A Stitch In Time

The saying "a stitch in time saves nine" really rings true to describe this last year. It's been all about being intentional with our choices, taking our time to move forward and build on what we've already created over the last 4 years.
 
I’d love to share my reflections on how, with your support, we are so much further along our mission to get people across the world sewing exceptional garments that they love.

Launches

Starting off with our biggest additions, this year we launched 3 new workshops and 3 new patterns (the Devon Waistcoat, the Day Tote and the Naomi Blazer) - as well as preparing our 2026 Capsule Course!
 
It was ambitious and I’m so proud of what we’ve achieved. We made our most accessible workshop and our most complex workshops to date with the Day Tote bag followed by the Naomi Blazer.

Workshops

We heavily switched focus to teaching over designing, spending the majority of our time developing and improving our workshops for sewists across all levels of experience. We’ve relaunched and redesigned our workshops to be beautiful and user-friendly, making the learning process as enjoyable as possible.
 
Learning how to film full length workshops in the studio ourselves has been game changing and we’ve relished the challenge of creative direction and figuring out how to teach in a way that is effective and engaging. We also realised we had been missing an extra step needed to get your garments fitting perfectly - so we added upper and lower body fitting guide tutorials to our workshops.

Team

Another exciting change this year that made this momentum possible has been to our growing team! Vidya joined us to run our marketing and customer services, and we’ve recently been joined by Hanni, our new pattern cutter, who will be helping us raise our game with new patterns very soon!
 
For the first time, I’ve had a wonderful team around me that covers all our bases which has meant we can communicate our offering and ethos to so many more people. It’s been so exciting to make strides as a fully-fledged business.

Collaboration

This year, we have loved connecting with other community-makers. A heartfelt thank you to our friends at Ray Stitch and the Cloth House for their many gifted fabrics that have allowed us to experiment with our designs and create with high-quality material. 
 
We’ve loved collaborating with the Fold Line for the Sewing Weekender and announcing our Naomi Blazer with them - they are such a pillar of the community, and it’s been lovely to meet so many new people through them! Meeting fellow sewing enthusiasts like Brandon (@happilydressed) and Chelsea (@daughterjudypatterns) has also been so fun, it's inspiring seeing what other pattern makers are doing to bring beautiful new patterns to the home sewing world.

Community

And last but certainly not least, the Modern Sewing Co. community has grown so much! Having people from 22 countries join our Capsule Course at the start of the year was so surreal and it's mindboggling to know over 90k sewists follow our socials!
 
The response to the Naomi Blazer after nearly 2 years of designing and perfecting it was such a buzz (and relief!). Especially when we launched the Art of Outerwear with the Darcy Coat workshops, it's been amazing to see how many of you took to the challenge of tailoring and more complex garment-making for the first time.
 
I'd also like to thank you for the impact you've made with our charity initiatives. Over this year, you've helped us raise over £950 for The Or Foundation and £750 for Unicef Gaza Fund, as well as supporting the Makers4MutualAid Raffle we were a part of. Thank you for your contribution!!

Predictions for 2026

With the current rate of growth for the sewing community, we expect more people will be sewing their own clothes with more pressure on fast fashion giants - especially young people via TikTok. We hope to see more indie patterns popping up and for people to really engage in sewing high quality, timeless pieces that exist beyond trends.

What we’re excited to share in 2026 is of course our new Capsule Course which is our most ambitious and comprehensive yet, and to bring new patterns that expand our range and the skills you can learn and apply for years to come. 

Here's to another year of growing one stitch at a time!

And hope you have a Merry Christmas,

Hetty and the Modern Sewing Co. team x