It's been busy lately, to a point where I almost forgot about my own blog! In a nutshell, I am the new Web Editor for a UK published sewing magazine called 'Homemade with Love'. I'm excited by the role for a number of reasons,
A lot has been happening over the last few years within the area of craft and sewing magazines in this country after a bit of a drought. When I first arrived on the design scene, it was (oh, how I dislike admitting to this date), 1994! I had finished my degree in 1992 and spent a bit of time plugging the gaps in my knowledge and experience by attending a computing course. By 1994, I had an interview for a design job with Coats Crafts UK, so wanted to do a bit of research to prepare, and I bought this...
'Inspirations' magazine, circa February 1994.
Back then there weren't that many sewing mags around to choose from, but I do remember that Inspirations became a particular favorite of mine, due to a number of house moves and the growth of the internet since '94, this is the only issue I kept. It even came with a cover kit, embroidered buttons.
The reason I kept hold of this one, is it featured an interview with a lady called Jacqueline Farrell. A machine embroiderer who has since then written a few books and coincidentally worked in the Glasgow branch of Coats, the company I was just about to have an interview with, before they relocated to Darlington.
I cannot remember how I got hold of her number, but if memory serves, I actually rang Jacqueline and had a chat about the craft kit world and any tips she could offer to someone just starting out. Coats were very impressed during my interview with the research I had done, and yes, I did get the job!
While I worked at Coats, the design studio regularly bought in sewing magazines, the internet was still very much in its infancy so any design ideas came from more traditional channels, the main two I remember being Crafts Beautiful and Marie Clare Idees. Then, suddenly everything went very paper crafts orientated, and sewing projects in the crafts magazines were few and far between. I'm very glad that sewing is once again hugely featured, with so many high quality publications available, including, of course, Homemade with Love.
And to prove how old my copy of Inspiration magazine is, look at the feature they did on the Spitting Image puppet making workshop!
