A look back at the first year of BTAS

Cassie here! I’m the ‘Chief Bias Elf’ at The Specky Seamstress… it was one of those titles that started as a joke and just kind of stuck! Chances are if you email or message us, it’s me you get first and I love hearing from you 🙂

I joined #TeamSpecky late September 2023 to help Laura and Yvann with a *bit* of admin with their new subscription box… Laura said it’ll be “a couple of hours a week”, “we’re not really sure how it’ll go…” and I’ve been running a lot of the admin side of the subscription boxes ever since.  Little did we know that earlier this year I’d become the first contracted employee. And, we’d not only be at the end of our first year of the Bias Tape Appreciation Society, but that we’d already have designed almost all of the next year too!

So we wanted to mark the birthday of our ‘baby’ with a round up of our fabulous designs!

What’s special about The Bias Tape Appreciation Society?

When Laura first started the company, and designing Bias Tape, she was looking for unique and well made bias to add to her precious makes. That’s exactly what the Bias Tape Appreciation Society embodies. 

2m of Bias through the letterbox each month is first and foremost a fabulous, affordable treat – it’s less than a fancy frothy coffee and a slice of cake!! But it’s also just the right amount of Bias to dip your toes in, with enough to add to most garments, and not so much that you’ve got loads left over. Plus, members can purchase extra packs with their special code during the exclusivity period, so you can grab a little more for those bigger projects.

Whether you’re a #BiasMatcher or a #BiasRebel, we’ve seen lots of fantastic makes featuring Bias Tape Appreciation Society Designs this year. 

The First 6 Designs…

• We started strong with Sewing Machines! Adorning handmades with sewing machines seemed too perfect for words, and it’s a design that people keep coming back to.
  
• Please Look After Me is a definite crowd pleaser; with both a strong message AND a fabulous colour palette, it’s a #TeamSpecky favourite… watch this space for a new colourway!
  
• Sewing Makes Me Happy; this one pretty much explains itself, and that’s why we chose to make it into a design for The Label Collective too! And there’s a bonus colourway too. Are you a Lemon Meringue or a Key Lime Pie?
  
• Go Fish – ideal for summery and nautical makes, as well as on darker fabrics, what’s not to love about this bias? And as of this month, there’s a matching Woven Label through The Label Collective too. 
  
• Made With Love and Mistakes, is another strong message on a bias; we know that all of our makes are made with love… and tears, sweat, accidentally some blood when you catch yourself with a stray pin, and definitely some mistakes. And that is ABSOLUTELY FINE because we’re not machines!
  
• Disco Tape Measure – we love our Disco designs, there’s just something so satisfying about the bright colours on the dark background, and it’s ideal for darker fabrics, where it won’t show through.

And the next 6 designs…

• Thanks, I Made It. Who doesn’t want to shout this about makes they’re particularly proud of? We certainly do!
  
• Berries in June coincided with #SewFruity24 and we see it being used in lots of makes; it definitely felt like adding a cream tea to your makes. And the darker colourway version has been popular too, especially on darker fabrics… who said fruit is just for the summer?
  
• Doesn’t Have To Perfect, as sewists, we’re all our own harshest critics and this bias – and matching label – remind us that not everything has be perfect and that that is just fine… as long as it gets used or worn, it’s perfect in our eyes… for everything else, there’s the unpicker. 
  
• Sunshines – we thought this one would be great as summer was in full swing, add some sunshine to your makes to keep that summer feeling for the rest of the year. 
  
• Cream Daisies – who wouldn’t want to add a little flower power to their makes? We love these multi-coloured designs that match with everything and nothing, which means they can go in ANY make!
  
• Ducks, our latest design is simply too cute for words! Did you love it too? You might even say we’re ‘Quackers’ about it… yes, you can groan at the pun!

We’re so happy with how our first year of the Bias Tape Appreciation Society has gone. It hasn’t been without hiccups, from the lows of underestimating how much bias we’d need and parcels going missing, to the laugh out loud moment when we received an email from a customer whose husband had accidentally put her newly arrived bias out with the recycling – still in the envelope! 

So here’s to another year, and hopefully many more! And knowing I created some of the Bias designs for next year, with complete BIAS, I can tell you, you’re in for a good time.

Have you got a favourite design from the last year? Let us know below!