I just realized I haven’t posted a blog in over a year! Wow! It’s been a busy year and I just wanted to share some of our highlights from 2022!

I want to first off thank all of my new customers and repeat customers! It’s so nice to hear back from former customers who are enjoying their shades we made (some even many years ago) and also nice to meet new customers from all over the country! It’s very fun to hear a little about everyone’s space and see their interiors and design ideas. I also really appreciate all the reviews and photo tags! Thank you! I really love seeing photos!

In 2022, our Etsy shop sales were almost equal to our sewlovelybykelly.com website sales! So that’s very exciting to me. When I first started, my sales were all Etsy. I created a website a few years back and each year the website sales increase dramatically. I like having a few different places where I sell. I was thinking of Amazon, however, it was a really tricky process to get started, so for now, my items will be available for sale on Etsy and sewlovelybykelly.com.

In 2022, we made between 1000-2000 shades! We also made hundreds of pillows, valances, curtains and cushions. We’re a very small team here, so we definitely got a lot of work done! On average, we make about 120 shades per month!

I saw a lot of fun prints in the workroom this year… A lot of unique prints. Our white shades with ribbon continue to be popular (the Pottery Barn style ones), as well as the modern farmhouse styles, like our striped fabric. Neutrals are also pretty popular in our fabric shop. The Salt Bleach and Sky Bleach and Ticking Stripes fabrics are very popular.

One major improvement we’ve made this year is our timeframe. For a while, a few years ago, our timing has been very slow, some times over 2 months, due to a few factors (family and lack of help mostly and way too much workload for just one person), but we have speeded up our timing in 2022, and figured out how to be more efficient and I got a little bit extra help with production. We’re sometimes just a 3 week time frame! We tell customers there is a 6-8 week time frame still, just to be on the safe side in case of any unfortunate circumstances, but it’s much much faster normally. I really don’t like making customers wait a very long time, so I’m really happy the timing issue has improved.

In 2022, I found a new cushion seamstress and she’s really talented and she says she really enjoys making Sew Lovely cushions! Cushions are not very easy to make but she’s very good and has a knack for it! She’s been sewing since she was a little girl and studied sewing and worked as a professional seamstress her whole life. It’s been great to get someone new like her on the team and we’ve had an increase in orders, so it’s been really good to have her help.

Well, that’s about all for now… But I hope everyone had a fantastic New Year. And thanks for all of your support, feedback and kindness.

Kelly