On The Move

News of the upcoming sale at MIY Workshop might have made some of you wonder if something is going on behind the scenes at MIY HQ. Well yes, you’d be right, there are some massive changes ahead for both MIY Workshop and me personally.

We’re on the move and will be re-locating to Sheffield at the end of February!

A view of Sheffield city centre (just 3 miles away) from the wild open ground 5 minutes from my parent’s house where I roamed free with friends and our dogs as a child.

Most of you probably know that Sheffield is my hometown, it’s where I grew up, it’s where my mum lives and it’s where my oldest friends are.

My two oldest friends, we’ve known each other for almost 40 years!

Another precious group of Sheffield friends, we all started out working for the same insurance company in 1992. This picture was taken on a weekend away together to celebrate our 25th “friendiversary”! 

Sheffield also has some of the most stunning countryside right on the doorstep and well, let’s be completely honest, it offers me something fundamentally important to most people’s lives – the chance for me and my partner to own our own home, something that I long ago accepted was impossible for us here in Brighton.

On holiday in Sheffield last summer.

The reality of living and running a craft business in Brighton quite honestly doesn’t live up to the hype. Trying to earn even just a modest living in the craft industry feels as impossible as finding a unicorn on the South Downs and that makes saving to buy a home in one of the most expensive parts of the UK a bit of a sick joke. I have a very long blog post in the works (that I started writing in 2016!) about the financial realities of working in the UK craft industry, but that’s for another day.

Some of you might also know that my beloved dad died last year, 9 months ago yesterday in fact. I’m an only child and was most definitely a “daddy’s girl”, he was my rock and I still haven’t recovered. I suspect I won’t for a long time.

My mum and dad in one of those beautiful spots just after my dad got ill in 2017.

Me and my dad with the infamous Cliff at Ernest Wright, famous Sheffield scissor-makers.

The loss of my dad was the final straw for me, I just knew in my gut that I needed to be back in Sheffield, it was one of those shocking life events that gives you the clarity of vision to see what’s been right in front of your face all along. It was like I’d been treading water and someone had pulled me out and let me catch my breath. You only get one life, you need to thrive and I realised that for far too long I have simply been surviving, emotionally as well as financially.

I’m definitely not disappearing from the sewing world just yet though. My business is not closing completely – I will no longer have a physical presence in Brighton (MIY Workshop will be leaving its current premises at 33 North Road on 28th February), but I will be teaching again in Sheffield (locations and dates TBC) and all my online, writing and pattern activities will remain exactly the same.

I’m still working on book number 4 which is due to be published in January next year and you’ll still be able to buy my books, patterns and tools from the MIY Collection online shop. I have plans to launch lots of new MIY Collection patterns later this year too.

It’s been a pleasure to teach so many eager students since I opened MIY Workshop in 2011 and for 4 years before that at various adult education centres around Brighton. I’m looking forward to meeting lots more people just as keen up in Sheffield and to the creative journeys that await me.