The Sewing Workshop Celebrates 25 Years

It took the entire 25^th year to realize we had actually been in business that long. So here it is, the end of our anniversary year, and I am in a reflective mood.

When I bought the school, I assumed that entity alone would survive and grow. I soon realized that we needed a product to sell in order to lure people to the west coast to take classes. Thus, the pattern collection was born.

Now the pattern collection is our heart and soul. But sewing education is where we are enjoying most of our growth, this time in the form of online tutorials and classes. The stand-alone sewing school in the Richmond district of San Francisco is gone, but sewing education is our future.

Over the years, we have had many extremely popular patterns. We still sell some of our original designs created 25 years ago. One standout pattern, though, was the San Diego Jacket pattern. I think I have seen more variations of this pattern than any in the history of the pattern company. I can't say I ever saw a bad one. From a fur vest to a flannel underlined and lined silk jacket, from a business suit version with double facings to a long dressy metalasse coat, this pattern exceeded every expectation of what a good pattern should be.

To celebrate the end of our 25^th year, we are introducing two new variations of the San Diego, a tunic and a top. I made a tunic version some years ago for a presentation with Erin (who made a bomber jacket using the San Diego) for the Sewing Expo in Puyallup, Washington. It hung around here for a while, and we decided to make it the feature style in the new pattern. The top became a variation of the tunic.

As a bonus to our loyal customers, we included the San Diego Jacket pattern, in its original form, with the tunic and top.

I am also excited about December's Sew Confident! tutorial. I will be sharing a retrospective of 25 years of The Sewing Workshop's collection. For those of you who have collected every pattern over the years, I guarantee you will be bringing some of them out of the archives to make in modern fabrics.

It has been a great ride for me personally and for the company, and we're not done yet. Here's to another 25 years!