23.We’re back for Season 3 – The Asian Sewist Collective Podcast
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Patterns & Designers mentioned
Show transcript
Nicole: Hello, listeners, welcome back to the podcast. Season Three is coming out next week. But here’s just a little bit of what Ada and I have been up to during the break.
Ada: So we are back for season three. And before I ask Nicole, what she’s been up to, during the break, I did want to go over some housekeeping, which is that you can no longer find our podcast on Spotify, we actually moved off of Spotify on to another hosting service. So you may or may not be listening to us on Apple, Google Pocket Casts wherever you listen to podcasts. And that’s all the same for you. But if you did previously, listen to us on Spotify, we have moved off of there, just because of the things that happened during our break, where they allowed misinformation and racism to perpetuate on their platform and didn’t really do enough about it for us to be comfortable still using their service. So we love if you’ve moved over with us as listener, and we would appreciate you continuing to give us a like and follow on whatever platform you are listening to us on and giving us a rating there as well. But more interestingly, it’s been a few months since we recorded so Nicole, what have you been up to during the break.
Nicole: So the break has happened from, what was it, December 2021 to, it’s now mid-late April 2021. And a lot has happened. You know, and I think for sewing… sewing for me, if I’m honest, has been on the back burner because of life happenings. I have experienced a lot of loss, in this interim time period. One of the biggest one is the loss of my grandfather who became really ill in February, and then we lost him in March. So that’s been taking up a lot of my there’s time, but there’s energy and then there’s there’s grief. So that’s probably the biggest thing that’s been happening in my life. And of course, the most important thing when you lose someone you know, it’s there isn’t other important things, I think, then working through that. And so listeners might have noticed that I kind of dropped off Instagram. The last post that I posted I think was a all my quilted coat that I’ve so proud of Do you remember that?
Ada: Yeah, it was the Muna and Broad pattern, right?
Nicole: Yes! Muna and Broad, Grainger, Coat, Self quilted. And there’s details on on my Instagram. But I only posted that because I had to like it was part of a Fabric Mart blog. And I actually got the call that he was very ill as in, you know, we thought circling the drain the day I was taking those pictures. And my sister, we had gone for a walk in the woods with my dog and my husband and my sister called and she’s like, I’m picking you up right now where where are you? And that was sort of the end of my ability to contribute to the Instagram community and willingness. If I’m honest, do you go through phases where you’re just all like, I don’t want to, I don’t want to like interact, I suppose or contribute on Instagram. Like I don’t know, that’s where I’m at. Has that ever really happened to you Ada?
Ada: Yeah, I want to say on the last few months, maybe not since January, but maybe like March and April, I’ve kind of felt that way a little bit both on my sewing Instagram and like my personal Instagram where I keep my like life stuff. And I used to post on stories all the time on my personal Instagram. And people from work would follow me they’d be like, Ah, that’s a really funny observation or make sarcastic comments all the time. And I don’t know, I think there’s just something about things in my life changing being busier and then not feeling like I have to or want to share as much like it wasn’t necessarily constructive for my day or for my life. So it was like it’s fine. If I don’t post you’re there and that’s kind of carried over to selling Instagram as well. I’ve also not necessarily taken a step back or break from sewing because I have kind of made my way through a lot of projects they had in the queue. It’s just I haven’t been making things that I want to share necessarily as much like I’m making unease because I had so many of them cut out of scraps and I’m making dresses that I don’t really love and feel like I’m going to wear and things like that and so it hasn’t really felt like I almost feel like I’ve been in like an Instagram funk and I don’t know if I want to necessarily change that you know?
Nicole: Yeah, I completely agree and for and it’s okay to be an Instagram funk for whatever reasons you have I shared some of my reasons and I think I know Lisa from black women stitch of the stitch please podcast. I said had something a while back because some for something out of frustration, I remember like in a story, and she messaged me and she said, You know, I totally get it, the space is whatever you want to make it. So if it’s not working for you, it’s okay. And it’s, it’s good to hear from folks who are active in the community that like, just remember, like, this is what you want to make it. So it’s been helpful for me to not feel to not feel disconnected, even though I am disconnected, if that makes sense. Like to not feel like I’m missing out or that I owe anyone anything. So it’s been, it’s been necessary, but it’s also been like, it’s rejuvenating for me to be able to really prioritize, you know what I want to post and I am still sewing, but same thing I’m not really fussed about posting right now. And that’s not good for engagements, probably. The algorithm doesn’t like that. But all, you know, throughout the season, you’ll be hearing about what I’m working on. And maybe you’ll get lucky and see me post it online, you are always free to sort of ask me if you’ve heard about like, hey, we never saw that, you know, and I will probably share why I didn’t, so, share it. And I might not share it still. But yeah, ask It’s okay. But that’s really what’s been going on in a nutshell. You know, it’s been a difficult 2022 For me, but No buts. It just is, it just has been. And just hanging in there. And I do want to say thank you, Ada. And thank you to the other members of the podcast, you know, a lot of what’s happened in 2022 is pulled me away from being able to do as much as I would like to and everyone’s been really supportive and understanding. And nobody ever makes me feel like, you know, there’s a lot of work that goes into a podcast, but I’ve never felt like people are on top of me or mad that I’m not helping. And I’m just really grateful for your support. So thank you for that. I appreciate it.
Ada: I would be remiss if I didn’t say on the podcast, I’m sorry for all of your losses. Nicole, I know we’ve we’ve talked about it off line quite a bit. But grief is a really shitty club. And I’m sorry, you had to join this club. It it really sucks. That is how I I’m in like a grief group called the dinner party. It’s for folks who are I believe, probably under 50. I think the median age in the group that I’m in, which is locally based, but still on Zoom. It was probably like early 30s, late 20s. And we always start every meeting or the two meetings I’ve been to on Zoom. When it’s like, introduce yourself and who brought you here and I’m sorry you are here because we don’t we don’t want more people on this. Yeah, yeah. Which is really exclusionary. But yeah, that kind of summarizes how I feel about you joining the club.
Nicole: Thank you. I mean, yeah, thank you. I’ll just That’s all I’ll say for now, I think. But it’s, you know, it is what it is. But so what have you been up to? enough about my story. I would like the listeners want to hear from you as well. What’s, how’s your 2022 been treating you?
Ada: It’s, it’s been busy. In the time since we’ve been off we on the topic of grief celebrated one year without my dad celebrated being a loose term. That’s been interesting kind of crossing that milestone mark. And I’ve been trying to keep busy with work. And so things I think hope cross my fingers, I don’t know are going pretty well. If you notice, in our intro, I have a new brand name, it’s trans promise. And I decided to change the name for a number of reasons. But one of them was that like people would call me Chuan and emails and on DMS, which was weird, because that’s not my name. That was my dad’s name. And it seems it feels a little racist. I’m not gonna lie for people to be assuming that I would name it after me. And just going off of that, and I know some of it’s like Google or Apple autocorrect when you read email, but like, Come on, my name is in the email, like it’s literally Ada at. So I did that change and the changes to Chuan’s promise because my dad used to do that’s how we would say goodbye. He would make me promise to take care of myself. He would never actually say bye because I don’t think that exists for many immigrant parents. Yeah. And so it felt a little bit fitting to kind of make that subtle change there. So new website, new branding, all that stuff. I’m scaling up and moving into my own space that isn’t my house, which is a little scary and a little exciting. It’s just become a little overwhelming in my non sewing space. So my living room, kitchen dining room, where things are everywhere. And I’m constantly having to clean and sanitize everything to keep it a clean production environment. So why not move into a real legit one, which is kind of scary to say and I never thought I’d be going back to an office-office, but here we are 2022. And I think in sewing I’ve just been making really practical makes, like I said, like, more of my tried and true patterns that I enjoy more self drafting and tracing, honestly. And then some sewing for other folks in my life, which I do on a very limited basis and I’m trying to be conscious of it, but not sewing for me has been a kind of refreshing practice in that. I don’t necessarily need all of these garments, so why not put that skill to use somewhere else? So yeah, there’s just it’s been a lot of non podcast and non sewing things that have been keeping me busy, which, you know, it’s, I think is good. But it kind of takes away from the day we can work on the podcast, which I’m grateful for all of our team new and old who have joined us for season three and who you’ll hear a shout out throughout the episodes this season. So definitely give them a follows they are tagged on our Instagram they will be shouted out at the outro of every episode. And we so appreciate everyone coming together to continue to help us make this podcast thing a thing.
Nicole: So just two things before we head into our our usual number one congratulations on the branding I think that’s the rebranding I think that’s a really beautiful story and a wonderful way to honor your father’s legacy in your life and in your business in a subtle but new way so twins promise everyone and you’re a legit business now you have an office! okay, I’ve always thought you’re legit. First of all, I just wanted to make a joke about that but that’s so cool like what an exciting evolution of your business to grow so much that you you need a separate space and I hope that that’s a nice thing for you to have some separation between work and home but congratulations on all that like all of that means success and growth and I am really proud of you.
Ada: Thank you. Catch season three of the Asian Sewist Collective podcast in your podcast feed wherever you’re listening now, starting on May 18. And give us a follow. We are Asian Sewist Collective on Instagram, YouTube, and our website is asiansewistcollective.com