August arrivals and a visit from designer RAE HOEKSTRA!!

Sewing Garments with MADE BY RAE!! Wednesday Aug. 28, 6 - 9PM Come and meet Rae Hoekstra: designer, pattern maker, world famous sewing blogger, and all around lovely lady. Rae will begin the evening with a meet and greet, followed by a presentation and Washi Dress trunk show. A wardrobe full of handmade clothing is possible! Rae will walk you through how she conceives and alters a basic pattern to make many different variations using her many samples of the popular Washi Dress as illustration. She'll also share some of the things she's learned along the way about choosing fabrics, taking measurements, using patterns (both printed and digital PDFs), and more. You'll be inspired to sew up a closet full of handmade clothing of your own! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - You can also sign up for Rae's Washi Dress Techniques Workshop. Thursday, Aug 29, 9AM - Noon. This workshop is designed to offer time to work on the Washi Dress with Rae's assistance. Rae will also cover many of the sewing techniques needed to complete the Washi Dress. Possible topics are: sewing a smooth dart, shirring with elastic thread, adding facings, seam and armhole finishing, and hemming. These techniques are commonly used in many other women's (and even children's) clothing patterns as well! Please note that due to time limitations, we will not be able to sew an entire dress from start to finish; however, Rae will be available to assist you and answer questions specific to your dress. Workshop space is limited so call or come in to sign up. In addition to this, Rae has offered some time on Wednesday for those of you who would like a private fitting. Call us at the shop to find out more and to schedule appointments. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - We have lots of smart prints for those returning to school! [Collage is shown above.] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - It is hard to believe we are already more than a week into August and soon school will be starting once again. Fall is close and new sewing projects are piling up! This mid-season shift is a great time for fabric as we recieve Summer's last arrivals and Fall's firsts.... We are very well-stocked in the shop! Here is a peek at
what's NEW:
Briar Rose!! by Heather Ross, Lush Uptown by Erin Michaels for Moda, Ziggy (and zaggy) prints form Windham,		numbers, masks and other novelties from AH, Nordika by Jeni Baker for Art Gallery, Collage by Carrie Bloomston and lots more....
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Fall classes have been scheduled!!! View our listings here. Call or come in to sign up. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Happy August Sewing, Anita, April and the Sew To Speak Team

May - Months End.. Skinny Bolt SALE, Designer Meet and Greet + more!!

Skinny Bolt SALE Starting tomorrow, Wed. May 29 through Mon. June 3rd. take 30% OFF all SKINNY BOLTS Of course many of you know we just returned from Market where we often order lots of gorgeous fabrics for the coming months. These will surely start to arrive very soon, so to make room we're having another SKINNY BOLT SALE! How it works: Any bolt with 3 yards or less (the skinny bolts) will be 30% off.. but you have to take it all. We'll measure it out and whatever is there, if you want it, you take it for 30% OFF! It will be fun to see what good deals you will find! They could be anything from a cool cotton that you've been eyeing for awhile to a brand new arrival that's already been whittled away. New "skinny bolts" will come along every day! Sale in store only.
Showcase: Local Designer, Andie Hanna! This Saturday, June 1st, 10AM - 1PM come out for a meet and greet/trunkshow and GIVEAWAY! Last summer Andie won the Spoon Flower/Robert Kaufman fabric contest and now has a gorgeous fabric line with Robert Kaufman. She grew up in Columbus but has been a fashion and surface designer from east coast to west coast. We are so lucky to have another local fabric designer. Andie is the cousin of our beloved Michelle Thomas and they have put together a lovely trunk show for your enjoyment along with fabric to give away!!! NEW Fabrics
New home decor pony dots and other prints Andie Hanna's Modern Bliss for Robert Kaufman Our first professional grade outdoor fabrics from  Premier Prints		Victoria and Albert prints from Westminster Ride by Julia Rothman for Windham Fabrics more choices of designer laminated cottons and other fabrics arriving weekly!!
In Other News... We have decided to change the direction of our online store. For now, we will not be adding any new inventory to the web site. Due to that, no fabrics in this email are linked. To see more items from these featured lines you can visit us on Facebook, Instagram or simply come in to the shoppe. If you are not local and you wish to buy something not listed online we gladly except phone orders. Call us at 614-267-3011. Thanks for your understanding, as we continue to seek out our niche in the online sewing community.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope you are enjoying wonderful food, family and friends over this holiday weekend!

We are opening an hour early today (at 9AM) and I just wanted to make sure you know that we have some special things planed for you. We'll be giving 15% off your total purchase of all regularly priced items, all day long! We will be drawing for freedoor prizes through out the day and we will have special sewers gift baskets for sale (in limited quantity).

So in short, it's a SALE! 

It's A Holiday Sewing Kickoff!

It is a thanks to you for being the wonderful customers that you are! As a thanks, we'd like to help kickoff your holiday sewing with a special day of sales and more.

You can also receive this discount while shopping online from 12AM - 11:59PM, November 26th (today). Just type ThankYouKickoff into the coupon code box in your shopping cart, and we'll take 15% off your entire order. Locals can always choose our "pick up in shoppe" option to avoid the cost of shipping.

You can read more about this and all other new news in our newest newsetter ;) 

Here: http://www.sewtospeakshoppe.com/images/HolidaySewingKickoffSale.html

Email Satisfaction

Toward the tail end of last year my mom started talking to me about changing the way we sent out our shoppe newsletters. Until just a little over 4 months ago they where completely composed of text (without any images) and went mostly to our local shoppers, all of whom had signed up through walking in and actually "signing" up to receive our letters (now you can sign up through our webstore). My mom had to send them out in a very monotonous way, in small email groups from her own personal e-mail account. As more and more people signed up that method became inefficient. Then after the launch of our webstore we knew we had to go bigger.

I thought this might be something we'd have to hire our web guy to do. I was intimidated by the gorgeous newsletters of Anna Maria and other leading shops, but Mom said "I know you can do it."

Now, after sending out the fourth "new" newsletter, I must say I'm feeling really proud. I'm proud of us, of our little shoppe, and I'm pretty proud of little old me. I had zero knowledge of Dreamweaver, or any web design exsperience before starting this venture, and I still have very little technical "know how", but I am. I'm doing it :)

Satisfaction... thats what I feel. The satisfaction of accomplishing something I believed to be beyond my capabilities.

Too often I think "oh wow, I'd really like to do something like that..." Followed by "no, you couldn't do that April..." So next time I hope I can remember to look back to this as an example that maybe I can. I want to think to myself "yes you can," or at least "you'll never know until you try."

I hope the same for you, when you find yourself in a moment of self-doubt.

Then once we all try and we actually do what ever it was we thought we could not, we can say to our selves "yay! look what you did (self)!" or "wow, that wasn't that hard" or even "that was pretty fun." Then maybe next time trying something new won't be so intimidating.

hmm....

Happy Sunday. 

♥April

P.S. I've just figured out how to put our newsletter online so that you are able to view it even if you choose not to be on our email list.