Perimenopause and menopause are hot topics for millions of women around the world, and this is the first craft book to tackle this extremely important life change. They tell the story behind Stitch.
We truly believe that midlife is the perfect time to be creative and our mission is to sew women and talk about menopause.
In developing our business here in Yorkshire over the years, we can teach so many amazing and interesting women and witnessed firsthand how your brain can switch off when your hands are busy – in a good way.
Sewing is a form of treatment, and has proven benefits that have led to a practical and enjoyable sewing project trying to relieve many of the common menopause symptoms, such as insomnia and cerebraloma. The book has 10 manufacturers and has access to all skill levels. Start with a clean, practical eye mask, you can decorate your home with cushions or baskets, sew something floating light, and snuggle and snuggle under a cozy blanket.
In the early 2000s, Jenni taught Ilkley Playhouse sewing classes to her new mother who brought her baby.
There's nothing better than the feeling of saying, “I made this myself.” Having a hobby for yourself is incredibly valuable.
We both took part in adult tap dance classes and within a few weeks we quilted, drank tea and ate cakes with friends almost every week. It meant keeping us in sane, decorating our homes with objects we love, sewing clothes for our children and ourselves, and absorbing happy memories into the patchwork we sewed in.
Gradually our hobby has evolved into a proper business. He later founded a limited company in the heart of Ilkley with permanent studio space.
For five years, we worked through the pandemic, dressed many people, quilted, and all the clothes in between, and wrote our first book in 2020 along with Liberty in London, the iconic British Harbor Dash and retail company.
The sewing industry experienced a huge boom during Covid and lockdown as people gathered to pursue hobbies that they had no time to sew face masks and scrubs and devote themselves to.
Our business taught workshops to quilt guilds and sewing groups in many different countries, competed nationally with sewing machine manufacturer Janome, sharing skills and building communities. As always, our mission remains the same, encouraging people to try it beyond the fear of sewing and making mistakes.
Once the pandemic was over, we really wanted to explore more and travel together. He produced educational workshops outside of Ilkley's studios, immersed the fabric tradition in new locations and shared it with many incredible people in the global sewing community.
It's a very friendly and supportive world. This means that over the past four years I have worked in Provence, Wales, Ireland, Holland, Hawaii, New Mexico, New York and the Scottish Highlands.
Our menopause is a book born, so it's because we were so simply real and still alive – we felt passionate, anxious, tired and confused by changes in mood and energy levels.
We are great friends, so we are openly talking about our feelings about each other and reaching out to many other women in the sewing world.
We were making some of the projects. Because they helped us feel better, suddenly realising that we could share skills and patterns and start important conversations with a larger audience. We approached Search Press, the UK's number one craft publisher, and they offered us a deal.
Two years later, the book became a reality. We are extremely proud of all the work and experience that informed us, and are excited to share and sew all the manufacturers with women.
The patterns are very friendly and this book is bright and colorful with many photos and images to help, and I hope people will smile. I also used all the experiences to create extremely useful videos, which came with each project in the book, and built an online home for this new community at Menopause Make.com. We would appreciate your participation.
FactFile:
*Billion women around the world have entered or have entered menopause by 2030.
*Menopause Makes is published by Search Press
*Social: @jenniandkaycreate @menopasemakers
Facebook: Jenni and Kay Create
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