Sew Pro Convention

In a year from now, an event will happen that I’ve been working on for a long time already, in partnership with Brenda and Hayley from Pink Castle Fabrics. It’s called Sew Pro Convention, and the basis behind the idea is to help hopeful sewing entrepreneurs either start or scale their business. Do you sew at home at night after your kids are sleeping? Or get home from a long day of work and break out the sewing machine? Did you ever hope to do more with your sewing hobby? Then this convention is for you!

My sewing had the beginning inspiration of turning into a business in December of 2011, when I first started writing free patterns for Pellon. I wrote a bunch of free patterns for them because I got a kick out of doing it and it brought some nice traffic to my blog. I never thought, never ever ever, that I could someday make money out of doing it. Fast forward a little bit to January 2013, when I sent my first pattern out to testers in the hopes that I could have some patterns for sale. It’s been a really wild ride, but since then I’ve written 2 books, have 30 patterns available for purchase (almost all available on paper for sale to quilt shops), designed 2 fabric lines, filmed a Craftsy class, written patterns for magazines, and had 2 curated lines of Aurifil thread. My best friend Kim credits my naivete to doing well, but I think this somehow all works out because I do it because I’m enjoying myself and love what I do. I was able to quit my part-time retail job in February of 2014 and do this full-time. I also have two children that I’m able to be around for (I laugh because someone told me the other day that they had no idea that I had kids because I do a really good job at keeping my personal life personal…lol! My kids are 8-1/2 and 7).

The reason that Sew Pro came about is because figuring out how to do all of the things above was a HUGE learning curve and takes a lot of time and sleuthing. What software do you use? How do you get patterns printed? How do you present your artwork to a fabric company to get your designs picked up and manufacturered as fabric? How do you promote your work online with social media? A million questions! All of these questions took a lot of time to figure out, but how brilliant would it be if there was a place where you could go, with like-minded people, and get some of these questions answered.

Enter Sew Pro Convention, a lecture-style convention to teach you what you need to get you started or continue on with your sewing journey. We’ve got the best in the business teaching these classes:

• Tula Pink
• Pat Sloan
• Alison Glass
• Sarah Watts
• me!
• Mickey Krueger, president of Windham Fabrics
• Kristin Link, Sew Mama Sew
• Jenny Fox-Proverbs, editor of Love Patchwork & Quilting
• Roseann Kermes, quilt shop owner and social media expert
• Lora Douglas, CPA and also owner of a creative business
• Brie Crawford, Intellectual Property and Patent Law Attorney
• Deb Hanahan, buyer at Checker Distributing
• Jane Melville, Tri-State Printing
• Karen Lepage, garment designer and pattern writer/illustrator
• Announcing more soon!

Journalist Jennifer Moore of Moore Approved has written a really great article about how the event came to be, and you can read that in full right here.

You can see the full class list for Sew Pro right here. If you take a look at the class listings, they are divided by track (fabric designer, pattern designer, author, blogger). Of course, you may deviate from your chosen track, but we found that having the tracks makes it easier to take a lot of the classes you’ll need to get you on your way.

If you sign up for Sew Pro, your weekend will proceed as follows:

• Thursday night, opening mixer, where you’ll get to meet your fellow students and all of the teachers
• Friday – take 5 classes during the day
• Saturday – take 5 classes during the day

We’ll also have fun after-hours events on Friday and Saturday night. A plated lunch is included on Friday and Saturday. A ticket to the event costs $550, and we have 6-month and 12-month payment plans available. You can find the registration page here.

Since the event is in Chicago, where I live, I helped to choose the coolest and most convenient place to hold the event. The convention location is 2 miles away from O’Hare airport, so the hotel will provide free shuttle service to and from the hotel (no need to rent a car or book a shuttle!). We encourage you to share a room if you’d like, and we’ll be posting soon in our Facebook group for people looking for a roommate (you can also follow us on Instagram for up-to-the-minute information). If you want to go downtown during your stay for some sight-seeing, the hotel is within walking distance of the elevated train, which can get you downtown for a couple of bucks. All of the classes and lunches are held within the hotel, and the after hours events will take place about a block away, again, within walking distance.

Hopefully I’ve covered the basics, but you can also find complete information on the Sew Pro website!! Let me know if you have any questions…do you think you might attend?