2019: all well year in review
at the beginning of the year, all well was a tiny, only sort-of successful, made-to-order slow fashion business, all sewn by amy in her little two-room apartment. amy and amelia met on instagram and started chatting about sewing and designing patterns and decided to try to work on a pattern together – the all well bucket bag – and things really took off from there! what began as an experiment grew into a wonderfully fruitful creative partnership and a really exciting year of hard work and so much more accomplished than we expected!
here's what we released this year:
We began to find our point of view and mission! By working through the process of designing multiple patterns in rapid succession, we got to really think through action about the sewing resources that exist already, and reflect and decide how we want to contribute to the community. We found that we were more interested in teaching and guiding sewists as if they were in a sewing class with us than offer just sparse instructions like an cryptic blueprint. We wanted to create intuitive and hackable patterns, patterns that revealed the thought process and logic behind the design, patterns full of transferrable skills and hacks. We wanted to help sewists grow in discernment and confidence, learning what things are important to pay close attention to for precision, accuracy, and technique, and which parts of the process offer more wiggle room than is usually apparent.
We discovered a design style that we're proud of and great collaborative workflow! Amy learned how to make simple and effective pattern diagrams and found a unique style and a program that really aided productivity and polish. (Autodesk Sketchbook on iPad. try it out, it's free!). Amelia digitized Amy's paper patterns in Sketch (and wrote a blog post series about how you can figure it out too!). Amy designed the website + a graphic design style that feels exciting and like a good representation of how all well feels. We fine-tuned our collaboration and workflow through ample and strategic use of google docs, facetime, and google sheets, and iMessage, and also became friends in the process! (the best part!)
We grew a ton! We saw growth over 10x in the eight months since our first sewing pattern launched in April, we passed 1000 sewing pattern purchases, and welcomed lots of new friends to our email newsletter + instagram following. We're still definitely small and scrappy and in the early stages, but it's so exciting to see growth purely through word-of-mouth and excitement from all of you! Thank you for your help in All Well's growth in 2019!
We're just starting to cast a vision, and we don't have any solid plans yet! Here's what we're excited about and thinking about for the year ahead!
We are going to meet IRL for the first time! After one year and seven pattern launches, we're so excited to get to hang out in person! Amy's headed to the west coast late this winter, so keep a look out to finally see our dramatic height difference in action!
The style of pattern we are interested in means we don’t have that many more patterns to make. We want to only design patterns that feel quintessential and simple enough to be re-sewn over and over. There are certainly still patterns ahead (including the studio pants – hopefully a 2020 release! We're taking our time with them because we want to really nail them), but not an infinite amount. So we're thinking of how to expand our horizons in exciting ways. We're thinking about more print materials, classes, videos, sewalongs, and publications next! Who knows!
We are starting work on a book! One thing that has become clear to us as we've collaborated on patterns is that we have more to say about sewing than can fit in a discrete pattern. We are starting work, slowly, on a sewing manuscript of some kind. But first, as that project develops, we'll be releasing a series of zines, available both as physical paper objects and pdf's! Look for a zine pre-order in February!
SNEAKING IN AN EDIT FROM 2023, hello! The book is here!! How to Sew Clothes! Hooray!
The climate crisis and has both of us yearning for more actions to take, and sewing is beginning to feel more and more vital as a way to think more carefully about where our belongings come from, what is essential, what is enough, and to encourage others to do the same. Obviously sewing is not any sort of solution to such a massive issue as the climate crisis, but we want to keep pressing into sewing as an act of resistance and find more ways to act in responsibility for the earth and for other people.
Amelia is planning to travel for half the year, hiking the Pacific Crest Trail with her husband. That definitely changes our workflow –this year will look super different! We're excited to see what happens. Look for a quilt pattern (Amy misses quilting!) and some homegoods tutorials over the summer, and who knows what else!
We want to grow even more and help welcome beginners into the sewing community! We've gotten great feedback that our patterns are good for beginners, and we want to share sewing with more people! We're hoping to branch out and reach an audience outside of instagram, beyond pure word of mouth growth. Maybe we'll buy an email newsletter ad, advertise on podcasts? Mulling over the way forward here.
We want to cultivate more relationships, partnerships, and collaborations! After working together and having so much fun, we want to find more friends to work with. If you're a designer, artist, maker, writer, or teacher and you have ideas about ways we could work together, you can always reach out. We have lots of ideas, and some of our future projects may need more than just our voices to fill them! Say hello!
Buy our patterns! It might seem obvious, but it's how all well happens! Buying our patterns directly supports our work and helps fund future pattern development! For the best deals, we are offering two bundles — the Box Top + Cardigan Coat Bundle ($24), and the All Well All Bags Bundle with the All Well Weekender, All Well Bucket Bag, All Well Half Moon Zip, and the All Well Full Moon Bag ($22). Ask for them for your birthday or for some other present! Buy them for your friends who are interested in sewing!
Sew the All Well Full Moon Bag (it's free! sign up for our newsletter to get the code to download!) and share about it on social media! When your friends ask about it, show them how to sign up for our newsletter so they can get the pattern for free too!
Leave a review on Etsy! People really read reviews, and your opinion matters! It really means a lot to us to hear what you think!
Share your finished versions of All Well patterns! Tag us (@allwellworkshop on Instagram) and use the pattern hashtags when you share! We really love to see what you make, it's always genuinely so exciting!
Host a sewing night with a few friends and all sew the pattern together - email us (amy@allwellworkshop.com) and let us know you're doing it for a discount you and your friends can use to each buy the pattern!
Tell your friends, IRL and on social media / the internet! All of our growth so far has been purely through word of mouth, and that feels amazing. We love knowing that people have found us because others have liked and shared our work so generously. To all who have shared: THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! Really! Really!
Do you know a lot about the book publishing process? We're about to start work on a book-length project, and we would love to hear your thoughts + advice!
Once again, thank you so much for being a part of this community. Making sewing patterns truly feels like a community effort, through pattern testing and the conversation that continues to unfold once a pattern's been released. A sewing pattern comes alive once people start sewing it in their own homes and their own lives on their own machines, and seeing your work makes us so excited to keep thinking and talking and working hard to make resources for sewists. Thank you for all of the ways you have encouraged us and helped us grow this year. We are full of gratefulness. On to 2020!
With gratitude,
Amy + Amelia