The Sewing Directory

Blogger of the Year - Deadline approaching!

2012-01-27T04:06:00.000-08:00

Just a little reminder that our Blogger of the Year awards is rapidly approaching the deadline. Don't forget to let us know which sewing blogger inspired you in 2011. You can win a prize just for voting and the deadline is 31st of January 2012.

A little reminder of the prizes:

Prizes

1^st - £50 voucher for Backstitch

2^nd & 3^rd – Prize bundle which includes a fabric sample pack

from Makower, a sewing book & handmade ceramic buttons.

Voter prize - £15 voucher for Backstitch

You can send your nomination using this entry form or add your vote into the comments below this post.

Fabric Finds 2

2012-01-23T03:03:00.000-08:00

Blueberry Crumb Cake

I've spotted this gorgeous new Moda collection over at Quilt Me Happy, Eclectic Maker and Hulu Designs. These gorgeous blue & tan fabrics are already proving very popular Quilt Me Happy have already run out of charm packs and jelly rolls but still have the Layer Cakes in stock, Hulu have all 3 in stock currently and Eclectic Maker have jelly rolls, bundles and some of the fabrics by length.

Blueberry Crumb Cake

Backyard Baby by Patty Sloniger for Michael Miller

This cute new fabric from Micheal Miller is now in stock at The Eternal Maker available both in the gorgeous bundle pictured below and by length (£3 for a fat quarter).


Backyard Baby

Ann Kelle Cords

Celtic Fusion Fabrics have just got a stunning selection of colourful Ann Kelle Corduroy fabrics in stock a few of which are pictured below. Click on the link to view all of them.

Ann Kelle Cords

Always & Forever

Another pretty Moda collection in pink and reds with hearts and flower prints ideal for Valentine's day. Eclectic Maker have this fabrics in charm packs, jelly rolls and by length.

Resolved to Sew 2012

2012-01-17T11:52:00.000-08:00

Sewing Resolutions

Ali over at the Very Berry blog is encouraging everyone to share their 2012 sewing resolutions by having a mega fabrics giveaway (with 11 different prizes) and everyone who shares their resolution either on her blog or their own blog get entered into the draw.

So first off I am going to share my sewing resolutions and then send you over to Ali so you can share yours and be in with a chance of winning some lovely fabrics to help you achieve your resolutions.

*A rather general resolution for 2012 is to make more time to sew. Last year I was so busy with The Sewing Directory that the only sewing I did was out of neccessity (repairing clothes & making some blinds) rather than anything fun.

*Finish a Quilt! This is my main sewing resolution for the year, I have around 4 quilts started but not finished so this year is going to be the year that I finish one. I've opted to start afresh with some beautiful charm packs from Quilt Me Happy the pictured Blueberry Crumble fabrics.

*Try hand embroidery. I've always fancied trying hand embroidery, for years I've been collecting up embroidery books but still haven't tried it yet so hopefully 2012 will be the year I get started.

So what are your sewing resolutions, please do feel free to share them below in the comments but remember to be in with a chance of winng you also need to go leave a comment here: http://veryberryhandmade.co.uk/2012/01/16/giveaway-resolved-to-sew-2012/

Fabric Finds

2012-01-08T02:50:00.000-08:00

We are going to run a new regular series on our blog this year with details of new fabrics & patterns in stock on our customers sites.

Catch of the Day by Hoodie

Backstitch have the new seaside inspired Timeless Treasures collection, Catch of the Day available on their site here, I love the fish designs.

You can buy a fat quarter bundle of the collection here, it is named the shark bite bundle.

White Wash by Meg Hawkey

Quilt Me Happy have the new White Wash collection by Meg Hawkey for Lecien. With pale colours and subtle lacey designs this collection has has a distinctive 'French Grey' look.

This elegent collection is available as a bundle or you can buy by length (minimum half metre).

Urban Zoologie by Ann Kelle

Due in any day now at Sew Me Happy is the adorable Urban Zoologie collection by Ann Kelle. Full of brightly coloured animals these fabrics would be great for kids quilts. I just love these colourful owls, there will also be monkeys and chicks on the other fabrics.

Lark by Amy Butler

The ever popular Amy Butler released her latest collection at the end of last year - Lark. This vibrant collection can be found in many shops as both fabric bundles and fabric by the fat quarter or metre. Just a few of the places you can find it include Fabric With Love, Eclectic Maker, Suffolk Sewing School and Gone To Earth.

Maternity Patterns by Megan Nielson

Available for the first time in the UK at Backstitch are a collection of maternity patterns by designer Megan Nielson. Designed to accomodate a growing bump, and for nursing mothers most of these patterns are aimed at beginners.

Sewaholic Minoru Jacket pattern

Ideal for the cold and wet winter weather Sewaholic's latest pattern is a pretty feminine jacket avilable on the Sewbox website. Also available on the Sewbox website are new additions to the Hot Patterns collection including a couple of patterns for men.

Sewing Blogger of The Year awards 2011

2011-12-31T04:21:00.000-08:00

Sewing Blogger of the year 2011

We have teamed up with online fabric store Backstitch to bring some recognition to all those hardworking sewing bloggers out there. We would like you to vote for your favourite sewing blog of 2011, and we will reward the winner with £50 credit for Backstitch so they can stock up on lovely fabrics.

There will also be 2 runners up prizes plus one voter will be picked at random to win a prize too.

How to vote

You can send your nomination using this entry form or you can put your nomination on The Sewing Directory Blog or the Backstitch blog in the comments below our posts about the awards. Please do let us know why you love your chosen blog. We know you may have many sewing blogs that you love but I’m afraid we have to limit to 1 nomination per person. You have until midnight 31^st January 2012 to get your vote in.

Bloggers please do feel free to post about these awards on your blog to encourage your followers to vote for you. You can grab the code for the Sewing blogger awards button (left) below:

  <a  href="http://backstitchblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Sewing%20Blogger%202011"><img  src="http://www.backstitch.co.uk/files/backstitch/marketing2_12/111228_Awards01.jpg"  /></a>

Prizes

1^st - £50 voucher for Backstitch

2^nd & 3^rd – Prize bundle which includes a fabric sample pack from Makower, a sewing book & handmade ceramic buttons.

Voter prize - £15 voucher for Backstitch

Terms & Conditions

One vote per person, multiple votes will result in all of that person’s votes being removed. All nominations must be received by midnight GMT on Tuesday 31^st January 2012; winners will be announced on the 1^st of February 2012. There is no geographical limit, you can enter from anywhere in the world, and vote for a blogger based anywhere in the world too. Postage costs for your order on Backstitch will be taken out of your voucher credit. The nominated blog doesn’t have to purely focus on sewing so long as at least 25% of the posts relate to sewing. In the event of a tie break we will use a random number generator to pick the winner. A voter will be selected at random to win the voter prize.

Merry Christmas from The Sewing Directory

2011-12-24T04:53:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas Everyone

Everyone at The Sewing Directory would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and thank you all for your support during 2011. We will still be here over the Christmas & New Year period both on e-mail and social networks, although we may be updating a little less than usual.

2011 has been a year of big changes for The Sewing Directory, we have gone from 1 person to a team of 3 (thank you Beth & Juliet for your help) and we now get 10,000 more monthly visitors than we did this time last year! The site has evolved too with several new features such as our workshops page, sales page and the splitting of our articles section into projects, interviews, how to guides etc.

In 2012 we plan to continue expanding the site, introducing new features and building on those we already have. We are working on a plan for an exciting new summer design competition to replace our Christmas Creativity Competition, we know there are only so many Christmas ideas you can come up with!
We'd like to thank you all for visiting the site, using the directory and participating throughout the last year. Hopefully our big advent giveaway has given many of you an extra Christmas treat. A big thank you to our sponsors, advertisers & customers who enable us to keep the site running, do pop over to their sites and check out their wonder products, fabrics & classes.

Here's wishing you all a successful 2012. Merry Christmas everyone - From Fiona, Beth & Juliet xxx

Are standards dropping?

2011-12-16T08:21:00.000-08:00

Last week I had 3 complaints outstanding against 3 different large multi million pound companies. One complaint about awful service, 1 about being over charged and 1 about damaged goods (the 3rd lot of damaged itemse i've had from that company in 3 orders!).

I started to wonder why are we having to complain so much more, is it just because we are all so much shorter of money now that we expect more for our money? Or are companies starting to drop their standards?

The notebooks I ordered from Peony and Thistle

I think that it's not only us smaller businesses who are being affected by credit crunch but the large companies too. They are finding costs are rising but they are still expected to be competitive, especially as people are buying less and being a lot more price conscious. We are now starting to see the effects in the service and quality of goods we receive.

The company that I received damaged items in 3 seperate orders from told me some of their usual suppliers had gone into administration so they were having to use a supplier they haven't used before and haven't had chance to quality check their work as much as they normally would. Hence, an increase in damaged products being sent out and more complaints being received. Others are just trying to cut corners to save money hoping that we won't notice.

When I posted a link to this post on Twitter Zoe Grant from Zoe & Drew said she'd been having problems with a well known supermarket and their customer service she tweeted ' The reason big high street & supermarket brands are losing profits is because they have forgotten how to look after their customers.'

However, for us the good news is that we can really make our small businesses stand out by ensuring that our customer service and the quality of our goods is as good as possible. Smaller businesses often compete with the larger ones on price, but we can more than make up for it with customer service. We can deliver that personal touch, and leave our customers with quality goods/services and a happy shopping experience.

The fabrics I received from Dragonfly Fabrics

I recently purchased the pictured set of notebooks from Peony & Thistle on Folksy as a treat for myself on my 30th birthday. Not only did they come beautifully wrapped in a handmade enveloppe but Dorothy, the shop owner, had included a beautiful birthday card inside too. It was the first order I have ever placed with her and I was so touched by her thoughtfulness. That is the kind of personal touch that small businesses give that larger ones don't, and it pays off, a few weeks later I them ordered 6 more of these notebooks as Christmas presents.

Many of the fabric stores I have received fabrics from recently Celtic Fusion Fabrics, Dragonfly Fabrics and Ecotale not only wrap their fabrics in delicate tissue paper but they wrap them with free ribbons, or include little extras like buttons or postcards with a personal message on ensuring that every customer is happy and will order again. So much nicer than just something wrapped in plastic with a printed receipt or thank you note that every customer gets.

Now is the time to make sure that the service and quality of products we provide keeps people buying handmade and from smaller businesses whilst the larger businesses learn the hard way that they can't continue to cut costs and expect the same level of customer satisfaction.

What do you think? Have you noticed a change in standards lately? Are you having to complain more? I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

Prizes every day until Christmas....

2011-12-01T05:45:00.000-08:00

Advent giveaway now live

Just a quick update to let you know that our advent giveaway with Abakhan Fabrics is now live. We are giving away prizes every day from now to the 25th of December, no limit to the number of times you can win so why not enter every day?

Full details can be found here: http://www.thesewingdirectory.co.uk/advent-giveaway/

Giveaways galore!

2011-11-26T08:18:00.000-08:00

We have loads of lovely prizes for you this Christmas. First of all I'd just like to announce the winner of our recent blog giveaway - Valerie M. Congratulations Valerie, you've won a £25 voucher for Bead Crafty, we have contacted you through your blog.

Ok onto the giveaways - first up we currently have a giveaway running with Traplet Publications where you can win an annual subscription to either Sewing World Magazine or Patchwork & Quilting. This competition is open worldwide and ends on Wednesday (30th Nov). Details of how to enter can be found here.

Secondly we have a fabric giveaway with new online fabric store Ecotale. That has just gone live today, ends next Saturday (3rd Dec) and details of how to enter can be found here.

ADVENT GIVEAWAY

We have of course saved the best for last.... from the 1st to the 25th of December we have teamed up with Abakhan Fabrics to giveaway prizes every single day! That's right, prizes for every single day, just pop over here each day to view what prize is on offer and how to enter, plus you can check the winner's list to see if you won any prizes the previous days.

Prizes include gift vouchers for the Abakhan site, loads of fabric, sewing supplies, ribbons, buttons, sewing patterns, craft books and more.

Although that will be a hard act to follow we also have a rather impressive fabric giveaway for the new year with My Fabric House. So keep an eye on The Sewing Directory over Christmas and New Year for an array of great prizes.

Visit us here: www.thesewingdirectory.co.uk

Giveaway with Bead Crafty

2011-11-18T14:37:00.000-08:00

Customising with Beads

Image from www.stylebop.co.uk

With the Christmas party season rapidly approaching and budgets being low have you considered using beads to customise an item you already have in your wardrobe? You can easily bring a bit of sparkle to a LBD, or add colour to a plain top by adding beaded detail. You don’t have to limit it just to embellishing clothing either; you can also use beads on your shoes too. Click on the embedded links for relevant tutorials to help you customise your clothing with beads.

Giveaway

Popular bead website Bead Crafty have kindly offered us a £25 voucher to giveaway to one lucky blog reader so they can start customising their clothing in time for the party season. To enter please leave a comment below letting us know what item you would customise with beads, and how you would plan to do it. For me I would love to add a swirly silver beaded design down one side of a plain black top. Competition ends midday Friday 25th November.

Bead Crafty has a great selection of beads and offer same day dispatch and free delivery on all orders, regardless of size. We recently placed an order with them midweek and received the beads by the weekend, plus we found their customer service team to be very helpful. Our tester was amazed by the presentation, wrapped in tissue paper and tied with a ribbon, with a free pack of beads and pack of love hearts included!

To find out more please visit http://www.beadcrafty.com/

This is a sponsored post.

New office!

2011-11-15T05:45:00.000-08:00

As some of you may know i've spent the last couple of months making endless cups of tea for builders (they need 1 every hour apparantly!) whilst they have converted my garage into an office and playroom (so I can work whilst my son plays).

It's been a hard couple months with countless delays, problems and ever escalating costs but finally it's all done! I now have a proper office to work from, and will hopefully be better able to seperate work & home life, a big challenge for many of us who work from home. I'm still fiddling around with the layout but i've put a few pics of the before and after below.

Great brickwork from the previous builders

The roof consisted of rotton wood, inches of concrete and ivy holding it all together!


The shoddy workmanship was apparant throughout

Thankfully the new garage is watertight, all gaps have been filled and all walls supported, plus it's been well insulated and carpeted to keep it nice and warm in there. In fact it's actually warmer than the house now! I've barracaded myself into a corner with my office furniture (i've added a bit more furniture after the pics below) in an attempt to keep little fiddling fingers out of my stuff...

Pretending to work...

The boss! He's such a slavedriver!

Never too young to learn to sew...

The playroom side of the room

I will be spending the next week or so moving furniture, my work stuff and my son's toys out there but it is almost there! The best thing of it all is I will finally have space to get my sewing machine out, and if I try to leave the laptop out there I might be able to squeeze in some hand sewing in front of the tv in the evening. I really want to learn to embroider so will try to get started on that in the evenings soon.

Create your own sewing kit with Korbond

2011-11-08T11:39:00.000-08:00

Our current competition gives 2 lucky winners the chance to win a sewing kit which they have created. Korbond are suppliers of sewing and craft accessories are are asking people to choose 8 items from their range of products to make their own kit, with the supplies that they need.

This prize would make a great Christmas present for a fellow sewist, or a treat for yourself.

For full details of how to enter please visit: http://www.thesewingdirectory.co.uk/news/2011/11/02/create-your-own-sewing-kit-with-korbond/

Focus on....

2011-11-06T06:44:00.000-08:00

Focus on... School of Frock

School of Frock, based in Greenwich London, offer fun creative sewing classes for all ages (from 6 upwards). Run by haute couture trained fashion designer Cilene Jenkins there are a selection of classes available for both children and adults.

Cilene set up the School of Frock 3 years ago after getting a MA from St Martins in Fashion, Textiles and Couture design and working with Vivienne Westwood. She decided to set the school up because she noticed that sewing skills were no longer being passed down through the generations as they used to be.

For children they cover a set topic each term, for instance at the moment they are studying patchwork & freestyle quilting. They also offer children's workshops covering clothing and accessories. For teenagers they can help GCSE and A-Level students boost their studies and for adults they encourage people to bring along a project they want &to do and guide them in doing it.

For session times, prices and other information please visit: http://www.schooloffrock.com/

Christmas Creativity Winners

2011-11-01T10:34:00.000-07:00

Christmas Creativity Competition

The winning entry

We had a great selection of entries into our Christmas Creativity Competition this year from stockings to advent calanders, reindeer to Christmas bunting. There was one clear winner who was head and shoulders above the rest, her entry was 'The stand out project for me - easily the for design, originality and finish' said Ali Myer from David & Charles. Deborah Shepherd from Janome said she found it 'Stylish with simple sewing skills required.' The winning entry is pictured at the bottom of the page.

There was a clear 2nd prize winner who several points ahead of the others (and who's second entry also would have been in 4th place - but prizes are limited to one per person). For the other prizes it was a very close call, there were several entries of such a great calibre it was a hard choice for the judges to make....but without further ado lets announce the winners:

1st prize - Winning the Janome MC5900QC (rrp. £799) and being published in the winter edition of Cloth

Kerry Green with her Scandinavian Christmas tree cushion.

2nd Prize - Winning a £100 voucher for Abakhan Fabrics

Helen Wright with her Fairy Light Stocking.

3rd Prize - winning a £50 voucher for RUCraft

Susan Trevor with her advent calender.

4th Prize - Winning an annual subscription to Cloth Magazine

Mary Emmens with her Christmas Bunting.

5th Prize - Winning an annual subscription to Cloth Magazine

Suzan Dury with her advent calender bunting.

6th Prize - Winning an annual subscription to Cloth Magazine
Chris Webb with his Christmas Reindeer.

A big congratulations to all of the winners, we will be in touch with you all later today. The winning tutorial will be published later this week and many of the others will follow in the lead up to Christmas. A huge thank you to everyone who took the time to enter.

Fabric Giveaway

2011-10-25T08:57:00.000-07:00

Fabric Giveaway

We have teamed up with new fabric store Dragonfly Fabrics to give 3 lucky winners 1 metre of their chosen fabrics each. Dragonfly fabrics stock a large range of designer dressmaking fabrics including cottons, voiles, corduroys, linens, knits, jeans, flannel & organic fabrics.

For full details of how to entery please click here.

The giveaway ends next Tuesday so don't leave it too long to enter.

Focus on...

2011-10-16T07:37:00.000-07:00

Focus On... Hulu Crafts

Hulu Crafts is one of those stores that makes you wish you had an unlimited budget as there are just so many lovely things to buy! There’s not only a big range of Moda, Makower and other designer fabrics to choose from but for the knitters amongst you there is a big selection of yarn too! The fabrics can be purchased by length as well as in bundles, jelly rolls, charm packs, layer cakes and panels, plus they have a well stocked Christmas section.

Their premises are based in Modbury in Devon where as well as selling sewing & knitting supplies they also offer workshops. However, if you don’t live in Devon don’t worry there is a huge selection of products available through their website: http://www.hulucrafts.co.uk/

I’d also advise checking out their range of sewing and knitting magazines which include titles such as Quilting Arts Stitch and Vignette as well as Interweave Knit and Knit Scene.

Sewing Pattern Giveaway

2011-10-13T06:49:00.000-07:00

Sewbox Sewing Pattern Giveaway

We have teamed up with online store Sewbox for a sewing pattern giveaway ending next Tuesday. They have almost 1,000 patterns on site and we are giving 3 lucky winners their chance to win a pattern of their choice.

For full details and to enter please click here.

Plus Sewbox have teamed up with Suffolk Sewing School to giveaway a Janome Jem, details can be found here.

Focus on...

2011-10-08T01:47:00.000-07:00

Focus On.... Little Hands Design

Little Hands Design offer sewing and fashion classes for both children and adults. Based in London they offer daytime and evening courses for adults as well as afterschool, weekend and holiday courses for children. They have also just introduced regular Saturday Textile Arts and Crafts workshops too.

With a focus on creativity you do not need to have any previous sewing experience as they have a range of classes to suit all abilities and help you find your own style. Private tuition and parties are also available. Used to teaching children they also run several projects at local schools as well as teaching through their own new premises in Belsize Lane.

To find out more you can either view their listing on The Sewing Directory here, or visit their website: http://www.littlehandsdesign.com/

Would you like to win this sewing machine (rrp. £799)?

2011-09-28T09:19:00.000-07:00

WIN THIS SEWING MACHINE....

Janome Memory Craft 5900QC

The lovely Janome Memory Craft 5900QC is first prize in our Christmas Creativity Competition that ends in just 3 weeks time. Still time to get an entry in and with a total of 6 fab prizes your odds of winning a prize are good.... What are you waiting for?

Full details of how to enter here.

Using Facebook to promote your business

2011-09-18T01:03:00.000-07:00

We are starting a series of articles over on our site about running your own craft business one of which is below. If you'd like to view the others please click here.

Promoting Your Business

Self Promotion

Nowadays self promotion is important for 2 reasons, firstly there is an increasing amount of competition out there so you have to keep reminding people you exist, and why you are different/better than your competitors. Secondly, it is so much easier to promote yourself since the advent of social networking, forums and e-mail. You now have the option to promote your business for free, rather than paid advertising, all it costs is time.
Personally I’ve found a mix of paid advertising & social networking works well, but not every business can afford paid advertising so social network is ideal as it is available to everyone, free of charge.

I have to start by saying don’t try to do everything at once, many businesses set up accounts on several social networking sites, a blog, a Flickr account etc go overboard for the first few weeks and then realise they can’t keep it up and end up pretty much giving up on it all.

Start with one thing at a time and get yourself into a routine that you are comfortable with and can keep up with, consistancy is the aim. For people who are new to social networking I would suggest aiming for 2-3 social networking updates a week or 1 blog post. Once you have got the hang of that then you can try to increase it, or add another platform. If for any reason you don’t get around to updating for a while, don’t give up on it you can easily start posting again and things will pick up again in time.

Facebook

For most people, especially if you already have a personal Facebook page, Facebook is a fairly easy place to start. It’s very simple to set up a Facebook page, just visit an existing page (mine is here) and on the bottom left is an option that says ‘create page’. If you don’t already have a personal Facebook account you will need to set one up first from the sign up option on the front page. Don’t worry fans of your business page will not have access to your personal profile.

The harder thing is to decide what to put on your page and how to get (and keep) fans! Firstly, content wise please remember than constantly posting links to your site/shop and nothing else will put people off (same applies to other social networking platforms). You are best off viewing social networking as a way of engaging your customers, dealing with queries/complaints and getting feedback, any sales you get from it are a bonus. People can tell when you are just using it to get sales and will stop following.

I try to use what I call the rule of three; I aim to make 1/3 of my updates on Facebook & Twitter about my website, 1/3 about things that are related to my area (sewing) but not on my site (ie. Free projects, interesting interviews, sales/offers & newspaper articles) and 1/3 about my customers. You may choose to go 50/50 and make half about you and your business, and the other half about other things that would interest your fans. The main thing is you need to find a balance between promoting your business and keeping your fans interested. As to what would interest your fans, that is for you to work out through trial and error, see which posts get lots of likes and comments and which don’t. Think about which products/services/lifestyles are complimentary to your product or services. For instance if you sell felt why not share links to felt projects, reviews of felt craft books etc.

Another thing to consider is timing and frequency of posts. Are you target audience likely to be home during the day or checking Facebook in the evening. Do you want to post at a set time each day, or several times to reach different audiences different times of the day. Frequency wise it is best not to stick lots of posts on at once, you need to give people time to read and digest each post. I try to leave 2-4 hours between my posts, but even leaving 10-15 minutes mean people have time to read & respond to your first post (or click on the link you've posted and visit your site/another site) before seeing your next post. If you post several updates at once it spams people's news feed and they will quite likely unlike your page.

Another great thing about Facebook & Twitter is that it’s an ideal chance to conduct market research; you have many people interested in your products/service there ready to interact so make the most of it! If you are thinking of new product ideas, ask their opinion, if you want to know how to improve your service ask them! There is a useful option just above the text box on your page to ask a question, this is essentially a chance to conduct a poll, a great way to get input from your fans.

Facebook is also a good for connecting with other similar businesses, it is very easy to share posts from their wall. To do this on your page select the option on the right that says ‘use Facebook as [company name]’ and then go to the page that has something you want to share. Under the post or image you will see a share option, select this and it will bring up an option for you to add your own description to what you are sharing and then press the share button at the bottom to post it onto your page.

WARNING

Please do not use Facebook to spam other people’s pages, whether it is a blatant ‘come visit my website’ type post, or a supposedly more subtle ‘I just wanted to say hello from.... with a link to your business page’. It is annoying and quite frankly rude. That person has taken the time and effort to build up their own fan base so what right do you have to try and hijack that?

Doing things like that will only put people off and is not going to make you friends or get you business. Build a natural relationship with people (by commenting on their posts where you have something to contribute, dropping them an e-mail if you have an idea of a way you can work together etc) and if they think your page is something that will interest their fans they will post a link themselves. That kind of post is a lot more likely to send fans your way than spamming. Also I understand that Facebook is getting very strict on spam nowadays and if they see you putting the same type of post on several pages (such as the ‘come visit my page’ post) they will block your access for your account for a while.

One new company to Facebook recently (who sell fabrics – I expect many of you know who I mean), spent their first few weeks posting on every single sewing/handmade related page they could find telling everyone about their great new site & fabrics and several of their posts were on the walls of companies who sold fabrics themselves. That is incredibly rude, trying to steal your competitors’ customers right in front of them, in fact through their own business page!

Also another big Facebook no-no is the tagging games, where you tag lots of other pages and they pass it on by tagging more pages. It has no business benefit as people just find it annoying, also it looks very unprofessional. If you want to tag someone for a genuine reason you can do so by typing @ followed by their name. It’s useful when recommending someone, telling people the source of a project or link you have just posted or when talking about someone.

I found this blog post a great round up of what to do and not to do on Facebook:
http://contemporaryhandmadealliance.blogspot.com/2011/07/facebook-etiquette.html

Nifty Knits have also just pointed me in the direction of a great post on the Build a Little Biz about using Facebook for business: http://www.buildalittlebiz.com/blog/category/facebook

Our giveaway philosophy

2011-09-10T02:28:00.000-07:00

Top prize of our Christmas Competition

I recently spotted this great post over on the Sew Mama Sew blog with their throughts on giveaways and I thought it was a great idea so share about why you run giveaways, and why they are run the way they are so i've decided to do the same. Our giveaways have been evoloving over the last year and a half that we've been running the site and this is a good chance for us to explain why we do things the way we do now.

Why companies give us prizes

First up you may want to know how we get prizes and why people give them to us. As with many things it is all about publicity, the companies want to let you know about their products, new website, latest offers and want to incentivise people to visit their site which is why most our giveaways require you going to the prize givers site to enter.

Now to be honest I don't think that is much of hardship, often the purpose of the visit is for you to choose your own prize so it means you are guaranteed to get something you want if you win. Plus taking a couple of minutes out to look at a site full of lovely fabrics, sewing supplies or books isn't a bad way to spend your time ;-) It's cetainly easier than having to go and follow their blog, twitter account, facebook page etc as many competitions demand.

Why do we have to fill out a competition entry form each time?

There are 3 main reasons for this requirement in our competitions:

1) All entry forms come to us as e-mails which means we can store them all in 1 e-mail folder, count them up at the end of the comeptition and use the random number generator to choose us a winner (way less time consuming than having to enter it all into a spreadsheet!)

A sneaky peek at an upcoming prize

2) Facebook introduced new rules a while ago preventing you from running the 'comment on this post to enter' type comptitions which means they now expect you to pay for a special app to run 'official giveaways' through their site. Personally I think this is just another way for them to try and make more money and do not agree with it, hence the use of our onsite entry form instead.

3)When we used to run competitons that you could enter of Facebook/Twitter/Blogger we would not have the winners full details and would have to try and contact them after the competition to get their full name and address. Often we could be waiting a week or 2, or even get no reply at all which is a waste of a prize, and of our time. Now we have everything we need on the entry form so once the winners have been picked we can just cut & paste their details into an e-mail and send it off to the company providing the prize.

Why are competitions fornightly and not weekly as before?

Again there are a couple of reasons for this. The first and main reason is that competitions involve a lot of admin, sourcing a prize, planning the competition format, writting up the details, scheduling competitions, picking a winner & sending their details to the company giving the prize etc. I found I was spending so much of my time working on competitions that it was effecting the rest of the site. The primary aim of my site is not to giveaway prizes but to share great sewing businesses, news, articles, reviews, interviews & projects with you so I had to reduce the frequency of competitions to ensure a fairer balance.

Secondly, the turnover of the competitions were so fast that many of you told us you were missing some of them. I would only get chance to mention it once or twice before it was over and given that most of you don't spend all day online you would sometimes miss it. We want to make sure that you all get a fair chance to enter so now with 2 weeks to enter hopefully you all do.

Why do some competitions require more effort?

A past prize from The Eternal Maker

Every now and then our lovely site sponsors offer us some big prizes sewing machines, sewing kits worth over £100 etc. Now as with all of our prizes we want to make sure that these are going to our genuine fans, people who use the site and follow us because they love sewing. Unfortunetly, there are a group of people out there who are what I would term 'professional competition enterers' who enter any and every competition, sharing links on their competition forums, spending hours entering competitions each day and often they don't actually want or need the prize. In fact many of them either sell them on or swap them with others in their group (they have Facebook pages and forums where they do this). I think many of you who run your own competitions know exactly who I am talking about!

When it comes to the big prizes we try to take extra precautions to make sure that these type of people are not entering, for instance by asking you to write a sewing tutorial (as with our christmas competiton), or answer a question that requires sewing knowledge etc to make sure it is genuine sewists winning the prize. I'm sure that you, like us, would like to see our competition prizes going to people who will actually use them.

Geographical limits

A lot of our competitions are limited to the UK & Ireland. Obviously one of the reasons for this is that this is where we, and the companies giving the prizes, are based. Often prizes are provided by companies who only trade (and ship) within the UK. Also on many occasions the cost of shipping abroad (especailly books & bigger prizes like sewing machines) can be the same, or more than the prize itself. The companies giving the prize are the ones who ship them out and often they are small businesses already giving up some of their profits to provide the prize so it would be unreasonable to expect them to pay even more to cover international shipping costs.

We do love the fact that we have a fan base around the world, in particular many fans visiting from Europe, America and Australia (hello all!) and we do try to ensure that every 2-3 months we source a prize that can be sent internationally so as not to exclude you, but we cannot do it every time.

Anyway I hope that all of the above helps you understand why we run our competitions the way we do. We are of course always open to suggestions so if you have any ideas please do comment below or contact us. We look forward to many more great competitions! Plus don't forget there's only 6 weeks left to enter our Christmas Competition which has over £1,000 worth of prizes!

Focus on...

2011-09-04T02:25:00.000-07:00

Focus On... Blooming Felt

Blooming Felt are online suppliers of funky felt supplies. Whether you are looking for felt sheets, felt shapes and felt balls or want the supplies to make your own felt you can find it all on their site. They have a great own brand range of needle felt starter kits which priced at under £10 would make great gifts for craft loving friends.

As well as their huge range of handmade 100% wool felt products they have a great selection of other colourful craft supplies including buttons, ribbons, trims and jewellery making supplies. Also popular is their range of felt craft kits such as the pictured adorable penguin kit.

What’s more their claim to fame is that they supply felt and craft supplies to CBeebies Zingzillas and to Paris Fashion Week 2011! To view their site please visit: www.bloomingfelt.co.uk/

The Quilter's Guild needs your help

2011-09-02T01:39:00.000-07:00

Unfolding the Quilts

Great news the Quilters' Guild have reached the finals of the National Lottery Awards with their Unfolding the Quilts project. They need people to vote for them to help them win.

Watch the video below to find out more about their project and to vote for them please visit: www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/awards

RUCraft Giveaway

2011-08-27T10:02:00.000-07:00

Quilt a Gift For Little Ones

To celebrate the launch of their new book - Quilt a Gift for Little Ones by Barri Sue Gaudet (review here) RUCraft are offering 3 lucky winners the chance to not only win a copy of the book, but also 1 metre of fabric of their choice so they can start making straight away.

For details of how to enter along with terms & conditions please click here.

The Sewing Directory

Blogger of the Year - Deadline approaching!

Fabric Finds 2

Resolved to Sew 2012

Fabric Finds

Sewing Blogger of The Year awards 2011

Top blog posts of 2011

Merry Christmas from The Sewing Directory

Are standards dropping?

Prizes every day until Christmas....

Giveaways galore!

Giveaway with Bead Crafty

New office!

Create your own sewing kit with Korbond

Focus on....

Christmas Creativity Winners

Christmas Creativity Competition

Fabric Giveaway

Focus on...

Sewing Pattern Giveaway

Focus on...

Would you like to win this sewing machine (rrp. £799)?

Using Facebook to promote your business

We are starting a series of articles over on our site about running your own craft business one of which is below. If you'd like to view the others please click here.

Promoting Your Business

Our giveaway philosophy

Focus on...

The Quilter's Guild needs your help

RUCraft Giveaway