Here are some highlights from my conversation with Kate:
Kate first started sewing when she was given a sewing machine in 2018 and was so enthused by the hobby and the incredible sewing community, she had set up her business In A Haystack after one year! Not quite as speedy as Harriet‘s six months between learning to sew and opening Sew Me Sunshine, but still a speedy turnaround!
Kate said she loves the Haystack Packs as they are a great way for her to showcase other people’s amazing talents. I asked her how she discovers all the small businesses she features in the packs and she said mainly through Instagram and hashtags, but also by word of mouth as the sewing community is so supportive and small businessed will often recommend each other. In A Haystack even has some of it’s own collaborations with other businesses in the sewing community. Haystack Packs contain a discount for printing company Fabulosew, so subscribers can get their patterns printed on lightweight A0 paper. Kate has also partnered with The Specky Seamstress to offer printed bias binding with gift subscriptions so the gift reciever has something physical they can enjoy too.
Kate described her stash as “like my brain – not particularly well structured with quite a lot going on!”. She stores her fabric under her bed and said she’s the perfect person to use Stash Hub as the app helps her keep organised and makes it much easier to check what’s there. Kate’s early stash featured a lot of prints with animals, although now her style has shifted more towards plains and earth tones. Although Kate only makes around 1-2 things per month, her stash is in decline as she tends not to buy fabric too often. Limiting fabric buying to only special pieces or fabric souvenirs from trips means Kate’s stash is full of memories and stories. Merchant and Mills is one of Kate’s favourite places to buy fabric, and she bought some gorgeous linen when visiting their shop in Rye. Not sure anything will be able to top the linen she bought in the Amazon Rainforest though, and all the memories from that trip!
In addition to sewing the Haystack featured patterns, Kate has attended pattern cutting workshops at Morley College London and City College Norwich. She said these courses were great fun anf helped her gain a better understanding of how 2D shapes translate into 3D patterns.
Sustainability is a key focus of Kate’s sewing, so she’s embracing the ‘slowest of slow fashion’ by growing flax, processing it to create linen then weaving it into fabric. Each year she has grown a small crop of flax and hopes to eventually create enough linen fabric to create her own crop top entirely from scratch! Kate was a fellow exhibitor at the Sew Sustainable Fair earlier this year – great to have another digital sewing business there with us.
