with special guest Yvette Todd of Stash Hub
Do you have a fabric stash?
It's OK, there's no need to be embarrassed about it if you do, you are amongst friends here.
I do have a fabric stash that spreads across a cupboard and quite a few boxes stashed here and there. It's fabric that I've bought over the years and I have to confess that I don't always remember what's there.
So I was very excited when I read a post on Instagram mentioning an app called Stash Hub. I was even more excited when I contacted Yvette Todd to ask if she would chat with me about the app and she agreed.
Who is Yvette Todd
Yvette started sewing like a lot of people when the lockdown began about three years ago. You can see her makes on Instagram as @blossomsandwich.
She mostly makes clothes for herself and is a fan of the 'buffet dress' and the Dani pants by True Bias. Her style is colouful and fun and epitomised by her #sewfruity23 sewing challenge to sew items of clothing with fruit patterned fabric.
What is Stash Hub?
As you start to make clothes, it is very likely that you'll be buying fabrics and sewing patterns. Whether you are just starting out, or you have been sewing for years, managing your fabrics and your patterns can be a challenge.
When we buy fabrics online there is a lot of useful information on the supplier's website that can be helpful to capture. But where can you store that so that it's easy to access in the future if you want to find a similar fabric in the future?
Introducing Stash Hub. It is a sewing organiser app for Apple and Android devices (and there is a web version on it's way too). You can use it on your phone to organise all of your fabrics, your patterns and to pair them together to create sewing projects.
It also allows you to store details such as your measurements and you can track your sewing statistics for the things you have made. You can catalogue your notions (buttons, zips etc) and create shopping lists for items you need for your project.
And there's also a feature to allow you to discover Instagram sewing challenges and to create beautifully formatted Instagram posts of your projects to share.
"The aim is to have it as your one stop shop for all your sewing info", says Yvette, "so that you don't have to have lots of post-its or notebooks flying around."
How did Stash Hub develop?
When Yvette started sewing she was buying fabric online and wanted to keep a note of all of the information from the website about the fabric properties. "I think that information really helps you learn about the fabric in a way that is useful to you, not just like reading a book about fabric types you might never use." she told me.
She originally captured the information in Word documents but it wasn't very easy to link up or to search. So her husband introduced her to Trello. Trello is an app that allows you to create boards and put visual cards onto them that can represent your fabrics or your patterns.
But Yvette found some limitations in using Trello so her husband, Doug, who is a software developer decided to use this opportunity as a project to develop an app to help Yvette manage her fabrics and patterns more effectively - and so Stash Hub was born.
By Sewists, For Sewists
Yvette sees it as an app for sewists, by sewists (something Doug feels is a bit cheesy - ha ha), but it's definitely clear that the app has been informed by the community that Yvette and Doug have created.
The app has been designed with features specific to managing sewing projects. When you have entered your fabrics and your patterns, you can link them together to make a project.
You can add the person that the project is for and the app allows you to store their measurements to help you pick the best pattern size, all from one easy location.
When you enter your fabric you can enter how much of it you bought. When you enter your pattern you can say how much fabric it needs. In the project you can say how much of the fabric you plan to use and if there is any left over, the app will update your fabric record to say how much is left. Or if you used it all, it will show it as a fabric that you have now used up.
If you are making your project for a sewing challenge then you can also link it to the challenge so you can keep a track of the deadline date.
New features are continuously being developed and the latest version includes additions to the body type options based on requests and feedback from the Stash Hub community of users.
But the app has been developed to be flexible and accommodate the different ways we all tackle our sewing projects. This means you can add as much or as little information as is helpful to you.
Tracking your sewing success
One of Yvette's favourite features is the ability to see which projects you have completed and see all of your makes and successes in one place. "Even if you just put in loads of stuff you already made ages ago then tick it off as complete, it's really satisfying to scroll through."
The app was only released about a year ago and 12,000 projects have now been created by it's community of users. "It's really good to see that people are using it and actually complete their projects as well."
Yvette's tips
From her experience of starting to sew and the feedback she has observed in the Stash Hub community Yvette has the following tips:
Log your fabrics as you order them (if you buy online) - you can copy and paste the details from the website to the app and then when it arrives you already have it saved. You can also copy the photo of the fabric from the website.
Start with a few - if you already have lots of fabrics or patterns then just start with a few for your next planned projects and take your time to build up your data. New features are planned to help make it quicker to load up multiple fabrics or patterns so keep an eye out for those if you have a lot of items.
Use the app to suit you - Yvette doesn't like a backlog of projects so just creates the next one as she finishes the previous one so that she doesn't get overwhelmed.
Spot trends - use the app statistics to spot things that may or may not be working for you. "You might spot that you always sew blue fabrics but you tend to buy pink ones - so something is not lining up there."
Get the Stash Hub app
If you want to try the Stash Hub app then you can download it from the Apple Store or Google Play Store, or from the Stash Hub website.
Stash Hub Special Offer!
You can use Stash Hub for free for your first 20 fabrics and first 20 patterns which is ideal to get started. But if you'd like to try the full functionality you can do so with this special offer code that gives you 1 whole month for free:
Offer code: MINDFULPODCAST23
After the free month, the subscription is £3.49 per month or £34.99 for a year. But if for any reason you have put all your information into the app and then have to cancel your subscription your data is not lost, you'll just be restricted from adding any new items until you resume your subscription.
If you'd like to listen to my full chat on this topic with the lovely Yvette, click the button below or look for Sew Mindful on your favourite podcast app:
In this episode you'll hear:
00:02:12: Introducing Yvette Todd
00:03:32: #sewfruity23
00:04:45: What is Stash Hub
00:12:21: Adding fabrics to Stash Hub
00:13:59: Creating sewing projects in Stash Hub
00:24:06: Getting Stash Hub - Special Offer!
00:25:26: Connect with Yvette & Stash Hub
If you do try the app then please let me know what you think. If you are already in the Stash Hub community then drop me an email to say Hi and tell me about your favourite features.
And if you would like more help with any of the aspects mentioned in this article or this podcast episode then I would love to hear from you so do please email me at hello@sewmuchmorefun.co.uk.
Thanks for taking the time to read this article and I hope you find some useful tips that you can apply.
Connect with Yvette Todd & Stash Hub
If you'd like to connect with Yvette, she would love to hear your feedback or thoughts too. Website: https://stashhubapp.com/ Instagram - @stash_hub: https://www.instagram.com/stash_hub Instagram - @blossomsandwich: https://www.instagram.com/blossomsandwich
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/stash.hub.club/
See what we're working on next: https://github.com/users/Zambrella/projects/11/views/1
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Thank you so much for listening and for all your support. x
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