I love kits, of course I do.
But... if you have been following us for a while, you will know that secretly, deep down inside, I want you to stop doing kits. My passion, the thing that drives me so hard day-in, day-out with The Fabled Thread, is the desire to get people making. I want to help everyone find their own creativity, to find confidence in their own decisions, and to get that raw pleasure that only comes from taking an idea all the way through to a creation. To knowing that "I did that".
I want you to start on a kit, but then I want you outgrow them.
Nothing brings me more pleasure than seeing someones order progress from starter kits to just raw fabric and threads. I know then that I have done my job. However, that middle stage - the part when you stepping off the kits and are embarking on your own projects for the first time, confronting decisions you have never had to make before, is remarkably intimidating. Whilst it could sounds silly to some, creating your own designs is brave and requires courage.
That is where our Studio Membership comes in. For nearly 3 years now we have had a membership programme which goes deeper into creativity. A platform designed to enable you to grow. Over those years we have learnt, we have tested, we have made mistakes, we have observed and understood exactly what we can do to support and build people up. So taking all that experience together, today we are entering a new chapter in the life of The Studio.
We are switching up our membership options and bringing out a new creative platform. If you are at all interested in the wider creative practice that goes into designing our kit, then please take 8 minutes out and watch this video.
We are on a mission to empower creativity. All too few people doubt their own creative instincts, and we are here to show the creativity can be taught, can be fostered and can go on to change your life. No one is born with creative confidence, but with the right tools and support we can all develop it.
So that is what The Studio is all about. This is our membership space for those who want to deepen their creative practice in a way that suits them. Whether you’re here to just do more stitching or you want to start exploring your own design ideas, we have different options to support wherever you are in your making journey.
We launched Studio just over two and a half years ago, and if I’m honest, it started in quite a practical way. I wanted to offer refill kits - slimmed-down versions of our designs - but also protect that first unboxing experience, because it’s such a big part of what makes our kits special. So we put them behind a paywall.
But over time, it’s grown into something much more important. Studio has become the place that really reflects what The Fabled Thread is about for me. It’s where we go deeper into creativity, into ideas, and show more of the process - not just the polished end result. And, if I’m honest, it’s the part of the business I care most about. I love kits, but I care far more about people feeling confident enough to create their own work.
Over the past couple of years, we’ve tried a lot - different formats, ways of sharing things, different types of content, different ways to interact. Some worked brilliantly, some didn’t, and if you’ve been around a while you’ll have seen that in real time. But one thing became very clear: The Studio works, but we haven't been very good at showing who it’s for.
We’ve been trying to offer quite a lot in one place, and while that meant there was something for everyone, it also made it harder for people to see where they fit and harder for us to build it well. Over the past year, as we have kept adding more, it has started to feel a bit muddled.
So this relaunch is about fixing that. We’re moving from one to three membership plans and introducing new benefits, which I’ll show in the next section. The aim is to make everything clearer and better suited to what different people actually want. Some people are here purely for kits, some want a bit of everything, and some want to really push their creative practice forward. Trying to make one membership do all of that wasn’t working as well as it could.
The reason I’ve put so much into getting this right is simple. I care a lot about this, and if something we offer doesn’t feel genuinely useful, it bothers me. So we’ve spent the last few years testing, adjusting, and paying close attention to what actually helps. The last challenge, in particular, really confirmed it. We saw people come in feeling unsure and leave with a completely different sense of what they’re capable of - and that’s what I want Studio to do for more people.
So this relaunch is about giving that side of the business the structure it needs to grow properly - so we can go deeper, offer more support, and keep building something that is genuinely worth your time, without trying to make it everything for everyone.
Our online portal which has six different virtual courses teaching everything from painting, drawing and stitching through to how to design your own work. Alongside this there are banks of resources to support your designs from motif library, story banks, museum archives.
Our refill kits contain everything you need to craft a new design, but with simpler packaging and without the bits and pieces you have left over from your last Fabled Thread kit. Discounted by at least 15%, they help you save on money and on waste.
A bi-weekly Friday email filled with creative inspiration, behind-the-scenes insights, and thoughtful stories. It’s designed to spark ideas, deepen your craft, and make you feel part of a like-minded creative community.
The Studio Shop stocks one-off pieces, limited run kits, seconds frames and more that only Studio members can get their hands on, many available in strictly limited numbers.
You have the ability to sign-up for our once a year we run a three-month design challenge with a structured virtual course, a dedicated platform, and a supportive creative space to develop your own designs alongside other members. A chance to challenge yourself and create something truly personal.
A growing collection of over a hundred past newsletter, craft guides, discussion videos, and articles, all saved in one place. Whether you’re seeking fresh inspiration or revisiting past learnings, The Archive is full of creative ideas to explore at your own pace.
We hold bi-weekly calls where you can drop in to talk about your creative projects or just to hear what others are working on. We are here to guide you if you are feeling stuck in a design, or want advice on how to make things, or just bring your sewing and come for a general creative chat.
Every few months, we open our London studio exclusively to members, offering a welcoming space to stitch, connect with other creatives, and get hands-on guidance from The Fabled Thread team in person. A lovely way to meet and create together.
Being honest, it has been an immense amount of work to bring in these changes for me and the entire team. What might look simple - just adding a few new plans - is really quite complex. So we have thought really long and hard about whether it was the right thing to do. The reason I feel so strongly that this is needed is two fold.
Firstly - I am obsessed with The Fabled Thread (probably in a slightly unhealthy way) and if a product or offering doesn't feel like it is delivering as it should or as it could, it hugely bothers me. I have been working and working at our studio membership over the last few years to test out ways to make sure what we are offering is actually something worthwhile, not just a vanity project. We test different styles of article, different types of events, different products for the studio, different ways of interacting - I obsess over the details of the interactions and the adhoc feedback we see.
The last challenge showed me just how worthwhile these virtual parts of the business are. We can take people with no confidence, a lot of fear, and show them how brilliant they are. We can help give people a sense of self-worth in their creative endeavours. And if that isn't something to be proud of, something to shout about, then I don't know what is.
So I want to make sure the way we structure our membership has longevity. I want to be able to go deeper - do fun challenges exploring imagination, to bring in more hands on support - but I don't want to do that to the detriment of those who don't want it. I want to make sure we offer the right things to the right people.
Secondly - The Studio isn’t just creatively important - it’s also what allows us to build something stable and long-term. Running a business is seriously hard graft - in a way that so hard to properly explain unless you have lived it.
Over the last couple of years, The Studio has brought a degree of stability to what we do. By having a small portion of our income that recurs more frequently than embroidery kits do (which can be a pretty long life cycle!), has given us a degree of security. I want to put us in the best possible position to grow our membership as that in turn helps us overall as a business to do more.
By restructuring now, it gives us a lot more clarity around how we can explain to people why they should want to become members too. And this is the best structure we’ve found so far to support that.
