Episodes
Monday Feb 19, 2018
Episode #115: Mathew Boudreaux
Monday Feb 19, 2018
Monday Feb 19, 2018
On today’s episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast we're talking about building a career in the sewing industry with my guest, Mathew Boudreaux.
Mathew Boudreaux of Mister Domestic learned to sew as a kid, but never really got into it until he had his daughter Helena, who is now four and a half. He thought it would be a great way to connect with her if he could make her cool clothes.
With a new motivation to up his attention-to-detail, the quality and coolness far exceeded even his own expectations. Once he started posted his projects on social media, the quilting world quickly took notice of his fearless use of color and print, incomprehensibly fast output, carefree enthusiasm and humor, and ability to seek out, acquire and share new skills.
Several years ago Mathew began posting photos of the things he was sewing on Instagram, not knowing that there was an online sewing community. Through the comments on his posts he was introduced to other makers and realized that he could launch a business in the home sewing and quilting industry. He started a blog and YouTube channel and began working with brands like Art Gallery Fabrics, Aurifil, Brother and others to do co-marketing. His brand, Mister Domestic, grew at an accelerated pace as a result. Just a few weeks ago Mathew announced that he's now designing fabric for Art Gallery.
In this interview Mathew talks about his business strategy and the intentional way he thinks about his brand. He talks about how he chose the name Mister Domestic and why he recently got the name trademarked. Matthew has a mission for his brand and a long-term business plan that he's following. His brand is built on joy and positivity and he uses those feelings as an anchor when making decisions about what to do next. He also uses focus groups to help guide him on messaging.
Mathew has kept his day job which requires a significant amount of travel and we talk about how he fits everything into his busy life. He also talks about being a father and being gay and how that's felt as a member of the quilting community.
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This episode is sponsored by Make Modern magazine. Make Modern magazine is a digital magazine especially for modern quilters. Each issue features at least 10 projects with full patterns for quilts, minis, pillows and more. Make Modern is also packed with feature articles on the latest happenings in the modern quilt community and interviews with quilt superstars. Sign up for a free six month trial subscription, exclusive for Craft Industry Alliance listeners at www.makemodern.com.au/whileshenaps, hurry offer ends March 15th 2018.
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Please note that this show used to be called the While She Naps podcast. The name has changed, but the content and host have stayed the same.
To get the full show notes for this episode, visit Craft Industry Alliance where you can learn more about becoming a member of our supportive trade association. Strengthen your creative business, stay up to date on industry news, and build connections with forward-thinking craft professionals. Meet with show host, Abby Glassenberg, each month for our Craft Business Roundtable, get access to courses and webinars taught by industry leaders, and much more.
Monday Feb 05, 2018
Episode #114: Melanie Ham
Monday Feb 05, 2018
Monday Feb 05, 2018
On today’s episode of the Craft Industry Alliance podcast I'm talking with Melanie Ham about YouTube.
Melanie is a YouTuber and blogger who loves to create and share easy to follow sewing, quilting and crochet video tutorials to empower your creativity. She discovered sewing shortly after graduating with an art degree with emphasis in art history from California State University of Northridge when she found herself with more time on her hands after her husband joined the U.S. Army in 2007. Along the way she picked up crochet because it was easy to travel with and in the fall of 2010 made her first quilt.
What started out as a way to be creative and stay busy turned into an obsession and by 2011 had started a blog and YouTube channel. She now has over 400,000 subscribers on YouTube with over 32 million views and has grown to include premium content on melaniesmakers.com as well. After living in Alaska and Hawaii with the Army, she and her husband Robert, two cute kids, one new rescue puppy and her trusty studio cat now reside back home in Los Angeles where they are both self employed creatives and enjoy spending time with their kids and extended family enjoying southern California's amazing weather.
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This episode is sponsored by Crosscut Sewing. Located in Melrose, MA or online at CrosscutSewingCo.com, Crosscut offers fun and modern fabric for all of your sewing projects. In addition to quilting cotton, Crosscut offers a variety of apparel fabrics like denim, chambray, jersey knit, canvas, corduroy, flannel and more. Use the code WSN18 to save 20% on your next fabric purchase.
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Please note that this show used to be called the While She Naps podcast. The name has changed, but the content and host have stayed the same.
To get the full show notes for this episode, visit Craft Industry Alliance where you can learn more about becoming a member of our supportive trade association. Strengthen your creative business, stay up to date on industry news, and build connections with forward-thinking craft professionals. Meet with show host, Abby Glassenberg, each month for our Craft Business Roundtable, get access to courses and webinars taught by industry leaders, and much more.