Traditional Upholstery and Sewing Cutting Board Innovation with Erica from Sew and Stow

In this episode, Erica shares her inspiring journey from police officer to skilled traditional upholsterer, transforming her career through creativity and craftsmanship. 

She highlights her commitment to sustainable upholstery, using eco-friendly materials and preserving time-honoured techniques. 

She also introduces the innovative Sew & Stow cutting board, designed to make fabric cutting easier, more efficient, and more precise for makers of all levels.

Discover how Erica is building a purpose-driven craft business, championing sustainable sewing practices, and empowering others through hands-on upholstery courses and creative education.

Key Takeaways: 

• Erica's career transitioned from British Telecom to the Police force, and then onto upholstery
• She emphasises the importance of eco-friendly and natural materials in upholstery
• She developed the Sew & Stow fabric cutting board from a board she had made for herself 
• Erica talks about how craft and upholstery can aid mental health and well-being
• Erica explains her approach to teaching upholstery and empowering others

Follow me: 

Instagram: @thesewingsocialpod

                     @thedalythread

Tiktok: thesewingsocialpod

If you've enjoyed this episode and appreciate the work I'm doing, please 

Tip me on Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/thesewingsocialpod

Also, feel free to get in touch - you can text the show (available through your podcast provider on each episode) or email:

thesewingsocialpod@gmail.com

Guest Details: 

Sew and Stow website:  https://sewandstow.co.uk

Instagram: @sewandstow.uk

Facebook: byericajane

Discount code for listeners (£10 off a cutting board): Sewingsocialpod 

Affiliate Links:

• Thready Set Go - https://threadysetgo.com

     Discount code for 10% off your first month - SOCIALPOD10

Resources:

Leanne Treadwell - Bristol Upholstery Collective - https://www.bristolupholsterycollective.co.uk

Renee Hodson - Master Upholsterer - https://www.reneehodson.co.uk

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Technical Difficulties

00:10 Erica's Journey into Sewing and Upholstery

02:22 Transition from Police Officer to Upholsterer

05:13 The Impact of Personal Loss and Finding Purpose

08:04 Traditional Upholstery Techniques and Materials

10:56 The Importance of Natural Materials in Upholstery

13:37 Teaching Upholstery and Community Engagement

16:37 Upholstery as a Therapeutic Craft

19:33 Challenges and Standout Projects in Upholstery

25:28 The Art of Upholstery: Techniques and Insights

28:04 Sewing Journey: From Upholstery to Fashion

30:21 Innovating the Cutting Board: The Sew and Stow Story

49:52 Sew and Stow: Eco-Friendly Solutions and Future Plans

56:33 Outro - Kofi

Transcript

Gemma Daly (00:10)

Erica, welcome to the Sewing Social Podcast. I'm so happy to have you here today.

Erica (00:15)

Well, thank you very much for having me. really looking forward to coming on.

Gemma Daly (00:20)

⁓ lovely. I was wondering if you could introduce yourself to the listeners.

Erica (00:25)

Sure, my name is Erica and I am a traditional upholsterer now. ⁓ I was a police officer for 30 years but I retrained 15 years ago I do traditional upholstery. I'm an eco upholsterer as well which means I don't use foam. I hate foam. It's an evil product and there are so many other more beautiful materials to use out there so that's what I do.

Gemma Daly (00:52)

Lovely, and I'm really looking forward to getting into all of that as we go through the interview. But first of all, I was wondering if you could tell us how you first learned to sew.

Erica (01:02)

Yes, my mum, as I think a lot of us did. I was about 10 or 11 when I remember first sitting down with my mum. She used to make my sister and my clothes all the time and she used to make our dolls clothes and things like that for us when we were little. And I used to watch her. I was intrigued by it. And we just started making, I think the first thing I ever made, if I remember rightly,

was like a quilt thing for my doll's bed. But that was 50 odd years ago. And I just fell in love with it. I have a passion for it. I used my mum's machine until I was 18. And then my 18th birthday present was my own sewing machine. And you know, I only just, maybe three years ago, that machine died. It's final death. it's now in the sewing machine graveyard in the sky. I was so sad when it went.

Gemma Daly (01:55)

Wow.

Erica (02:01)

because I'd looked after it and you get to know your tools really well, as I'm sure you know. And I really miss that machine. I have bought another domestic one. So once my mum taught me, there was no stopping me. I used to make all my clothes. I got into knitting and crochet as well. So I'd knit jumpers and scarves and everything. But back in the 70s and early 80s,

Gemma Daly (02:22)

Amazing.

Erica (02:29)

There was very little I wore that I hadn't made myself. I just loved it. I

always had the sewing machine out on my mum's dining table.

Gemma Daly (02:36)

⁓

what a lovely story. And like you say, so sad that that machine finally died a death, but you obviously got good use out of it.

Erica (02:46)

Yeah. I ever?

I it was over 40 years. Yeah, definitely good. Well made. It was a heavy metal machine. A lot of machines now are made from plastic, aren't they? They're quite light to hoik about, but I remember it being very heavy. Now, of course, I have industrial machines, which I can't even lift.

Gemma Daly (03:03)

amazing. Yeah,

yeah. So you have had a very interesting career journey as well, like you said at the start of the show. So you were in the police force. Can you walk us through how you went from that to your traditional upholstery?

Erica (03:22)

Well, yeah, actually before the police service,

I was a draftswoman for British Telecom or as it was back then, the post office. was before British Telecom took over the post office. And I used to design heating and ventilating systems for telephone exchanges. And I went into that first of all, because they were just phasing out cadets in the police service. And all I had ever wanted to be, apparently, since I was about four or five, was a police officer.

So my careers advisor at school advised me to either get another job or go to college or university and then join the police service in my early 20s. Well, I didn't want to stay on at school or go to college, although I did go back to college once I started work for the post office to get my qualifications in construction, which was a completely diverse thing.

Yes, so I did five or six years with the post office, around when Busby was around. You won't remember Busby probably, but some of you are older viewers will. He was a big bird that they used as their advertising campaign for a couple of years. And he was always ⁓ on everything we did, this Busby bird. Anyway, so I did that. And then when I was in my early 20s, I thought if I don't join the police service soon, I'm going to have been in this job too long and I won't want to move on.

Gemma Daly (04:24)

No. I'm sorry.

Erica (04:46)

So I applied to join and I joined Wiltshire Police. So I moved from Bristol up to Swindon and I did my 30 years here in Swindon or in Wiltshire, all over the county really. And I did all sorts of things. I was frontline uniform. I was firearms officer for a couple of years. So carried two guns. During that time I had my twins. I got married obviously and then had the twins. ⁓

The year I retired, which was 2011, was a bit of a difficult year. My dad had died in the May and the same week my dad died, my mum was diagnosed with terminal cancer. I then retired in the summer and I moved to Bristol just to be my mum's carer for the last few months of her life when she got really poorly. And was whilst I was there, I would never have wanted it any other way.

Gemma Daly (05:28)

Gosh. .

Erica (05:41)

than being with my mum, but I'm not a carer. I think anybody who is a carer is a particular type of person. They are angels on earth. They really are. And I struggled with it. I did it, but I struggled with it. But I just said to mum after a couple of weeks, would you mind if I just booked on an evening course while I'm staying with you, just for a bit head space away from being here with you? And she said, absolutely. So I just literally put in the internet, you know, on Google.

Gemma Daly (06:03)

Mm.

Erica (06:10)

evening classes Bristol and the first one that came up was upholstery class being run by Leanne Treadwell. I don't know if you've heard of Leanne but she runs the Bristol upholstery collective now. She's on the amusive board for master upholsterers. She's an amazing upholsterer and entrepreneur. Anyway she just finished her degree and was running a course for eight weeks.

before she went off to travel the world for a year. And I just joined her course and from the very first night, I fell in love with it. I just knew it was what I wanted to do. I knew when I retired that I didn't want to work for anybody else. I was still very young. I was still only 49. But anyway, I started that course and I remember coming back on the first night and I said to my mum, my gosh, I just love it. This is what I'm going to do.

Gemma Daly (06:45)

Amazing. .

Erica (07:04)

for the rest of my life. And she said, well, you won't need to work. You you've retired from the police force. But as it turned out, my mum died in the October. So a few weeks later and the same week my mum died, my husband left me. So it was a bit of a crazy year, I can tell you. And I see Leanne quite regularly now. And I always say to her, both she and upholstery saved me.

Gemma Daly (07:09)

my goodness.

Wow.

Erica (07:34)

because

I went in the following year, I was really not well. I had a huge nervous breakdown and it was hard. And if I hadn't had upholstery, I really don't think I would be here. And I don't say that lightly because I'm not the sort of person that would ever have thought that I would not be around. But I honestly think knowing I had to go to those classes and I was working in Bristol.

kept me going and it just fills me with happiness every time I walk into my workshop. I love it. So anyway, I finished the course with Leanne. She went off round her travels and I met another fabulous upholsterer in Bristol called Renee Hodson and she was a 30 year master upholsterer but she was just about coming up to retirement. So I just asked her if I could shadow her.

sort of do an unofficial apprenticeship really. So for the next year, I worked with her whenever I could, two or three days a week, whatever she was working on. We worked in shops, we worked in houses, we did stuff in her workshop, we did all sorts of things. And I just sucked all the information out of her that I could. Apprenticeships are amazing. I really hope that the government goes back to supporting them because sending everybody to university isn't the way forward. We're not all university people.

of us like using our hands and you know don't need a degree to do that sometimes. Anyway, the end of that year, Renee retired and she moved up to Cumbria. We're still in touch sometimes, which is lovely. She's an amazing person. And then I set up my little business just doing very small stuff at first in my garage. And then I had a workshop built in the garden, which is where I still work now.

And so my commute to work is about 10 yards, which I love. You when I was in the police service some mornings, I'd have to drive all the way down to Salisbury from Swindon for work. Yeah, so I'm not one for commuting. So just walking down the garden and the dog comes in with me and I make cups of tea all day long. I love it. So that's how I got to where I am now, you know.

Gemma Daly (09:28)

you You

it sounds incredible. Yeah.

Erica (09:51)

I've had three full-time jobs in my life and I have loved every single one of them. I'm so, so blessed. I really know that. And to be able to work for myself and because I've got grandchildren now, so I can have a, you know, one day a week off to have my grandson and stuff like that. So it's very flexible.

Gemma Daly (10:10)

an incredible story, Erica. And you've been through such a lot as well, but to come out so positive out of the other side of all of that, that is such an inspirational story.

So tell us about your upholstering then, because it's traditional upholstering, isn't it? How does, yeah, how does that differ from other types of upholstery?

Erica (10:28)

Yeah, mostly, yeah.

Well, traditional upholstery uses materials that are natural fibers. So hessian, koia, which is coconut fiber, horsehair for stuffing, latex and rubber, cotton, linen, all those beautiful things that are natural fibers, they're naturally fire retardant.

All the fire regulations involved in upholstery in this country are bonkers. We are working very hard with the government to try and change that. But if we use natural fibres, things naturally don't burn. They might catch on fire, I don't know if you remember, probably not again because it was so long ago, but they had to bring in all these regulations because it's the fumes from foam that kill people.

Gemma Daly (11:23)

⁓ okay.

Okay.

Erica (11:25)

Thankfully fires in houses are very rare these days because a lot of people don't smoke and all our fire alarms and things all of that has worked but all of the chemicals they put on fabrics and in

foam and other materials is because they want to stop the fumes when the foam melts or burns whereas koia and horsehair and all of those they don't give off those fumes because they don't burn.

Gemma Daly (11:39)

. Okay.

Erica (11:52)

So you don't need to have all of those awful chemicals in everything, which are the fire retardant chemicals. my grandson was born, I had him a mattress made out of coir for his cot. Because I just thought, I know when my kids were born, they were on a foam mattress. I didn't know any different back then. now I know, I believe that a lot of the issues people have with skin irritation, cancer.

breathing problems, all of those things are down to the chemicals in every single thing we touch every day. When you sit on a chair, when you sit on a stool, when you touch a fabric in your curtains, it gives off micro molecules of these fire retardant chemicals and they are evil. I try not to use them and I have to still follow the guidelines with regards to the

standards otherwise I wouldn't be able to do work for people but if I can encourage people to not use foam I do. All the other materials I use are natural and you can use those in both modern and traditional upholstery. Generally with traditional upholstery you use tacks and not staples because staples are another thing I don't like. They're just, I don't know, think if you learn a trade

in a certain era or way, maybe sometimes moving on into the modern way is quite hard. But if you looked at a piece of furniture that was done traditionally and a piece that was done in a modern way from the outside to the untrained eye, you wouldn't know the difference. It's just the process inside and the materials that are used. And that's what I love. Lots of stitching in traditional upholstery with great big

foot long needles. I absolutely love that, creating all the strength inside a piece, whereas on a modern piece you just plonk a piece of foam on. I don't get much satisfaction from that.

Gemma Daly (13:47)

It sounds... No, it sounds fascinating. And is it hard to gather all of those materials?

Because no, they're quite readily available.

Erica (13:56)

No,

they are. I use two suppliers because they deliver on different days of the week so if I need something quickly I can do it but they sell everything twine that you would use for sewing to great big 10-20 kilogram bags of horsehair or coir as well as foam and stuff. Upholstery is a big thing. When you sew you can have your little sewing box.

with the threads and stuff in. Honestly, I had to build a separate workshop to store my materials in because everything is so big. You know,

Gemma Daly (14:35)

I can imagine.

Erica (14:36)

a sheet of foam is two meters square and it takes up a lot of space as do all the bags of stuffing and stuff. ⁓ it was fine when it was me, 10 years ago, I was asked by my local college if I would teach some evening classes.

Gemma Daly (14:37)

⁓ .

Erica (14:54)

initially I said no, because I'm not a teacher and I don't have any teaching qualifications, but they were looking locally for skilled tradespeople who would be happy to pass on their skills to adults in a college setting. So I said, well, I'll give that a go. So I did that for five years for my local college here in Swindon. And then I decided to do it from home. So I teach two days a week from home now.

I only ever have three students at any one time at the most, but with all those bags of stuff and rolls of wadding and all of this stuff, we just didn't have room in there. So I had to have another workshop built for storage. So yeah, it's all good. ⁓ it just, it brings me so much pleasure to turn somebody's old, you know, their grandma's old chair or footstool, headboard, whatever it is.

Gemma Daly (15:35)

⁓

Erica (15:50)

⁓ into something that can last for another generation or two instead of throwing it away. Throwing away isn't good.

Gemma Daly (15:54)

Absolutely. Yeah. That reminds me actually, I've got my granny's old dressing table stool.

that has completely sort of bottomed out, but I don't want to throw that away.

Erica (16:09)

Well, that's a perfect project. Come down and you can do it. I always say to people, dropping dining chair seat or a piano stool or a foot stool are always really good as a starting project because it just gives you half a dozen techniques to get to finish it. And you can sort of get the feel as to whether it's going to be something for you or not. I wouldn't suggest starting on a big wing back chair because they take quite a long time.

Gemma Daly (16:12)

I need to! I need to! ⁓

. .

Erica (16:37)

But I'm currently working with an organisation in Sirencester called the Remnant Revolution, and they're a charity which is women led for women. And I didn't know this until recently that the law is changing next year and anybody that uses textiles in their business has to have accreditation to say that they're not throwing them away, whether it's leftover materials, whether it's end of roles or whether it's ⁓

like if you've made garments or something and then you don't sell them, none of that can go into landfill anymore. So anybody that produces these things has to be certified every year to say that they are acting responsibly. The Remnant Revolution is one of those companies that can accredit people. So ⁓ they're a charity and they support a domestic violence unit in ⁓ Stroud in Gloucestershire.

Gemma Daly (17:32)

.

Erica (17:34)

So I've been doing

some work with them recently running upholstery courses so people can do up their furniture, they get donated loads of fabrics these big companies and they make stuff out of them and then sell them on. So it's like a big circle of not throwing things away. Let's reuse things. Some of the fabrics are just beautiful. I can't imagine that they would be put into landfill. It's so sad. the ladies I've been working with down there, they are loving it.

absolutely loving transforming their dining chairs and I don't know I can't remember what else somebody had a Lloyd Loom chair which are just ⁓

Gemma Daly (18:10)

I don't know that.

Erica (18:11)

Lloyd Loom is a famous thing they're made from rolled paper it looks like it's cane but it's not it's paper it's the most beautiful furniture you would probably if you've seen one you would know it's

Gemma Daly (18:16)

Wow. Thank

Erica (18:24)

Ottomans and bedroom chairs were very, very popular in my grandma's era, you know, 70 years ago. But they last for a long time. They're beautiful pieces of furniture. So, yeah, so I'm doing that with them at the moment and supporting their goals, supporting women in the business place, which is important. it's very good for, as I think most crafts are.

getting you out of a bad head space. I have run courses for people with mental health issues, mainly if they've been off work for a long time with illness or sickness and they're worried about going back into the workplace, which is common. I get that when you've been off for quite a long time, or if something traumatic has happened to you and it's meant that you've been fearful of going out. just, engaging the part of your brain that creates

Gemma Daly (18:51)

Hmm.

Erica (19:18)

stops you thinking about the other awful thing that might be holding you back. when you leave, having recovered something or created something beautiful, I can just see the difference in these people. And there will be many other crafters the country or in the world who've done this sort of thing and help people. We all know that kids love to draw and paint and they get so much out of it, don't they? So.

I think upholstery is a wonderful thing. You could probably tell.

Gemma Daly (19:50)

But I love that. I love the passion. And like you say, it's so through the podcast and through, you know, sewing in general, I know that

craft is such a powerful thing. Like you say, it can really transform somebody that's going through really awful things and it did to you as well. And we just need to keep shouting about that really, don't we? Because we get so carried away in daily life that some people do forget they need an outlet. And that's where all these crafts come in.

Erica (20:10)

Yeah.

Absolutely.

I did some work a few years ago for an organisation, it's a national organisation called the Men's Sheds Project, I don't know if you've heard of it. And it is to get men out of their sheds actually because unlike women, we're really good at going to our girlfriends and grabbing a coffee and talking, men generally aren't. And the Men's Sheds Project is amazing because it gets guys into a social environment and some of them would come along

Gemma Daly (20:34)

think so. .

Erica (20:54)

and they would not do any upholstery. They'd have a cup of tea and a biscuit and chat to everybody and then go. But you could see when they left, they had a spring in their step. was changing the way they interacted with people. And once they got into the upholstery as well and they were creating something, honestly, it just made me so happy to see the difference in people.

Gemma Daly (21:17)

That's really lovely. And if somebody was to come to your class, like what can they expect? How does it run?

Erica (21:25)

Right,

my classes are very informal. They're three hours long and I don't have like set of sessions. They're more sort of drop in because a lot of my students are repeat offenders. They keep finding new stuff and coming back. So you just on to the chat group that I have and you say, I'd like to come next Thursday morning if there's a space.

Gemma Daly (21:41)

.

Erica (21:51)

I put them in and they come along and everybody works on their own pieces. Nobody's doing the same thing. I've got somebody doing a massive wing back at the moment. I've got a lady doing two bucket chairs. I've got a traditional chair being done. I've got a couple of foot stools and a headboard. So everybody does something different, but we only ever have three in the workshop at a time. And I just go around working with everybody and helping them with the next stage. ⁓ And when they finish some might.

go away and I might not see them again. Some become friends and they keep coming back with more stuff. I've got a few ladies that must have done 10, 15 chairs and they just love it. I think everybody in their family has one of their chairs. They are, just saw this fabric and I just saw this chair and I'm going to give it to my daughter. I'm going to give it to my son. I think they got the bug like I did.

Gemma Daly (22:33)

Wow.

That's really lovely though, because like

you say, those pieces will last so long, won't they?

Erica (22:50)

Yeah, they

will. But I think some courses, having been a police officer and worked shifts for 30 years, I know that there are times in my life then when if I'd have booked on a 12 week course, I'd have probably missed a quarter of it because of my shift work or kids or whatever. So I don't want people to have that stress. So they book in weekly if they can come to four sessions a week if they want to, if there's space, they can come to one a month if they want to. And as long as it's in my diary, so other people know.

Gemma Daly (23:06)

Yeah.

Erica (23:19)

and you don't pay if you don't come and you don't pay if you're on holiday or you're sick or anything as long as you let me know beforehand money is also a thing that we're all a bit tight. I think we're to be paying a lot more for petrol coming up soon, aren't we, with everything that's going on at

the moment, which is very scary. So ⁓ doing up furniture obviously saves money but not if you're having to pay when you can't be there.

So I want people to enjoy it. I don't want it to be a stress for them and I don't want it to be a financial burden. So, because I didn't want that for me.

Gemma Daly (23:53)

That's

a really interesting way to run it though. And you know, like you say, if people can do it all in a short space of time that that suits them and, if they want to space it out, that's really brilliant. So have you had any particularly like challenging or standout projects that you've upholstered yourself?

Erica (24:03)

Mm-hmm.

⁓ Some of the bigger things which I don't do anymore, I have to be honest, I struggle with it now because they are too big, is like pubs or I did gentleman's club. everything was in British Racing Green, which was lovely and it was all velvet and there were,

meters and meters of benches going all the way around these oak-paneled rooms and all the chairs were done in and it took me months to do it but doing the big benches I have a couple of people that I call on because when you've got a three meter long piece of wood that you're trying to cover it's actually quite heavy and big to move around. I used to do three-piece suites

but I've stopped doing them now. think sofas are too big. I can do a little one. I do chairs. what was the most challenging thing? Crikey. think it was a really, really old pub where there was not one right angle anywhere. And I actually found a carpenter who I'd done some work for. He makes reclaimed

Gemma Daly (25:04)

Hmm.

Erica (25:26)

Shepherd's Huts. They are top-notch, beautiful things but everything in them is reclaimed and recycled except

Gemma Daly (25:28)

wow.

Erica (25:36)

for the soft furnishings which he got me to do for him so I knew him anyway. He came and helped me because we had to make all new benches for this pub going round the whole ground floor but every piece was out you know it and it was a nightmare but I think if he hadn't been there to help me I would have never

Gemma Daly (25:46)

Okay. .

Erica (25:55)

got that done. But once he'd made all the frames and everything, covering them wasn't too difficult, but it was just getting all the angles and everything right in the first place. To be honest, with upholstery, all the processes are very similar, whether you are doing a little footstool or a Chesterfield sofa. And as long as you remember,

Gemma Daly (26:10)

.

Erica (26:18)

the rules behind those processes and why you're cutting in a certain way or why you're getting your tension on or how you tie one spring in. If you're tying 40 springs in, it's exactly the same, but just bigger and more of it. And that's what I just tell my students because with traditional upholstery, you put your hessian on and then you put your wadding and stuff in and then you put calico on the top.

Gemma Daly (26:34)

Mm-hmm.

Erica (26:45)

and then you put your top fabric on. So by the time you get to your top fabric, if you are cutting round an arm or round the back of a chair, you will have done that cut at least twice, if not three times before you get to your top fabric. So it's like practicing, because every chair is different. Even if you're doing six dining chairs that look the same, there will be something a little different about them or the fabric won't react in the right way.

But if you're working on that one piece, by the time you get to your top fabric, you will have done the cut round that arm or that back two or three times before. I say, remember how you've done that because you'll be, by the time you get to your top fabric, because I always say all the work is done inside and your top fabric goes ta-da and sits on top and just looks beautiful. I mean, because everything else is holding everything in at the bottom. So if you can get that right at

up till then when you do that cut on your top fabric it's just going to go tada and look absolutely beautiful.

Gemma Daly (27:49)

It sounds fascinating. I definitely need to give this a try, Erica.

Erica (27:54)

Do!

⁓ it's lovely.

Gemma Daly (27:56)

Yeah, ⁓ so as well as your upholstering you do sew some of your own clothes now as well, don't you?

Erica (28:04)

I've always sewn clothes and but more once my kids were born I went into making soft furnishings so I curtains and blinds and things like that. Rarely made stuff for me because I just didn't have the time but I have got back into sewing clothes and I've done three or four things now. I went on a course with Asma Al-Alek from

Gemma Daly (28:11)

Mm hmm.

.

Erica (28:28)

the Great British Sewing Bee, she was the winner in 2023. And she and Fauve and Tony, who were all on that series, what a great bunch of people. They run courses and they do various shows and things and I've displayed some of my stuff with them. But I went on one of their

courses that Tony and Asma ran and I learned to make a pair of trousers, jeans, sorry, light cotton jeans. And there was so much I'd forgotten.

because I haven't done that sort of thing for so long. But also, so much I learn because I think it doesn't matter how much you know, somebody else will know a little tweak or a little process that maybe you didn't know. You think, my gosh, how did I not know that? So I learned so much from them on that day. It was just one day down in South Wales and it was such fun.

And since then, I've made a few things. I made a blouse last weekend. This Saturday coming, I'm going to my friend's 50th birthday party and it's a Nashville thing, a country and Western place. So I've made myself a cowboy shirt with ⁓ the tassels on here. So I'm gonna wear that on Saturday. Yeah, so I've got back into it. I don't have as much time as I'd like to, to do sewing.

Gemma Daly (29:33)

Amazing. I'm

Erica (29:50)

But it's because of sewing. left home and my first house was very, very small when I bought my first house, managed to get a board for cutting fabric on and it was really helpful. But obviously over time it wore out and I was never able to get another one. And that's something I have always struggled with is finding the right place to cut fabric. I don't know if you have this, my knees.

will not cope with me crawling around on the floor anymore.

Gemma Daly (30:20)

Yeah, I have to.

I mean, I do have a dining table, but it's constantly full of stuff. So it is the floor, but I was going to go on to your amazing product, the sew and stow that you've developed. So tell us that story.

Erica (30:38)

Okay, well, like I said,

40 years ago, I had a board and I think I got it at a sewing show and it was, I remember it was from Australia. died a death and it had to go, it was made of cardboard. But when I had my workshop built in the garden, I measured everything out, all the work benches and everything I wanted in there. The one thing I never took into account was somewhere to cut fabric. So I had this workshop built.

Gemma Daly (30:57)

. .

Erica (31:05)

And the very first time I was like in there thinking, well, where am going to cut my fabric? I've got a chair there and I've got this there and I could have kicked myself, you know, another couple of meters and it would have been fine, but it wasn't. even now I still cut fabric in my house on the dining table.

But obviously, upholstery fabric is quite heavy and it's quite wide and upholstery pieces are quite big. So sometimes I've got like 20, 30 meters of fabric there and

I thought I really need that board again. I don't know, probably 10 years ago I started looking and nobody made one. after a while of being really frustrated of this fabric sliding off my table and I put it on the floor, but honestly, I'm not good getting up and down off the floor anymore. I thought I'm going to have one made for me. So I designed, I drew out the measurements. You know, I am a draftswoman, so I know how to draw and I...

I do all that sort of stuff anyway. And ⁓ I just went locally and found a printer. told them what I wanted and they said, we can't do that. It's too big. And I said, but I need it big because I want it to be wider than my table to give me the width I need for a width of fabric. And I want it to be long enough to, so I'm not always moving it when I'm cutting. Because generally with upholstery, I want to cut big.

rectangle or square pieces of fabric. So I just need straight lines. It's not like pinning a pattern to it. So in the end, I found a company that said they would print me one and it cost me hundreds, hundreds of pounds because it was just a one-off. And I got the artwork done and sent it to them and they sent me this thing and I called it the cutting board because it was just a cutting board.

Gemma Daly (32:30)

Mm. .

Erica (32:50)

And so when my students started seeing customers when they were coming to the house, because it was always on the dining table, they'd say, oh gosh, where did you get that from? And I said, why had it made? What do mean you had it made? I said, well, I designed it and I found a printer I had it printed onto this cardboard. So it was metric on one side and imperial on the other. And it was nearly, well, it's the same size that it is now. So it's 190 long by 110 wide in centimeters.

Anyway, one of my students said, Erica, really want one of those. I'm always struggling at home. Could you get me one made? And I said, well, you know, I paid over 400 pounds for this one board because it was a one off. And as we all know, when you buy in bulk, think the price comes down dramatically. So it sort of made me think, well, I could go into production and see if we can start selling them. So

Gemma Daly (33:35)

You You

Erica (33:43)

changed my life. can't tell you because I went from being a sole trader working in my little workshop to now being the CEO of a limited company and working with people worldwide. I cannot tell you the learning curve wasn't a curve it just went like that straight up everything I had to learn and getting patents and protecting it know worldwide and

Gemma Daly (34:02)

It was a line. So,

to

Erica (34:11)

Oh my Lord, getting funding.

Oh, the stuff I've done. I just can't believe that I've done it. So anyway, I then I had 400 printed the first time. This will make you laugh. So the printer, this was a different printer that actually printed the 400. The day they were being delivered, I was having them delivered to my house. You know, I just, yeah, okay, that's fine. He phoned up in the morning. He said, right, we've just loaded your boards on. There's three pallets and they're...

two meters square, where are we delivering these to? And I stopped and I said, my house. And he went, okay, have you forklift truck? And I said,

no. And he went, well, how are we going to get them off the lorry? And I'm like, I just in my head, I hadn't taken into account the physical size of 400 of these things.

Gemma Daly (34:53)

I I

Erica (35:06)

And well, we ended up in hysterics laughing the two of us on the phone. I think he must have thought I was so dippy. Anyway, this lorry turns up a few hours later. By then I'd managed to get my next door neighbor's son and a friend right here to help me. And we had to unload this lorry by hand. I had boards in my garage. I had them in my office. I had them in my lounge. They were everywhere because I just hadn't taken into how much space.

Gemma Daly (35:22)

my god

Erica (35:36)

They were physically going to take up. Well, it was a nightmare. Of course, then I had to have all the boxes sent from another company to pack them in. And so by then, I had to get a fulfillment company because you just couldn't move in my house. And

I know a lot of companies start off this way, but these are quite big. And so they took up a lot of space. So I use a charity, local charity here in Swindon to do my fulfillment. That's what they specialize in.

So I work with them. As you can probably tell, I like giving back to my local community and I like using local people where I can. And I like helping people. So the guys that do my fulfillment are amazing. And it's a teaching environment as well as, so they help them all go out and get jobs. They're all people with mental health issues or disabilities. And it's just the most incredible place. So that was the card, the cutting board, the card board.

which I still use my very first board every day. And that is now nine years old and it's still going strong. I made it to last, know, had it made to last. We did a lot of product development with regards to the card it's printed on, how it was printed, the way it was folded and creased was crucial. Who thought creasing could be so crucial, you know? But I've learned so much about the products.

Gemma Daly (36:54)

Yeah.

Erica (37:00)

But then

somebody said to me about three or four years ago, I print all my patterns, my dressmaking patterns on PDF and I sellotape them together. Can I use sellotape on your board? And I said, no, I don't think so. I'll try, but I don't think so. Of course you can't, it rips the paper off. So I went back to them and I said, no, I'm sorry, you can't. Well, I want one. Is there a way you could have one printed for me on something that you can sellotape to?

And I said, well, I've never thought about that. So I did some research into PDF patterns. I actually made a couple of things using a PDF pattern, not my cup of tea. It's not something I would do regularly, but I had a go at it and I can understand the need for using sellotape and putting your, all your pattern pieces together. So by that point,

five, six years down the line, materials had being eco-friendly also, I didn't want it to be virgin plastic. that's why I went for cardboard in the first place. ⁓ And I found a printer that had some materials that are recycled plastic bottles. are amazing. Who knew? ⁓

I mean, one of the materials I use instead of foam is called Ultraflex and that is made from recycled plastic bottles and no extra chemicals go into it to make it into this white foamy stuff that you can use instead of foam. I love it and I'm an advocate of it for both my suppliers. I'm regularly getting phone calls from other upholsterers about it. anyway, my printer made me one of these boards.

And about the same time before we had gone into production using this new material, was really struggling with Google and all the other search engines. And I couldn't work out why. If I put something on like Amazon, I had an Amazon account for a little while, I don't anymore, or eBay, people couldn't find my product. Even I couldn't find my product and I knew it was on there. I happened to be having a conversation with ⁓

the husband of a friend of mine one evening, I was over there having dinner. he said, so how's it all going with the cutting board, Erica? And I said, John, it's a nightmare. I said, I can't seem to get Google to find it on Amazon when you put in the, because it was the dash cutting board. When you put that in, you get three million chopping boards for the kitchen, but my product doesn't come up. And he looked at me and he said, well, I can tell you why that is straight away. And I

Gemma Daly (39:08)

. you

Erica (39:31)

said, why? And he said, it's the dash.

I what do mean? And he said, none of the search engines will search after a dash. So if somebody puts in the dash cutting board, all the search engine is looking for is the.

I went, you're joking. He went, no, didn't you know that? I said, no, I didn't. I'm not tech savvy really. So then we had to start the, we had to, I

had to start the process of rebranding find a different name. a friend of mine, Bob helped me. He was amazing. He's a really good wordsmith and he writes books and

comedy sketches for quite famous people. He's amazing. said to him, I need a new name for my product that hasn't got any dashes or anything in it. And within a couple of weeks we were chatting when he said, how about sew and stow? Because you sew on it and then you stow it away. And I went, my gosh, that's amazing. So then we went through the rebranding process and I had all the artwork done for the, so the new boards.

which are printed on Trier print, which is this recycled plastic, are now called sew and stow. do still have some of the old stock card ones from previous print runs, once that's gone, they will be called sew and stow as well, but they will just be card ones or the Trier print ones because they are quite a bit different in price because of the material that they're printed on.

that's how we got to be called Sew & Stow by a complete fluke of me having a conversation with somebody over dinner. And we then, I also decided, because I was making calico bags that went with them for people to store them in. But that then meant the cardboard they were posted in was just going in the bin. I thought, well, that's really wasteful. So I then upgraded the packaging.

with a different company. We did a year's trials. Everything takes so long, I can't tell you, of posting boards all over the world to people that I know or to whatever in different packaging and then asking them to do a report on the packaging when it got there so we could test the type of card that it was, how it was folded. And we ended up with it's a bit like a cereal box.

So once you've ripped stripped and opened it, you can put the flap back in to reclose it and it's perfect for storing board in to keep it in pristine condition when it's not in use. it was about then that more and more people from Instagram, because I did a few things on Instagram, work to do with sewing. Because although I started it originally for upholsterers, actually it's fantastic for putting dress fabrics on.

Gemma Daly (41:51)

Mm-hmm.

Erica (42:15)

because it's so big and

even if it overhangs my dining table by nearly 50 centimeters so that's quite a lot and so I put it on the middle so the table's in the middle it doesn't bow so it gives me such an amazing space so I can put all my fabric out put all my pattern pieces on cut it I use weights on it with the cardboard you can actually pin into it vertically but with the ⁓

version three of the board which is on the Trier print you can't pin into it so I just use weights all the time I think a lot of people use weights don't they?

Gemma Daly (42:49)

Yeah, I think one of the

fantastic things that I've found, because you very kindly sent me one to try, is

you know, because of all the, like you say, the lines, I can line my fabric up and I know that it's on grain. Whereas when I was just doing it on the floor down here, how do I know it's straight? It's sort of just, you know, hope for the best.

Erica (43:11)

I know.

It is. And I always say to people, just remember that as long as your selvage edge is along one of the lines on the grid, on the board, your fabric will be square. ever put the cut edge on because that can sometimes be even be just a few millimetres out, can't it? But the selvage edge 99 times out of 100 is straight. And then if you weight it and you cut along the lines, I don't know if you've managed to pick up that yet, but if you you look at the

Gemma Daly (43:30)

you .

Erica (43:42)

front of your scissors when you're cutting you will cut a straight line it's really hard to not cut a straight line I think people tend to look at their hand rather than the end of the blades and if you look at

the end of the blades and look look ahead of you and you look at the lines underneath you will cut a straight line as you know because like yeah I did send you one and I'm so glad you love it is they they fold up

So they are only 40 centimeters wide by 110 long. So you can put them in your ironing board cupboard or behind your sofa or under your bed or something. But also they only weigh the same as a bottle of water. You know, they're just over a kilogram.

Gemma Daly (44:19)

It's amazing, really.

Erica (44:21)

They are really light. ⁓

Gemma Daly (44:23)

Yeah, you guys need to

see this board because it is incredible. I've never seen anything like it. But just to tell the listeners a bit more about it because not something you can use your rotary cutter on. It's not a self-healing mat. It's a board.

Erica (44:29)

You

Yeah, ⁓ I have a smallish, I don't know, by 50 self-healing mat, which I bought for a project I was doing a while ago. I don't like a rotary cutter. I end up cutting my hands more than the fab, get blood everywhere. But they are so heavy. was at a show, a trade show at the NEC a couple of years ago, and they had one that was ⁓ a one size.

Gemma Daly (45:07)

Mm.

Erica (45:07)

I don't know what that is, but you know, there's quite a big board, isn't it? A1. I couldn't lift it. And I'm a big, strong person. They are so heavy. And the my board, and you know, it's just so light. You can just fold it out on your table, cut your thing out, fold it away, sit down and eat your dinner. You know, it's that quick and easy to use. But yes, the material that a self-healing mat is made from is totally different to the sew and stow board. You cannot use a rotary cutter. It's only for scissors.

Gemma Daly (45:12)

.

Erica (45:35)

⁓

actually written on the board do not use a rotary cutter because it will just fall apart the card one and the version three which is the Trier print The Trier print one is it's a bit like corrugated cardboard so it's got corrugated plastic in between two sheets that's what makes it so light but if you cut it with a rotary cutter it will never back to being how it was so that's not a good idea that wasn't the reason I could have easily bought an AO

Gemma Daly (45:41)

.

Erica (46:03)

board or an A1 board to do my fabric on but it wouldn't have suited my needs because they're too heavy, I couldn't have folded it away to store it, you know I've got a busy house, I've got people that live here with me and we don't want it out in the kitchen all the time. want to be able to put it or I want to be able to fold it up and put it away and the lovely thing about version 3 of the board now is it's wipeable as well, you can use tape on So if you spill your coffee

I have rules in my house, no drinks near fabric, which is the same as we all say, you touch my sewing scissors and you're dead, know, never touch them. But I have, it's just fate, isn't it? If you put a glass down or a cup of coffee, it's going to get knocked over. if that does happen, it's wipeable. But actually the cardboard, because of the

Gemma Daly (46:33)

Yeah. This is it.

Erica (46:52)

the paper that we use on it, which is very high quality. If you were to wipe it

off quickly, if something was spilled on it, it wouldn't mark it. If it was standing in a bucket of water, it would start soaking the water up and it would go all wobbly. But like I said, I still use my version one and that's nine years I've been using it now every day and it is still perfectly good.

I really am on a crusade with all of this stuff I'm doing. I am also a buy once buy well person. I would much rather

Gemma Daly (47:19)

Mm.

Erica (47:21)

have one nice or pair of jeans than lots of cheap ones. And I wanted this product to be something that if somebody invested in it, because it is an investment, you we invest in a good pair of scissors or a good frying pan if we're a cook, there's no point having rubbish tools, is there? For whatever job you want to do, want it to last.

And I don't want anybody to have to come back to me in two, three, five years and say, actually, I thought it's worn out. I want it to be a one-off purchase. for my business coach, she says that's a really bad thing. Well, how can you make money then, Erica? If people aren't going to, I don't want them to have to come back. not what it's about. I still use the very first pair of scissors my mum bought me on my 18th birthday. I love them. I have had them sharpened a couple of times, but

Gemma Daly (47:55)

Yeah. .

Erica (48:11)

You know, I'm 64 now and I'm still using the same scissors. Why shouldn't we? You know, and Patrick Grant, who we all know and love from the Great British Sewing Bee, he is one of these buy well buy once advocates as well. And that's what I want. I don't want it to be something that someone has to come back buy another one. You know, not through general use. If something awful were to happen to it or you got flooded or something, I can't be held responsible for that. But for general...

use of people that work, ⁓ do upholstery or sewing or any craft where you cut fabric at home, if you buy this it will last you a lifetime. That's my goal. I give it, it has got, they have got a lifetime guarantee on the website if you go on there and have a look.

Gemma Daly (48:48)

love that

Fantastic. And do you have any exciting plans with regards to the boards or your upholstery business coming up, Erica?

Erica (49:05)

At the moment, I am working with a couple of people to try and set up a distribution network worldwide. I have sold boards worldwide. gone to Jamaica, Australia. I've sold loads in Australia, America, Europe, all over Europe. But it doesn't fall within my eco.

side of things, posting them from the UK. So I stumbled through Fluke again across a guy who has a distribution network for his business, which is in the paper craft industry, journaling and scrapbooking. And that is a worldwide distribution network he's got set up. So we are currently working to set up

to move my products because even the plastic one would go in with his products quite well and the paper board obviously is paper anyway or cardboard. So that the products will be shipped bulk to other continents and then out by that distribution network locally in Australia or America.

So that will save money for the customer because their local postage will be a lot cheaper than me having, I think it's about 70 pounds for me to send one to Australia. And that's ridiculous. It's a ridiculous amount of money. also that reduces the carbon footprint when I'm sending 10,000 of them to Australia in bulk and then rather than sending each one individually as the orders come in.

Gemma Daly (50:23)

Wow. Yeah.

Erica (50:39)

So that is what we've been working on since January and we're hoping that, going to say by Easter, that should be in place. And once that is, then we've got to rejig everything with regards to the postage and all of that on the website. Cause at the moment I have to calculate each individually. If it's not in the UK, mainland is fine. That's all done automatically, but everything else has to be done ⁓ individually. And it takes up a lot of time.

But if it's being done by a distribution centre in each continent, then that work will taken away from me. We did have a bit of a glitch with the packaging in that some of the boards were getting damaged. They were obviously being dropped in transit. I hope yours hadn't been dropped when you got it, if the corner is dented, then it...

Gemma Daly (51:06)

No. No.

Erica (51:29)

it was denting the board inside, which meant it didn't lie flat.

so I was having to send them out. So my fulfillment company and I, last month we've designed little corner pieces for all the boxes. So they're now going on when they send out them. So hopefully that will stop that happening. although I initially wanted them to be printed and produced here in the UK, the cost is really high.

So ⁓ we are looking at the moment at having them printed in India. And then they will go to the fulfillment centers from there. they don't have the right material to print onto. So that is put a hold on that at the moment. But we'll see. There's always something going on to make sure. Because I want it to be right. I really do.

Gemma Daly (52:18)

Absolutely.

Erica (52:21)

I cannot imagine how many hours I have saved in my job because I cut fabric every single day. by, once you get, putting a pattern on it is slightly different because you've got to lay your pattern pieces out and pin them or weight them or whatever. But for upholstery or if you're just cutting strips or bias, because there's bias cut lines on there.

The time it takes me to cut bias cut lines is like a fraction of what it used to be because I just, and you're up and you've got it

Gemma Daly (52:52)

actually

Erica (52:52)

all cut.

Gemma Daly (52:53)

I was really excited to see the bias lines because it's something that you just can't, you know, you need to be accurate, don't you? And I think that's a great feature of the board. you

Erica (52:56)

Yeah.

Yes.

Yeah, once you get the technique of just lifting the fabric slightly as you're cutting

with your opposite hand so you can see the lines underneath and you just, it's just fantastic. So from a business point of view for me in my upholstery business, it's a really big time saver and time is money for any of us that do crafts as our business, isn't it?

Gemma Daly (53:28)

Absolutely. Fantastic. So just to tie up the interview, Erica, I like to do a little game of this or that. Is that all right? Okay, so the first one, sewing your own clothes or upholstering furniture. Yeah.

Erica (53:37)

Absolutely.

furniture it's got to be furniture

that makes my heart smile

Gemma Daly (53:51)

⁓

a meal out or a takeaway.

Erica (53:56)

Mail out.

Gemma Daly (53:57)

A more involved make or a quick win?

Erica (54:00)

more involved.

Gemma Daly (54:02)

Sea or coffee? An organized studio or creative chaos?

Erica (54:03)

Earl Grey please!

Chaos. I'm not even going to say creative, but chaos.

Gemma Daly (54:16)

Just complete chaos.

Sweet or savoury? Sweet tooth. Restore original details or reinterpret the piece.

Erica (54:22)

Sweet. Definitely.

Restore.

Gemma Daly (54:33)

Practical garments or a statement piece? Neutral color palette or bold color? ⁓ And the last one, hand stitch or machine stitch? Very good. ⁓ lovely. And I can tell the passion you have.

Erica (54:36)

statement.

bold all the way. Give me colour!

hand, hand stitch definitely. I just love it.

Gemma Daly (54:59)

for your craft. It's really lovely to see. I love that. So where can people find you, Erica?

Erica (55:06)

Right, well, I live in Swindon in Wiltshire ⁓ and I don't have a shop, but I do have a workshop and my customers come here regularly. I do keep stock here if anybody wants a board ⁓ or else they can find me on the website, is sewandstow.co.uk. I'm also on Instagram for as sewandstow Facebook, actually. I don't do TikTok. There's just too many, isn't there?

Gemma Daly (55:33)

There

Erica (55:34)

Too many social media sites to get onto. But also for upholstery, I'm at upholstery by Erica Jane, but it's the same phone number and

Gemma Daly (55:34)

is.

Erica (55:44)

both email addresses will get to me. That's fine. Can I just say that if anybody who watches this, if they manage to sit through it all and listen to my gabbling on, that if they do want buy a board,

they put in Sewing Social the promo code, I'll send this to you as well so you can put it in your link. They'll get £10 off the board if they buy it online. Okay.

Gemma Daly (56:04)

Mm.

Lovely, thank you very

much, that's very generous discount.

Erica (56:15)

Yeah, thank you.

Gemma Daly (56:17)

Well, you've been an amazing guest, Erica. I want to thank you for spending time with me on the Sewing Social podcast today.

Erica (56:24)

Thank you for having me. It's been an absolute pleasure. Lovely to see you again, Gemma. Okay, thanks a lot. Bye, bye.

Gemma Daly (56:28)

and you. You take care. Bye bye.