I introduced my new blog design yesterday, so it’s time to show off the NEW SHOP! I’m extra-pleased (and sidenote: can we talk about the word “chuffed” for a moment? I’ve been seeing my UK friends using that one all over the place, and it means “pleased,” right? I love that word!!!) with how the shop turned out. It was the main focus of the web overhaul; in other words, the blog makeover was a happy extra, but the real beef of this project was the shop…and I’m so thrilled with how it turned out!!!

SO. Here are some features of the new shop that I think you will love:

1 // Helllooooo Fancy Front Page! You can get to the blog with the “latest post” section. New PDF patterns are just below the nifty slideshow (woo hoo!) and if you’re searching for women’s, children’s, freebies, accessories, it’s all easy to find on the sidebar. You can also search by difficulty on the sidebar.

2 // Each pattern has its own page with multiple photos and tons of information. The little colored buttons indicate the difficulty of a pattern.

3 // The three blue tabs contain some useful stuff:

The DESCRIPTION tab gives an overview of the pattern and its features + a reminder that it is DIGITAL (you wouldn’t believe how many people don’t realize this)
The MATERIALS tab has a materials list, and links to the size, yardage, and finished measurement charts
The MORE tab has a list of the related blog posts so you can see more examples and read more about the pattern on my blog!

4 // You can also find the pattern’s photo pool gallery with user-submitted projects at the bottom of the pattern page. Fun for seeing what everyone else is making!

6 // Bundles — like the Charlie Bundle and the Washi Bundle have their own listings.

7 // Many will be happy to know that we now take credit card payments in addition to Paypal!

I’m sure there are more features that I’m forgetting, but at least that gives you a little tour! Do you like it??

One decision that I made (pretty early in this project) was to keep the BLOG at the main made-by-rae.com URL, and put the SHOP at shop.made-by-rae.com. It has become pretty standard when you sell anything on the internet to put your shop at the main URL and then put the blog off to the side, but I didn’t want to do this. My blog is the heart and soul of what I do and I want that to show. Maybe that’s a poor business decision on my part, but…the patterns are great but they’re just a way to support my true passion which is sewing for myself and my kids. Having a business can be — quite frankly — a bit of a drag (all that bookkeeping! quarterly taxes! expense/income analysis! accounting fees!! NEED I SAY MORE?), so while I do almost constantly dream about new patterns to put in the shop, I still spend plenty of time gazing at my fabric stash and sketching new things to sew. All this to say…I decided to keep the blog at made-by-rae.com instead of sidelining it…probably didn’t need a whole paragraph to say that but…OH WELL! Thanks for stopping by to see my new shop!

I want to give a HUGE thank you to Aeolidia, and especially Christine and Shoshanna for me to helping execute what I’m sure was a much more ambitious project than anyone anticipated. The folks at Aeolidia were kind, patient (I did go and have a baby about halfway into the project, so that slowed things down considerably), and a true pleasure to work with. I highly recommend them if you are interested in taking a website/blog/shop to the next level. I also really need to thank my lovely coworkers Jessica and Elli for all of the hard work they put into updating the new blog and shop as well!

Finally…you can find me on: Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.

Sparkly New Pattern Shop!!

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