Images_Digital_Edition_April_2020

IS DECORATOR PROFILE www.images-magazine.com 40 images APRIL 2020 Laura Newman describes how she turned a hobby into Forever Sewing – a successful personalisation business that has partnered with national retailer Next.co.uk I n just four years, Laura Newman has gone from crocheting outfits for her baby at home to running a successful business specialising in personalised clothing. Now with its own factory in South Yorkshire, Forever Sewing is set to power ahead further through a new partnership to sell its garments through national retailer Next.co.uk. “It wasn’t a plan,” Laura admits. “It was more of a hobby that developed into more of a business.” It all started by accident when Laura was struggling to find boys clothing that she liked for her baby Nate. She learned to sew through a six-week course with a local teacher and YouTube videos and invested in a domestic overlocker machine, set up on her dining room table. “In that first year, I was just making clothing for Nate and family members. Nobody was paying me for it. It was all just for fun. But by the end of 2016, we just started to find people were asking us for clothing more and more so I decided to create something of our own.” Taking personalisation to the Next level very comfortable, but we were making whole outfits with jersey fabric that was normally used for T-shirts.” However, Forever Sewing was proving a challenge despite support from family: some days Laura would be working through to 5am and then getting up at 8am to look after Nate until it was time to resume production after his bedtime. “It was exhausting, but it was amazing to see the reaction and the sales coming in. We knew it was too good an opportunity to miss out on.” From the start, the Forever Jake Adams Supported by husband Adam, Laura launched her business in January 2017 under the brand name of Forever Sewing – inspired by the fact that, during that first year, she was indeed ‘forever sewing’ to keep up with demand. Customers loved the comfortable, hand-crafted lounge suits and rompers which could be individually personalised. “There wasn’t anything similar in the market. It was a little bit boring so I wanted to make something unique. You had tracksuits that were heavy fabric that weren’t Laura and Adam Newman with their three children Two-piece loungesuit from Next.co.uk