedicated space um yeah it it’s such a mental thing as well to know that there’s someone that you can just message on Instagram or whatever and just have that two hours even if you don’t chat just having that background Nat which is perfectly fine if people want to do that like just having that kind of yeah you can listen in there’s the chat function like everyone’s doing now so yeah connection’s a big part of it yeah yeah definitely I think it’s really amazing what you’ve achieved so far with virtual sewing room Jenny like I think you should definitely be proud of it like you know no point pointing out little flaws like on your sewing projects just own it be like yes I’ve brought together the sewing Community from across the whole world everyone’s making friends like it’s it’s incredible honestly it’s amazing um and yeah I I’ve been to quite a few of the sessions and it’s really fun and then you see someone and they’re wearing something I’m like like yesterday I was watching it I was I was online and uh someone put their top on I was like this is your world account that you were making like last week oh yeah jeans oh sorry kicked it yeah jeans top yeah I was I couldn’t wait to see that finished and yeah she shared it today and it’s like yeah it’s always nice to see that especially other garments where people have had struggles and stuff and it’s um just nice when you go yeah you’ve made it like you you got through whatever it was the fly zip whatever um the decisions on buttons final things or I feel like some projects you just need to have a little moan about it don’t you and then you get you get through you just need to complain you can’t complain to someone who’s like doesn’t understand sewing they’re like oh can’t you just like fix it there and you’re like I don’t want to unpick it I’ve done it all already so yeah I think you just you just need to have that little vent and then you’ll get there and everyone will appreciate the struggle yeah that’s it and we’re all very likeminded we’ve been through it and like when someone mentions they got the unpicker out we just you just see the nod of I understand and uh through with my sewing wife uh Emma we created bodge life um which is just like it doesn’t matter about the imperfections because that shows we’re human it means we’re unique and also you should always keep your Fabric close but you’re UNP pick a closer that’s our motto and it’s very much stands through virtual sewing room as well it’s that it’s fine we all make mistakes there’s lots of support like we’ve all we’ve all been there with this that the other so I feel like that would be a great t-shirt if you ever want to start making virtual sewing room merch keep your Fabric close but your UNP picker closer is we do have merch I mean not much is left actually now I said that but I did um to help raise funds for the zoom license for this year here we had um these little labels made so you could buy little packs but I think I’ve only got a few left so it’s really nice seeing these being made on stuff so I think Jean used it on her Wilder top and D had put it on her poof that she made at the weekends it’s really nice see these out in the wild kind of like popping up and I need to put them on more of mine so that that’s lined up on the table to go on Shelby um yeah yeah Angelica uh changed the threads on the overlocker for the first time in vssr I think that was yesterday wasn’t it Angel yeah yeah it’s nice finding out tips and stuff and like tools as well like that’s that’s been a game changer there’s one at the weekend which came through a vlog uh Adam s’s he had a pin cushion where all the pins face down like why hadn’t I heard of that before oh like there ones where they all stick off the edge they all just yeah are like vertical or at an angle it’s in like a pot you can get magnetic pots didn’t know that yeah yeah you just pick up so much stuff don’t you I think Carrie asked ages ago uh which I didn’t ignore I was just um trying to keep the focus on Jenny and not talk about me too much um but yeah I I have started my dress if you mean my um recreate the look dress I finished it as well I finished it in yesterday’s session apart from like a little well actually no I carried it on after yesterday’s session because I did it while sewing bee was on but it was actually a little bit disturbing because I happen to have the same sewing machine as they have on the sewing bee so when it makes the error noise I’m like oh no and then I’m like no it’s not me it’s them but apart from that yeah I finished it now there’s like a little bit of hand sewing that I’m going to Kid myself I’m going to do um just to like secure down the facing but yeah it’s done so I can wear my engagement dress Recreation for our wedding anniversary so that’s going to be really cute that’s nice what pattern are you wearing right now because I’m loving the kind of tropical kind of yeah this is my uh it’s the warm weather outfit so this is the Saro set course I sewed it up because it was like my whole boobs were out so like because I’m really short as well I’m 5 foot two like whenever I hear someone in the virtual sum room being like I’m 5 foot two I’m like me too but I’m like there is a lot of that like we talk I’m at the other Spectrum I’m almost 510 so when people are talking about lengthening stuff and I’m like oh oh like there’s a lot of love for The Fringe dress the chalk and Notch pattern uh because I know uh Sam um is a big Advocate because I think she’s made a few she talks about it she’s short she’s prob 5’2 uh and then I’m like I need someone else who needs to be making it and Mandy’s making it and she’s 589 so I’m like and how much did you add to it so I found that out recently which is very useful because that’s a pattern I definitely brought because of actual sewing room um yeah good influence and bad influence on the bank I mean at least you’ve got like a higher chance of success hopefully if it’s like comes properly recommended yeah um that yeah all right we should probably wrap it up because we’ve already been talking for an hour um but yeah thanks so much for joining us Jenny have you got anything else you quickly want to mention or tell us about um I’ll be posting up all the July 2024 sessions on in Instagram tomorrow because I’ve said it so I’ve got to do it um but yeah look out we’ve got some exciting songs coming along soon and some exciting news potentially coming soon just um yes another survey is coming keep an eye out for that because I need your feedback on stuff everyone if you don’t ask for what you want you won’t get what you want I appreciate all the love that people share um virtual s room on Instagram so thank you yeah and with you soon um yeah there should so there should be loads of links in the description ition on YouTube to Virtual sewing room on Eventbrite on Instagram Jenny on Instagram um so yeah do go and check those out if you want some sewing company um and yeah I might see you there as well because I try and come to lots of the sessions unless I’m like really really grumpy then I don’t come because I’ll spare you you up me up yeah um but yeah that was a really fun chat thank you so much for joining and I will be back next week I’m going to be talking to Laura who is the Specky seamstress so I’m sure Mel will be tuning in for that to get some more bias binding Temptation um but so yeah I’m back same time next week which I believe is the 3 of July believe or not um 800m on YouTube so hopefully I’ll see you guys then in the meantime do uh keep an eye on stash Hub on Instagram we’re _ Hub the same tag as here on YouTube because we’ve got something really exciting happen happening just over this weekend um so yeah I’ll be sharing Lots about that and yeah I hopefully will see you guys all next week bye
1 Comment
That was a fun video 🤩