Sew Lovely: The Inspiration behind the Sewing Acrylic Jewellery Collection

Sew Lovely, An Insight into Dolly Dimple Design’s Sewing Jewellery

Hello, my name is Rose and I’m the designer and maker behind jewellery brand Dolly Dimple Design. I thought I'd write a blog post about one of my most recent collections which is Sewing Inspired!

Rose modelling the Sew Lovely Jewellery

My relationship with sewing started with watching my Mum hand sewing patchwork cushions and throws in front of the television. My mum taught me how to sew by hand and together we would mend clothes, sew badges onto my Brownies uniform and most excitingly for me, make clothes for my treasured teddy bear with the most imaginative name of ‘Teddy’.

More recently, in late 2019 I thought I’d give embroidery a go and bought a kit on etsy to try my hand at. I fell in love with the craft and have been stitching ever since. One effect that I had never expected was how much of a positive impact it has had on my mental health, the repetitive nature of the stitching is so soothing. It was something I could do while relaxing in front of the telly in all of the lockdown evenings and it gave me much needed peace from constantly scrolling social media and fixating on the news headlines during the difficult times of covid-19.

Embroidery Hoops I completed during the first lockdown, both patterns are by Jenny Blair Kits.

My inspiration for the collection was the fabulous community of sewists I follow on instagram along with my own passion for embroidery! My jewellery is really popular with the pin up community and many of the ladies I follow are into dress making. I just love following their progress, from picking their fabric to excitingly trying our new patterns and learning new techniques. I really admire the passion and work that goes into making your own garments! 

To make my pieces, first I jot down ideas and do some quick sketches in my notebook. Then when I’m happy with the rough design I’ll use procreate on my ipad to make a digital drawing and pick out the colours I want to use for my pieces. Next I use adobe illustrator to turn my drawing into files suitable for laser cutting - to do this I need to deconstruct my design in to seperate pieces based on colour (as you can imagine this is the long boring part of the design process!). I hand off my artwork to Slice Laser Studio in Birmingham who do a fabulous job of cutting my pieces. The most exciting part of the whole process is when the parts arrive in the post, its like Christmas morning! I hurry to open the package right away and get started right away, hand painting the engraved details and assembling the pieces.

I've recently added a Stork Embroidery Scissor Brooch and Pendant to the collection in response to feedback on launch day! 

I really hope you’ve enjoyed learning a bit about my inspiration and working process. Thank you for inspiring me with your wonderful sewing creations!

Let me know in the comments below if your hobbies helped you get through the lockdowns too, if so what were they? Did you learn something new or have you mastered it over the years? I'd love to know!

Rose

xxx