April 9, 2025 • 32 mins
In this episode, I welcome Sarah Becvar, a textile artist from England with over 20 years of experience creating machine embroidered textiles and greeting cards. Sarah shares her unique technique for creating beautiful machine embroidered cards and offers practical advice for listeners interested in trying this creative art form.
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About Sarah Becvar
- Based in England
- 20+ years experience (approaching 24 years) in textile arts and card making
- Creates machine embroidered textiles and greeting cards
- Offers in-person workshops at her home studio
- More information can be found on her website at sarahbecvardesign.com
Current Projects
- Spring-themed floral notecards featuring:
- Daffodils
- Primroses
- Bluebells
- Lily of the Valley (May birth flower)
- Cards inspired by:
- Flowers around her studio
- Wildflowers from country walks with her dogs
- Garden flowers (especially dahlias in summer)
Sarah's Card-Making Process
- Begins with simple line sketches to plan composition
- Selects small-print fabrics (tiny designs add interest to the finished product)
- Cuts small fabric pieces without templates
- Arranges fabric pieces on card to plan placement
- Uses freehand machine embroidery technique directly on card
- Sews around fabric pieces while holding them in place with fingers
- Writes flower names on cards using pencil for a subtle, sophisticated look
Want to try free motion quilting but don't know where to start? Here's 3 simple steps to get going.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Susan Mic (00:04):
Welcome to Season 5 of Measure Twice, Cut Once.
This whole season is anexploration into behind the
scenes of not just quilting, butbuilding a creative business
that truly lights you up.
As someone who's navigated theexciting and sometimes bumpy
world of turning a passion intoa profession, I'm excited to
pull back the curtain and sharemy own experiences.
(00:26):
Some episodes will be just mediving deep into my personal
journey, while others willfeature guests who are also
navigating the world of creativeentrepreneurship.
We'll explore the nitty grittyof building a creative business,
the lessons learned, And theunexpected challenges that come
with transforming your craftinto a thriving enterprise.
(00:47):
And don't worry, I'm not leavingstorytelling behind.
Instead, I'll be weaving theminto the conversations about
what it takes to grow a businesswhile staying true to your
creative spirit.
So whether you're dreaming ofstarting your own business, or
you just love hearing aboutcreative entrepreneurship, this
season is for you.
My guest today is Sarah Becvar,all the way from England, and we
(01:11):
are going to chat about hercrafty business.
Sarah has been creating machineembroidered, textiles and also
greeting cards for well over 20years.
Her technique, particularly onthe greeting cards is so unique
and so original and so verybeautiful.
So I know you're going to wantto give this a try as well.
So listen all the way to theend.
(01:32):
Sarah gives a mini course inthis podcast so that you can try
this for yourself.
So let's welcome Sarah Welcome,Sarah, to the studio.
Sarah Mic (01:42):
Thank you very much for inviting me.
It's a pleasure to be with you.
Susan Mic (01:46):
I am such a longtime fan, and I found you, as I
imagine many people have onInstagram because of your cards.
So let's maybe dive right in themiddle, and then we'll go back
to the beginning a little later.
What are you doing right nowwith your card making slash
embroidery?
Sarah Mic (02:06):
Wow.
It's obviously spring at themoment.
We're just coming into spring.
And right now everything, what'son people's minds are the spring
flowers that are going to beuplifting us all.
I think really to, bring us outof our winter slumber and bring
some joy into our lives.
So at the moment I'm currentlystitching a lot of floral
(02:29):
notecards.
Now I offer a collection offloral notecards which are
mainly inspired by the flowersthat grow around my studio, the
flowers that I come across on mydaily country walks with my
dogs.
And also some garden flowers aswell.
A lot of my inspiration comesfrom wildflowers, but I do get
(02:50):
inspiration in this,particularly in the summer
months by the dahlias in thegarden and and so forth.
So at the moment I'm making alot of spring cards.
So daffodils primrosesBluebells, although the
bluebells aren't out yet, butwe've got the shoots for their
digest about to form.
And, some of my customers areincredibly organized and
(03:13):
incredibly forward thinking.
And, they're buying the Lily ofthe Valley card because they
know that's the birth flower forthe month of May.
So they're getting their ordersin now.
Funnily enough, I was actuallyjust making some Christmas cards
as well recently, would you Ithink it's probably the earliest
time I've ever made someChristmas cards in the year, but
(03:35):
one of my customers was I'mparticularly keen on getting
some, so I recently made someChristmas cards.
But yes, so going back to mysort of everyday cards, the
majority that I'm making at themoment are all the Spring Note
cards.
And they're, I think they'rewonderful and cover a broad
(03:57):
range of occasions.
For starters, they haven't got aspecific occasion written on the
card.
So I actually write the name ofthe flower on the front of the
card.
Nothing is written inside.
The inside is completely blankfor people to add their own
personal messages.
(04:17):
What I'm finding from myfeedback is that people often
frame the cards.
So the cards are given as a giftas well as wishing somebody well
or sentimental thoughts or orhappy birthday.
It they can cover a broad rangeof occasions.
(04:40):
And it's really lovely to hearthat these cards sit on people's
mantelpieces for months.
Because people like seeing theimage on the front and they
can't dare to throw it away.
And that to me is reallyspecial.
Susan Mic (04:52):
For sure.
And so maybe we should take aminute and describe for our
listeners what you do.
And this is of course, whatcreated the connection in my
mind.
I am a free motion machinequilter, so I use the same
movements that you do of handand medium.
Yours is a card, mine is fabric,right?
And that kind of free motion,almost embroidery, but describe
(05:16):
the type of cards that you'remaking and how you do that.
Sarah Mic (05:19):
Yeah, sure.
Firstly, I'm sure your listenerswill be well aware of what
freehand embroidery is.
Essentially you in are incontrol of the fabric, or in my
case with my cards, I'm incontrol of the card and we move
that around freely to create thedesign.
So with my cards I so directlyonto the car blanket itself.
(05:42):
I don't attach the fabric to thecard with any glue because I
find the residue of the gluecomes off onto the needle and
then eventually the threadbreaks.
It's incredibly frustrating.
So what I'm doing is cuttingthese small pieces of fabric and
it's, I suppose it's an appliquetechnique.
(06:03):
I'm holding the fabric in placewith my fingers onto the card
and I'm stitching around theinside edge of the fabric
holding it down with my fingerswhilst also holding the card
down as well.
There's quite a bit to thinkabout when you sew your cards
because as you can imagine whenthe needle is moving up and down
(06:27):
there's a lot of friction andthe card does tend to bounce
around a bit and to guess areally lovely fluid straight
line with your cards you have toput a little bit of pressure
onto that card with yourfingers.
So not only are your fingersholding the pieces of fabric,
your fingers are also spreadaround the card to try and keep
(06:49):
it down and hold it in place andthen move it around to create
your design.
So there's quite a lot to thinkabout and when I'm making my
cards, before I even put theneedle into the card, I lay the
fabric pieces out onto the cardblank so that I know exactly
where I'm stitching, so that Iknow that the image is going to
(07:12):
be centred in my card and inproportion so I've got a little
bit of space at the top and alittle bit of space at the
bottom enough for me to writedown the name of the flower or
the occasion.
And once I've laid, put theminto the correct placings, I
then sew the first piece on.
(07:34):
What I find is, whilst I'msewing, I then move the fabric
pieces away because of thevibrations that I was talking
about earlier.
Those little fabric pieces thenstart bouncing around all over
the place.
So I very quickly brush themaway.
But I know, in my mind, I knowwhere I'm going to be stitching
because I know where I have thatleaf place, for example, so I
know where I'm going to beheading and where I then stop to
(07:58):
position the leaf and then againhold the leaf down, hold the
fabric down whilst I stitcharound the inside.
Susan Mic (08:06):
Okay, you did it.
You did a great job ofdescribing something that's
intricate.
It's really intricate.
So you don't have a pattern atall, but you do preplan it a
little bit so that you knowwhere you're heading.
Sarah Mic (08:19):
yes, I always pre plan.
So even before I cut the fabricsout I start off with a sketch.
And my sketches for my cards arealways very simple.
It's simply just a line.
There is no point in me spendingtime adding shading or even
really colour at this point.
(08:41):
It's purely just lines.
And that's it.
Sometimes, so that I get theproportions exactly right, I'll
draw the the template of thecards.
At the moment, my current rangeof cards is 15 centimetres
square.
So I'll draw that square withina sketchbook, and then I'll draw
a little sketch of a violet, forexample, within that boundary,
(09:03):
so I know exactly how big myleaves and my petal's going to
be.
And from that point, I thenselect my fabrics.
And now, choosing fabrics forcard making is quite important
because you want I believe thatit's nice to see some of the
design on the print of thefabric.
(09:24):
It adds to the design of yourfinished piece.
It adds a lovely element to it.
So I always choose.
printed fabrics that have gotvery tiny prints.
Some of them are multi coloured,some of them are self coloured.
It really depends on the type offlower that I want to create.
So I select my fabric and then Icut the petals or the leaves out
(09:48):
of those fabrics.
And at this point I don't reallydraw a template.
Onto the fabric before I cut, Isimply cut, and that's purely
down to the fact that I havebeen cutting flowers and leaves
for years and years, and I couldprobably do it with my eyes
closed, although I've nevertried that.
(10:08):
But I would cut the petals, orthe flower head out, and then I
would cut the leaves out, sothat I've got my pieces, and
take them over to my sewingmachine and the process then
starts with me, me sewing.
When I create a brand newdesign, sometimes that process
can take four or five attemptsbefore I'm actually really happy
(10:29):
with the finished piece.
Sometimes, and veryoccasionally, I'd say I can
create a piece.
Just by, sketching it andcutting it just the once, sewing
it just the once, and then I'mreally happy with it.
But that, that happens fairlyinfrequently.
Susan Mic (10:46):
Honestly, that's quite encouraging because I've
tried a couple of these myselfsince seeing you do it.
And I wasn't thrillednecessarily with the results.
And I'm thinking of a rose thatI did that I tried three times.
And what you're saying to me is,Three times isn't really enough,
like to call that success orfailure.
You need to keep doing it andimprove each time.
Sarah Mic (11:06):
Absolutely.
And it's with anything new, anytechnique that you do, it's
going to take you a while to getinto it to feel comfortable
doing it, to feel confidentdoing the technique.
It really is a case of keeppracticing.
And I say this to my studentswho I teach, who come to my
workshops, that you're not justsuddenly going to get it, it
(11:29):
takes a lot of practice.
And this.
a lot to think about.
Not only are you holding thecard down from, keeping it nice
and still you're moving it.
And particularly I find Thosepeople who are regular machine
sewers, and regular as inthey've stitched straight lines
(11:50):
and, they might be making theirpatchwork quilts or whatever
their brain is telling them Youcan't it's wrong to, to move
that fabric in a circle, whatare you doing?
And their hands are going allover the place and their
brownie's saying, no, stop, youcan't do it like that.
So it does take a whilesometimes for the more
experienced machine sewers toadjust to that freedom of, you
(12:14):
can actually sew in whateverdirection you want.
So it's always a case ofperseverance and stick with it
and eventually it will justcome.
And with any design, new designthat anybody is creating, it
does, you do go through a fewkind of practice versions.
You don't just suddenly create afinished piece.
(12:37):
Very rarely would you.
But, the majority of the timeyou do have to go through this
process and it is a creativeprocess and it's a positive one
as well.
You mustn't look at thingsnegatively or the fact that it's
taking such a long time becauseThroughout all of that process,
you're learning from it.
You're learning, Oh, actually, Ithink my leaves need to be a bit
(12:58):
smaller, or I need to think moreabout the composition.
And that comes through thisprocess, however long it will
be.
You can't hurry these thingseither.
You can't put pressure onyourself to,
Susan Mic (13:11):
It's so true.
It is a creative art and itmatters that you give yourself
time to process and to play, Ifeel like.
Sarah Mic (13:20):
absolutely.
Susan Mic (13:21):
You alluded to the fact that you hold workshops,
and again, I've seen photos ofthese too.
I'm totally jealous, because ofcourse I live way across the
pond.
But you hold workshops in yourstudio, right?
Sort of amidst your garden.
Sarah Mic (13:35):
I do.
Yes.
Yes, I do.
I'm very fortunate to have quitea large studio and I can hold up
to seven or eight people withinmy studio here, which is in my
home garden.
And I offer two types ofworkshops.
So I offer a shorter morningsession, but within that session
we can complete.
(13:56):
a single project from start tofinish and I also offer full day
workshops.
Now my full day workshops areheld in the summer and these
days are absolutely wonderful.
They're almost like a kind of ashort retreat or some people
have called them a spa daybecause they spend the whole day
(14:17):
being creative and over thesummer, and I'm touching wood
that we do have a lovely summer,that, the weather's nice, the
flowers are out in front of thestudio, and we can actually sit
outside and have our lunch, andwe can talk about, our current
creative projects, and then comeback in and come to work.
(14:37):
And within that full day, We cancomplete up to two projects
again from start to finish.
So it just allows people to be,to just get fully immersed in
their creativity on the machine.
And that's all I ever reallywant with my workshops.
I'm really, I hope to encouragepeople and hope to inspire
(14:59):
people just to be a little bitmore creative on their machines.
I mentioned the people that are.
generally make, clothes or softfurnishings and have never even
considered the fact that theirfeed dog on the machine can
lower and they can actually sewin different, many different
directions.
So I'm really, I'm hoping thatthe workshops encourage people
(15:23):
to explore more creativity ontheir machines and and just
produce so much.
Or creative work, freehandmachine embroidery, you can add
to anything.
As you yourself know with yourbeautiful quilts, that's the
lovely one that's behind you.
I presume that's yours.
Susan Mic (15:40):
It is.
Sarah Mic (15:41):
And it can be on clothing, it can be on bags.
I make bookmarks, I make apes.
aprons with the freehand machineembroidered flower on the front.
There's so many ways that youcan incorporate freehand machine
embroidery into a project andgenerally everybody who leaves
(16:02):
at the end of the day or the endof the morning session is
confident to continue thattechnique at home and and that's
what it's all about really.
That's what I want to do to makesure people are confident in,
continuing this in their owntime.
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So I'm curious, as a quilt maker, when I go to
retreats or sit down and chatwith friends, one of our jokes
(17:20):
often is around how small ofscraps do you keep?
So my question is what do you dowith fabric that gives you these
scraps?
Or do you acquire fabric justfor the embroidery that you do?
And how tiny of scraps do youhang on to?
Sarah Mic (17:35):
It's interesting.
I, over the years andparticularly.
People I've met on Instagram, Iget messages saying I've got a
big bag of scraps.
I've got a bag of Libertyfabrics.
Do you want them?
And I always say, yes, please.
I can use the scraps.
Now I'm, I've got cards here,but for the benefits of your
listeners, these pieces are.
(17:58):
I don't know, maybe a centimetreor two centimetres long.
They are, they can be very tiny.
And I'll just show this card upto the screen, Susan.
Where are we there?
Can you see
Susan Mic (18:10):
There you go.
Now
Sarah Mic (18:10):
daffodil, the centre of the daffodil there is really
tiny.
So you certainly have to watchyour fingers when you sew the
pieces are very small.
I have had pieces of fabric thatI've had sitting in my cupboard
for years.
And that's probably because Ibought a metre of the fabric and
(18:32):
Because I'm using such tinyamounts of it, it just lasts
such a long time.
But I never throw anything awayand particularly with card
making it's a fantastic way ofusing up all those tiny scraps
that you just can't bear tothrow away.
Susan Mic (18:49):
Good to the last drop, as the old coffee
commercial used to say.
Sarah Mic (18:52):
Absolutely.
Susan Mic (18:53):
just, you can use every little tiny piece of that
fabric that you loved so much.
I'm curious too about yourlettering, which is beautiful on
your cards.
Is that just your natural,handwriting, or did you actually
make that a focal point?
You went and learned handlettering in some way.
Sarah Mic (19:11):
No, it is simply my handwriting
Susan Mic (19:13):
I love that.
It so suits your style.
It's just, it's soft.
It's a little bit whimsical.
It so suits the style of cardsand embroidery that you do.
Sarah Mic (19:24):
Thank you, that's really kind.
And again, I think because Iwrite, I use pencil, I don't
ever use a pen.
In my eyes, I think a pen is alittle bit too harsh.
The cards themselves aresophisticated.
And the writing, I think, needsto not overpower that,
embroidery.
So the pencil allows the writingjust to be a little bit more
(19:46):
subtle and hopefullysophisticated.
I dread to think how many timesI've written the words happy
birthday, but it must be.
Hundreds of thousands.
Susan Mic (19:57):
Oh
Sarah Mic (19:58):
I would be quite interested to, to find out, but
of course I can't now.
I've been running my businessfor 20 years now.
So, coming up to actually 24years.
That's a lot of happy birthdaysI've written.
Susan Mic (20:11):
So that's not a question I had thought of, but I
now am.
Like, how many cards do youthink you make in a calendar
year?
And I know you embroider otherthings too, but let's just count
the cards for a moment.
Any
Sarah Mic (20:24):
what?
I have absolutely no idea.
I've, funnily enough I had anenormous amount of Christmas
card orders.
Just this Christmas gone and Iwas absolutely rushed off my
feet.
But I, I got everything done.
I wasn't stressed.
It was all, I kept my cool,everything.
(20:45):
I stayed on top of thingsbasically.
And I kept the pile of ordersbecause I thought, wow, I've had
such a fantastic season.
I'm just going to pile theorders up.
Once I've packed them up andposted them.
Put a tick through the order andI'm going to leave them piled up
on my desk to remind myself ofwhat I've achieved and a little
(21:10):
part of me wants to sit andcount all the cards that I made
just for that season, but to beperfectly honest I've not
actually had the time to do it.
Susan Mic (21:21):
You're so busy making cards, right?
Sarah Mic (21:23):
so busy making, that's it, and, working for
yourself.
Gosh, you, the list is endlessof all the jobs that you have to
do, and counting the number ofcards I made over the Christmas
period I'm afraid is bottom ofthe list.
Susan Mic (21:42):
I understand that.
I understand that.
So I'm wondering, again, becauseI live in North America, you're
in England, my question is therean opportunity for folks like me
who'd like to learn more, who'dlove to attend your workshop,
but can't physically come toone, do you do anything that's
virtual or online or do youoffer Zoom style presentations
(22:03):
or anything like that for thosewho are much further away?
Sarah Mic (22:06):
It's really lovely that you asked, because I'm
actually about to launch somelive Zoom tutorials.
Susan Mic (22:14):
Sign me up, please.
Sarah Mic (22:16):
You're top of the list.
I get so many questions frompeople all over the world
through my Instagram account.
Which I find so lovely.
The fact that I'm reaching it orable to reach out to so many
people and so many people areinterested in this technique and
wants to learn more.
(22:37):
And yes, I offer my studioworkshops.
But I totally appreciate thatpeople are interested like
yourself, but you just can't hopon a plane and join me for a
day, particularly with yoursewing machine.
Susan Mic (22:50):
It does bring up the cost of a greeting card quite a
bit.
Sarah Mic (22:54):
yes, it does a little bit, doesn't it?
The offering something online,It's just the next step forward
for me and will open the door tomy teaching and people's
awareness of the technique aswell.
So I'm really excited aboutthat.
I just have to Get over the fewsort of technical issues and and
(23:16):
then I'll be well on my way, butI'm hoping they're going to be
very soon.
Susan Mic (23:22):
Good.
I'm happy to hear that.
As we come to a close, I wonderif there is a small and I'm
springing this on you, but asmall gem of wisdom that you
could offer to someone who isjust getting started at this.
Like, I'll let you decide.
What would you say to thatbeginner that would help them
Sarah Mic (23:40):
Goodness me, I think, I think there's probably, I'm
going to repeat myself from thebeginning of the conversation to
basically say persevere.
and keep practicing becauseyou're not just suddenly going
to get it.
So I would just simply say giveyourself plenty of time and
expect that there are going tobe hiccups along the way.
(24:02):
I think if we're prepared forthings to go wrong, then It's
easier to come through them.
And, talking about things thatcould go wrong, I think the most
common issues, certainly that Iexperience with my workshops,
are tension issues on the sewingmachine thread breakages as
well, and then the, thedirection, how they're going to
(24:25):
move that card around.
So regarding the tension, Iwould always recommend people
just to loosen their tensionslightly, because if you're
thinking about you are movingthe fabric or the card and the
needle is going down and you'reputting a bit more pressure on
that needle and that thread,just easing the tension slightly
(24:46):
will help and breakages fromthat.
I would recommend using a nicesharp needle.
Now when you're sewing on card,I actually use a size 70.
It might seem a little on theslender, delicate side, but it
leaves a very small hole in thecard.
Obviously, if you increase theneedle size, you're going to
(25:08):
increase the hole that's made inthe card.
And I do like things to be alittle delicate, and the 70
needle works really well.
Thread, I would recommend goodquality thread, because again,
you're just, you might beputting a little bit more
pressure on it.
I use Gutermann Sew All ThreadsI highly recommend them.
I would avoid the cheaperthreads because they will just
(25:30):
fray and break and it can bevery frustrating and you want to
limit those problems.
You don't want to be frustratedbecause you'll end up walking
away and never going back to it.
So make your life as simple aspossible to begin with and try
and use a good quality thread.
Regarding fabrics, if you'resewing fabrics onto card, I
(25:50):
wouldn't use a very fine fabricand I wouldn't recommend a very
heavy fabric.
I would find a cotton poly mixor just a cotton just a dress
fabric, weight, nothing tooheavy.
And So that there's not too muchadded pressure onto the needle
or the thread as well.
And weight of card, that'sanother thing to consider.
(26:13):
At the moment I, I wouldrecommend about a 250 gram card,
weighting card.
You don't want anything that'stoo thin or flimsy because you
could end up bending it when youmove it, and the card could then
rip.
Also when you're sewing on yourcards, just sew over one line
twice,
Susan Mic (26:34):
So in other words, don't go back and forth over
your stitching or you get, youperforate it.
Sarah Mic (26:40):
What tends to happen, what will happen is the card
will eventually split.
And you don't want that.
So you, you've got to treat thecard very delicately.
So you can create you can sewfabric onto your card with quite
a few stitches.
But once you sew directly ontothe card itself without the
(27:01):
fabric, you're only limited toreally just sewing one line or
back on itself once.
Never backwards and forwardsbecause that card will just go
not having it and split.
um, treat it carefully.
Susan Mic (27:14):
Thinking of perhaps a stem, for a flower, right?
That's where you'd be stitchingon the card where no fabric
perhaps is underneath
Sarah Mic (27:20):
exactly.
And also not wanting everythingto be so perfect.
So I remember a while back I puta reel on Instagram of me sewing
a daffodil flower and I happenedto stitch over the edge of the
fabric and then go back into thecentre of the flower and A lady
(27:40):
came to my workshop and she sawthat I had done that and said,
I'm so pleased I saw you stitchover the edge.
Because then I realized that itdoesn't have to be perfect.
It doesn't matter that you goover the edge.
And in fact you want it to lookhandmade.
You want it to look like youhave created it yourself.
And if everything looked soperfect and exactly the same, I
(28:04):
don't think people would believeperhaps that you've created it.
You want it to be.
You, like your handwriting,sometimes your letters can be a
little bit larger than the nextletter and you just want it to
look as natural as possible.
And it doesn't matter at all ifthat means that you sew over the
edge of the fabric.
It's not a problem.
Susan Mic (28:23):
Well done, Sarah.
You've packed a whole minicourse of material into the last
five minutes.
That's really helpful.
Sarah Mic (28:35):
I hope that it encourages people just to give
it a go.
Susan Mic (28:40):
I think so, absolutely.
Thank you so much for sharingwith me.
I'm curious on a personal level.
I'm coming to the BirminghamQuilt Show this coming summer.
Are you by chance going to bethere?
Sarah Mic (28:52):
Unfortunately, not.
I was, no, I'm a littledisappointed because I did
submit.
some workshop ideas andsubsequently found out just the
other day that they hadn'tactually received them.
So I'm not going to be runningany workshops there
unfortunately, but I am runninga workshop at the Stitch
(29:12):
Festival which is coming up in afew weeks in London, so I'm
really looking forward to that.
Susan Mic (29:17):
Lovely.
Thank you so much for spendingthis half hour with it.
I appreciate it.
Sarah Mic (29:22):
Thank you so much Susan, it's been a pleasure.
Susan Mic (29:25):
We've been visiting with Sarah Becvar of Sarah
Becvar Design.
She does And this is quotingfrom her Instagram bio, freehand
machine embroidered textiles.
But Sarah caught my eye becauseof her very creative greeting
cards, embellished with fabricand thread, in a technique
that's very much like freemotion quilting.
(29:47):
So of course this appealed tome.
Same types of motions andmovements and machine control.
So I tell you what, if you arein need of a bright spot in your
day, Check out Sarah's feed.
We've put links to her contentand material in the show notes.
Check that out, scroll throughher feed a little bit, give her
a little love.
And I thank you for all thewonderful tips that she shared
(30:08):
with us today.
And my friend until next time,may your sorrows be patched and
your joys be quilted.
Welcome to Season 5 of Measure Twice, Cut Once.
This whole season is anexploration into behind the
scenes of not just quilting, butbuilding a creative business
that truly lights you up.
As someone who's navigated theexciting and sometimes bumpy
world of turning a passion intoa profession, I'm excited to
pull back the curtain and sharemy own experiences.
(00:26):
Some episodes will be just mediving deep into my personal
journey, while others willfeature guests who are also
navigating the world of creativeentrepreneurship.
We'll explore the nitty grittyof building a creative business,
the lessons learned, And theunexpected challenges that come
with transforming your craftinto a thriving enterprise.
(00:47):
And don't worry, I'm not leavingstorytelling behind.
Instead, I'll be weaving theminto the conversations about
what it takes to grow a businesswhile staying true to your
creative spirit.
So whether you're dreaming ofstarting your own business, or
you just love hearing aboutcreative entrepreneurship, this
season is for you.
My guest today is Sarah Becvar,all the way from England, and we
(01:11):
are going to chat about hercrafty business.
Sarah has been creating machineembroidered, textiles and also
greeting cards for well over 20years.
Her technique, particularly onthe greeting cards is so unique
and so original and so verybeautiful.
So I know you're going to wantto give this a try as well.
So listen all the way to theend.
(01:32):
Sarah gives a mini course inthis podcast so that you can try
this for yourself.
So let's welcome Sarah Welcome,Sarah, to the studio.
Sarah Mic (01:42):
Thank you very much for inviting me.
It's a pleasure to be with you.
Susan Mic (01:46):
I am such a longtime fan, and I found you, as I
imagine many people have onInstagram because of your cards.
So let's maybe dive right in themiddle, and then we'll go back
to the beginning a little later.
What are you doing right nowwith your card making slash
embroidery?
Sarah Mic (02:06):
Wow.
It's obviously spring at themoment.
We're just coming into spring.
And right now everything, what'son people's minds are the spring
flowers that are going to beuplifting us all.
I think really to, bring us outof our winter slumber and bring
some joy into our lives.
So at the moment I'm currentlystitching a lot of floral
(02:29):
notecards.
Now I offer a collection offloral notecards which are
mainly inspired by the flowersthat grow around my studio, the
flowers that I come across on mydaily country walks with my
dogs.
And also some garden flowers aswell.
A lot of my inspiration comesfrom wildflowers, but I do get
(02:50):
inspiration in this,particularly in the summer
months by the dahlias in thegarden and and so forth.
So at the moment I'm making alot of spring cards.
So daffodils primrosesBluebells, although the
bluebells aren't out yet, butwe've got the shoots for their
digest about to form.
And, some of my customers areincredibly organized and
(03:13):
incredibly forward thinking.
And, they're buying the Lily ofthe Valley card because they
know that's the birth flower forthe month of May.
So they're getting their ordersin now.
Funnily enough, I was actuallyjust making some Christmas cards
as well recently, would you Ithink it's probably the earliest
time I've ever made someChristmas cards in the year, but
(03:35):
one of my customers was I'mparticularly keen on getting
some, so I recently made someChristmas cards.
But yes, so going back to mysort of everyday cards, the
majority that I'm making at themoment are all the Spring Note
cards.
And they're, I think they'rewonderful and cover a broad
(03:57):
range of occasions.
For starters, they haven't got aspecific occasion written on the
card.
So I actually write the name ofthe flower on the front of the
card.
Nothing is written inside.
The inside is completely blankfor people to add their own
personal messages.
(04:17):
What I'm finding from myfeedback is that people often
frame the cards.
So the cards are given as a giftas well as wishing somebody well
or sentimental thoughts or orhappy birthday.
It they can cover a broad rangeof occasions.
(04:40):
And it's really lovely to hearthat these cards sit on people's
mantelpieces for months.
Because people like seeing theimage on the front and they
can't dare to throw it away.
And that to me is reallyspecial.
Susan Mic (04:52):
For sure.
And so maybe we should take aminute and describe for our
listeners what you do.
And this is of course, whatcreated the connection in my
mind.
I am a free motion machinequilter, so I use the same
movements that you do of handand medium.
Yours is a card, mine is fabric,right?
And that kind of free motion,almost embroidery, but describe
(05:16):
the type of cards that you'remaking and how you do that.
Sarah Mic (05:19):
Yeah, sure.
Firstly, I'm sure your listenerswill be well aware of what
freehand embroidery is.
Essentially you in are incontrol of the fabric, or in my
case with my cards, I'm incontrol of the card and we move
that around freely to create thedesign.
So with my cards I so directlyonto the car blanket itself.
(05:42):
I don't attach the fabric to thecard with any glue because I
find the residue of the gluecomes off onto the needle and
then eventually the threadbreaks.
It's incredibly frustrating.
So what I'm doing is cuttingthese small pieces of fabric and
it's, I suppose it's an appliquetechnique.
(06:03):
I'm holding the fabric in placewith my fingers onto the card
and I'm stitching around theinside edge of the fabric
holding it down with my fingerswhilst also holding the card
down as well.
There's quite a bit to thinkabout when you sew your cards
because as you can imagine whenthe needle is moving up and down
(06:27):
there's a lot of friction andthe card does tend to bounce
around a bit and to guess areally lovely fluid straight
line with your cards you have toput a little bit of pressure
onto that card with yourfingers.
So not only are your fingersholding the pieces of fabric,
your fingers are also spreadaround the card to try and keep
(06:49):
it down and hold it in place andthen move it around to create
your design.
So there's quite a lot to thinkabout and when I'm making my
cards, before I even put theneedle into the card, I lay the
fabric pieces out onto the cardblank so that I know exactly
where I'm stitching, so that Iknow that the image is going to
(07:12):
be centred in my card and inproportion so I've got a little
bit of space at the top and alittle bit of space at the
bottom enough for me to writedown the name of the flower or
the occasion.
And once I've laid, put theminto the correct placings, I
then sew the first piece on.
(07:34):
What I find is, whilst I'msewing, I then move the fabric
pieces away because of thevibrations that I was talking
about earlier.
Those little fabric pieces thenstart bouncing around all over
the place.
So I very quickly brush themaway.
But I know, in my mind, I knowwhere I'm going to be stitching
because I know where I have thatleaf place, for example, so I
know where I'm going to beheading and where I then stop to
(07:58):
position the leaf and then againhold the leaf down, hold the
fabric down whilst I stitcharound the inside.
Susan Mic (08:06):
Okay, you did it.
You did a great job ofdescribing something that's
intricate.
It's really intricate.
So you don't have a pattern atall, but you do preplan it a
little bit so that you knowwhere you're heading.
Sarah Mic (08:19):
yes, I always pre plan.
So even before I cut the fabricsout I start off with a sketch.
And my sketches for my cards arealways very simple.
It's simply just a line.
There is no point in me spendingtime adding shading or even
really colour at this point.
(08:41):
It's purely just lines.
And that's it.
Sometimes, so that I get theproportions exactly right, I'll
draw the the template of thecards.
At the moment, my current rangeof cards is 15 centimetres
square.
So I'll draw that square withina sketchbook, and then I'll draw
a little sketch of a violet, forexample, within that boundary,
(09:03):
so I know exactly how big myleaves and my petal's going to
be.
And from that point, I thenselect my fabrics.
And now, choosing fabrics forcard making is quite important
because you want I believe thatit's nice to see some of the
design on the print of thefabric.
(09:24):
It adds to the design of yourfinished piece.
It adds a lovely element to it.
So I always choose.
printed fabrics that have gotvery tiny prints.
Some of them are multi coloured,some of them are self coloured.
It really depends on the type offlower that I want to create.
So I select my fabric and then Icut the petals or the leaves out
(09:48):
of those fabrics.
And at this point I don't reallydraw a template.
Onto the fabric before I cut, Isimply cut, and that's purely
down to the fact that I havebeen cutting flowers and leaves
for years and years, and I couldprobably do it with my eyes
closed, although I've nevertried that.
(10:08):
But I would cut the petals, orthe flower head out, and then I
would cut the leaves out, sothat I've got my pieces, and
take them over to my sewingmachine and the process then
starts with me, me sewing.
When I create a brand newdesign, sometimes that process
can take four or five attemptsbefore I'm actually really happy
(10:29):
with the finished piece.
Sometimes, and veryoccasionally, I'd say I can
create a piece.
Just by, sketching it andcutting it just the once, sewing
it just the once, and then I'mreally happy with it.
But that, that happens fairlyinfrequently.
Susan Mic (10:46):
Honestly, that's quite encouraging because I've
tried a couple of these myselfsince seeing you do it.
And I wasn't thrillednecessarily with the results.
And I'm thinking of a rose thatI did that I tried three times.
And what you're saying to me is,Three times isn't really enough,
like to call that success orfailure.
You need to keep doing it andimprove each time.
Sarah Mic (11:06):
Absolutely.
And it's with anything new, anytechnique that you do, it's
going to take you a while to getinto it to feel comfortable
doing it, to feel confidentdoing the technique.
It really is a case of keeppracticing.
And I say this to my studentswho I teach, who come to my
workshops, that you're not justsuddenly going to get it, it
(11:29):
takes a lot of practice.
And this.
a lot to think about.
Not only are you holding thecard down from, keeping it nice
and still you're moving it.
And particularly I find Thosepeople who are regular machine
sewers, and regular as inthey've stitched straight lines
(11:50):
and, they might be making theirpatchwork quilts or whatever
their brain is telling them Youcan't it's wrong to, to move
that fabric in a circle, whatare you doing?
And their hands are going allover the place and their
brownie's saying, no, stop, youcan't do it like that.
So it does take a whilesometimes for the more
experienced machine sewers toadjust to that freedom of, you
(12:14):
can actually sew in whateverdirection you want.
So it's always a case ofperseverance and stick with it
and eventually it will justcome.
And with any design, new designthat anybody is creating, it
does, you do go through a fewkind of practice versions.
You don't just suddenly create afinished piece.
(12:37):
Very rarely would you.
But, the majority of the timeyou do have to go through this
process and it is a creativeprocess and it's a positive one
as well.
You mustn't look at thingsnegatively or the fact that it's
taking such a long time becauseThroughout all of that process,
you're learning from it.
You're learning, Oh, actually, Ithink my leaves need to be a bit
(12:58):
smaller, or I need to think moreabout the composition.
And that comes through thisprocess, however long it will
be.
You can't hurry these thingseither.
You can't put pressure onyourself to,
Susan Mic (13:11):
It's so true.
It is a creative art and itmatters that you give yourself
time to process and to play, Ifeel like.
Sarah Mic (13:20):
absolutely.
Susan Mic (13:21):
You alluded to the fact that you hold workshops,
and again, I've seen photos ofthese too.
I'm totally jealous, because ofcourse I live way across the
pond.
But you hold workshops in yourstudio, right?
Sort of amidst your garden.
Sarah Mic (13:35):
I do.
Yes.
Yes, I do.
I'm very fortunate to have quitea large studio and I can hold up
to seven or eight people withinmy studio here, which is in my
home garden.
And I offer two types ofworkshops.
So I offer a shorter morningsession, but within that session
we can complete.
(13:56):
a single project from start tofinish and I also offer full day
workshops.
Now my full day workshops areheld in the summer and these
days are absolutely wonderful.
They're almost like a kind of ashort retreat or some people
have called them a spa daybecause they spend the whole day
(14:17):
being creative and over thesummer, and I'm touching wood
that we do have a lovely summer,that, the weather's nice, the
flowers are out in front of thestudio, and we can actually sit
outside and have our lunch, andwe can talk about, our current
creative projects, and then comeback in and come to work.
(14:37):
And within that full day, We cancomplete up to two projects
again from start to finish.
So it just allows people to be,to just get fully immersed in
their creativity on the machine.
And that's all I ever reallywant with my workshops.
I'm really, I hope to encouragepeople and hope to inspire
(14:59):
people just to be a little bitmore creative on their machines.
I mentioned the people that are.
generally make, clothes or softfurnishings and have never even
considered the fact that theirfeed dog on the machine can
lower and they can actually sewin different, many different
directions.
So I'm really, I'm hoping thatthe workshops encourage people
(15:23):
to explore more creativity ontheir machines and and just
produce so much.
Or creative work, freehandmachine embroidery, you can add
to anything.
As you yourself know with yourbeautiful quilts, that's the
lovely one that's behind you.
I presume that's yours.
Susan Mic (15:40):
It is.
Sarah Mic (15:41):
And it can be on clothing, it can be on bags.
I make bookmarks, I make apes.
aprons with the freehand machineembroidered flower on the front.
There's so many ways that youcan incorporate freehand machine
embroidery into a project andgenerally everybody who leaves
(16:02):
at the end of the day or the endof the morning session is
confident to continue thattechnique at home and and that's
what it's all about really.
That's what I want to do to makesure people are confident in,
continuing this in their owntime.
Susan Mic (16:18):
Perfect.
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(16:38):
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(16:59):
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So I'm curious, as a quilt maker, when I go to
retreats or sit down and chatwith friends, one of our jokes
(17:20):
often is around how small ofscraps do you keep?
So my question is what do you dowith fabric that gives you these
scraps?
Or do you acquire fabric justfor the embroidery that you do?
And how tiny of scraps do youhang on to?
Sarah Mic (17:35):
It's interesting.
I, over the years andparticularly.
People I've met on Instagram, Iget messages saying I've got a
big bag of scraps.
I've got a bag of Libertyfabrics.
Do you want them?
And I always say, yes, please.
I can use the scraps.
Now I'm, I've got cards here,but for the benefits of your
listeners, these pieces are.
(17:58):
I don't know, maybe a centimetreor two centimetres long.
They are, they can be very tiny.
And I'll just show this card upto the screen, Susan.
Where are we there?
Can you see
Susan Mic (18:10):
There you go.
Now
Sarah Mic (18:10):
daffodil, the centre of the daffodil there is really
tiny.
So you certainly have to watchyour fingers when you sew the
pieces are very small.
I have had pieces of fabric thatI've had sitting in my cupboard
for years.
And that's probably because Ibought a metre of the fabric and
(18:32):
Because I'm using such tinyamounts of it, it just lasts
such a long time.
But I never throw anything awayand particularly with card
making it's a fantastic way ofusing up all those tiny scraps
that you just can't bear tothrow away.
Susan Mic (18:49):
Good to the last drop, as the old coffee
commercial used to say.
Sarah Mic (18:52):
Absolutely.
Susan Mic (18:53):
just, you can use every little tiny piece of that
fabric that you loved so much.
I'm curious too about yourlettering, which is beautiful on
your cards.
Is that just your natural,handwriting, or did you actually
make that a focal point?
You went and learned handlettering in some way.
Sarah Mic (19:11):
No, it is simply my handwriting
Susan Mic (19:13):
I love that.
It so suits your style.
It's just, it's soft.
It's a little bit whimsical.
It so suits the style of cardsand embroidery that you do.
Sarah Mic (19:24):
Thank you, that's really kind.
And again, I think because Iwrite, I use pencil, I don't
ever use a pen.
In my eyes, I think a pen is alittle bit too harsh.
The cards themselves aresophisticated.
And the writing, I think, needsto not overpower that,
embroidery.
So the pencil allows the writingjust to be a little bit more
(19:46):
subtle and hopefullysophisticated.
I dread to think how many timesI've written the words happy
birthday, but it must be.
Hundreds of thousands.
Susan Mic (19:57):
Oh
Sarah Mic (19:58):
I would be quite interested to, to find out, but
of course I can't now.
I've been running my businessfor 20 years now.
So, coming up to actually 24years.
That's a lot of happy birthdaysI've written.
Susan Mic (20:11):
So that's not a question I had thought of, but I
now am.
Like, how many cards do youthink you make in a calendar
year?
And I know you embroider otherthings too, but let's just count
the cards for a moment.
Any
Sarah Mic (20:24):
what?
I have absolutely no idea.
I've, funnily enough I had anenormous amount of Christmas
card orders.
Just this Christmas gone and Iwas absolutely rushed off my
feet.
But I, I got everything done.
I wasn't stressed.
It was all, I kept my cool,everything.
(20:45):
I stayed on top of thingsbasically.
And I kept the pile of ordersbecause I thought, wow, I've had
such a fantastic season.
I'm just going to pile theorders up.
Once I've packed them up andposted them.
Put a tick through the order andI'm going to leave them piled up
on my desk to remind myself ofwhat I've achieved and a little
(21:10):
part of me wants to sit andcount all the cards that I made
just for that season, but to beperfectly honest I've not
actually had the time to do it.
Susan Mic (21:21):
You're so busy making cards, right?
Sarah Mic (21:23):
so busy making, that's it, and, working for
yourself.
Gosh, you, the list is endlessof all the jobs that you have to
do, and counting the number ofcards I made over the Christmas
period I'm afraid is bottom ofthe list.
Susan Mic (21:42):
I understand that.
I understand that.
So I'm wondering, again, becauseI live in North America, you're
in England, my question is therean opportunity for folks like me
who'd like to learn more, who'dlove to attend your workshop,
but can't physically come toone, do you do anything that's
virtual or online or do youoffer Zoom style presentations
(22:03):
or anything like that for thosewho are much further away?
Sarah Mic (22:06):
It's really lovely that you asked, because I'm
actually about to launch somelive Zoom tutorials.
Susan Mic (22:14):
Sign me up, please.
Sarah Mic (22:16):
You're top of the list.
I get so many questions frompeople all over the world
through my Instagram account.
Which I find so lovely.
The fact that I'm reaching it orable to reach out to so many
people and so many people areinterested in this technique and
wants to learn more.
(22:37):
And yes, I offer my studioworkshops.
But I totally appreciate thatpeople are interested like
yourself, but you just can't hopon a plane and join me for a
day, particularly with yoursewing machine.
Susan Mic (22:50):
It does bring up the cost of a greeting card quite a
bit.
Sarah Mic (22:54):
yes, it does a little bit, doesn't it?
The offering something online,It's just the next step forward
for me and will open the door tomy teaching and people's
awareness of the technique aswell.
So I'm really excited aboutthat.
I just have to Get over the fewsort of technical issues and and
(23:16):
then I'll be well on my way, butI'm hoping they're going to be
very soon.
Susan Mic (23:22):
Good.
I'm happy to hear that.
As we come to a close, I wonderif there is a small and I'm
springing this on you, but asmall gem of wisdom that you
could offer to someone who isjust getting started at this.
Like, I'll let you decide.
What would you say to thatbeginner that would help them
Sarah Mic (23:40):
Goodness me, I think, I think there's probably, I'm
going to repeat myself from thebeginning of the conversation to
basically say persevere.
and keep practicing becauseyou're not just suddenly going
to get it.
So I would just simply say giveyourself plenty of time and
expect that there are going tobe hiccups along the way.
(24:02):
I think if we're prepared forthings to go wrong, then It's
easier to come through them.
And, talking about things thatcould go wrong, I think the most
common issues, certainly that Iexperience with my workshops,
are tension issues on the sewingmachine thread breakages as
well, and then the, thedirection, how they're going to
(24:25):
move that card around.
So regarding the tension, Iwould always recommend people
just to loosen their tensionslightly, because if you're
thinking about you are movingthe fabric or the card and the
needle is going down and you'reputting a bit more pressure on
that needle and that thread,just easing the tension slightly
(24:46):
will help and breakages fromthat.
I would recommend using a nicesharp needle.
Now when you're sewing on card,I actually use a size 70.
It might seem a little on theslender, delicate side, but it
leaves a very small hole in thecard.
Obviously, if you increase theneedle size, you're going to
(25:08):
increase the hole that's made inthe card.
And I do like things to be alittle delicate, and the 70
needle works really well.
Thread, I would recommend goodquality thread, because again,
you're just, you might beputting a little bit more
pressure on it.
I use Gutermann Sew All ThreadsI highly recommend them.
I would avoid the cheaperthreads because they will just
(25:30):
fray and break and it can bevery frustrating and you want to
limit those problems.
You don't want to be frustratedbecause you'll end up walking
away and never going back to it.
So make your life as simple aspossible to begin with and try
and use a good quality thread.
Regarding fabrics, if you'resewing fabrics onto card, I
(25:50):
wouldn't use a very fine fabricand I wouldn't recommend a very
heavy fabric.
I would find a cotton poly mixor just a cotton just a dress
fabric, weight, nothing tooheavy.
And So that there's not too muchadded pressure onto the needle
or the thread as well.
And weight of card, that'sanother thing to consider.
(26:13):
At the moment I, I wouldrecommend about a 250 gram card,
weighting card.
You don't want anything that'stoo thin or flimsy because you
could end up bending it when youmove it, and the card could then
rip.
Also when you're sewing on yourcards, just sew over one line
twice,
Susan Mic (26:34):
So in other words, don't go back and forth over
your stitching or you get, youperforate it.
Sarah Mic (26:40):
What tends to happen, what will happen is the card
will eventually split.
And you don't want that.
So you, you've got to treat thecard very delicately.
So you can create you can sewfabric onto your card with quite
a few stitches.
But once you sew directly ontothe card itself without the
(27:01):
fabric, you're only limited toreally just sewing one line or
back on itself once.
Never backwards and forwardsbecause that card will just go
not having it and split.
um, treat it carefully.
Susan Mic (27:14):
Thinking of perhaps a stem, for a flower, right?
That's where you'd be stitchingon the card where no fabric
perhaps is underneath
Sarah Mic (27:20):
exactly.
And also not wanting everythingto be so perfect.
So I remember a while back I puta reel on Instagram of me sewing
a daffodil flower and I happenedto stitch over the edge of the
fabric and then go back into thecentre of the flower and A lady
(27:40):
came to my workshop and she sawthat I had done that and said,
I'm so pleased I saw you stitchover the edge.
Because then I realized that itdoesn't have to be perfect.
It doesn't matter that you goover the edge.
And in fact you want it to lookhandmade.
You want it to look like youhave created it yourself.
And if everything looked soperfect and exactly the same, I
(28:04):
don't think people would believeperhaps that you've created it.
You want it to be.
You, like your handwriting,sometimes your letters can be a
little bit larger than the nextletter and you just want it to
look as natural as possible.
And it doesn't matter at all ifthat means that you sew over the
edge of the fabric.
It's not a problem.
Susan Mic (28:23):
Well done, Sarah.
You've packed a whole minicourse of material into the last
five minutes.
That's really helpful.
Sarah Mic (28:35):
I hope that it encourages people just to give
it a go.
Susan Mic (28:40):
I think so, absolutely.
Thank you so much for sharingwith me.
I'm curious on a personal level.
I'm coming to the BirminghamQuilt Show this coming summer.
Are you by chance going to bethere?
Sarah Mic (28:52):
Unfortunately, not.
I was, no, I'm a littledisappointed because I did
submit.
some workshop ideas andsubsequently found out just the
other day that they hadn'tactually received them.
So I'm not going to be runningany workshops there
unfortunately, but I am runninga workshop at the Stitch
(29:12):
Festival which is coming up in afew weeks in London, so I'm
really looking forward to that.
Susan Mic (29:17):
Lovely.
Thank you so much for spendingthis half hour with it.
I appreciate it.
Sarah Mic (29:22):
Thank you so much Susan, it's been a pleasure.
Susan Mic (29:25):
We've been visiting with Sarah Becvar of Sarah
Becvar Design.
She does And this is quotingfrom her Instagram bio, freehand
machine embroidered textiles.
But Sarah caught my eye becauseof her very creative greeting
cards, embellished with fabricand thread, in a technique
that's very much like freemotion quilting.
(29:47):
So of course this appealed tome.
Same types of motions andmovements and machine control.
So I tell you what, if you arein need of a bright spot in your
day, Check out Sarah's feed.
We've put links to her contentand material in the show notes.
Check that out, scroll throughher feed a little bit, give her
a little love.
And I thank you for all thewonderful tips that she shared
(30:08):
with us today.
And my friend until next time,may your sorrows be patched and
your joys be quilted.
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