Why Can’t Everyone Buy Refill Kits?

We offer the ability for you to order a refill kit rather than a full kit for people who are subscribed to our studio, but not to everyone. This isn’t some tactic to get you to join our membership or a trap, there is a genuine reason why we think it's hugely important that access to refills isn’t open.

For a bit of context, the refill kit contains everything you need to create a design, bar the elements which will repeat if you already have a design from that range. For example, they won’t include embroidery hoops, needles, or certain instruction booklets which are common across the range, as you will already have those. We offer the refills at least 15% lower price than the full alternative, however, we only offer the ability for you to order a refill kit rather than a full kit for people who are subscribed to our studio, but not to everyone. Which always raises the inevitable question “why restrict access to refills?” or “I want the cheaper option” – both are fair enough questions, so let me explain.

The explanation of how we approach refill kits comes down to the fundamental way I view our business. We are first and foremost an experience business, not a product business.

What do I mean by that? When you get a kit or a framing set from us, you only have the components of an end product. You then have to make the piece yourself. My job as the designer and teacher is to make that process enjoyable, stress-free, and ensure you come out with the best possible creation. We are selling you an experience, we are teaching you a skill, and we are supporting you to make something. Not selling a product that is finished the moment it leaves our studio. Really, that’s when our job actually begins. We have to give you an incredible experience if you are not only going to enjoy sewing, but also feel positively about us as a business.

So how do I make the experience fit those three benchmarks I set for myself:

1. Enjoyable: you have to feel excited about the process you are about to embark on, you have to look forward to each moment of stitching - when you have many hours ahead of you of making, it’s not enough motivation to just like the finished piece, you have to like the process, or you’ll give up.
2. Stress-free: we have to make sure everything is easy and clearly thought out. That you have all the materials you need from the get-go, laid out in a really obvious way with clear instructions. We don’t want that Ikea furniture building experience where you are missing the one essential screw or the new toy to arrive only to find out you needed batteries. So the kits can’t feel intimidating or stressful to figure out.
3. Great outcome: whilst we aren’t a product business, you buy the kit because you like the finished product. So we have to make sure that what you receive and how you are guided is going to enable you to make a piece that is in line with the picture you saw online when you made the purchase. If you use different materials, or don’t have everything needed for the technique, that isn’t going to be guaranteed to happen. Then what you are left with is a bitter taste… I was sold something that isn’t possible.

How we package our kits and what we include in them is essential to the experience you have. So… why offer refills at all?

The need for refills came about around 3 years into running the business - when I started The Fabled Thread, I had no idea how often people would likely come back, and I am constantly in awe of how much people have loved our products - we have customers who have placed over 40 orders. When you think of that in terms of stitching hours, that’s astounding. Now nobody has a need for 40 embroidery hoops or sewing bags or a build-up of our boxes. In fact, I have actually driven round to a very loyal customer's house before to pick back up all her boxes and bags (in the days before refills). We found a couple of years ago that we would get an increasing number of requests from return customers to send their kit without the hoop, or without the bag, and we knew we had to do something about it. I hate wastage, and I know so many customers do too, so wanted a solution.

So here is the tricky question: how do you introduce a “lighter” version of the kits for those who have done one before, but retain the experience for those customers coming for the first time? The reality is, if we just offer the refill option at the 15% discount from the outset, how many people would choose to get the full kit as we intend? Not many I bet – inevitably people will go for the cheaper option if it's available. In that process though, they miss out on all the things that I think not only make them understand what’s so special about The Fabled Thread, but I also think make them fall in love with sewing.

So as a solution, we introduced refills which don’t contain elements you can reuse from previous kits, but they are behind a paywall. Our bet was that most first-time customers won’t want to join a membership programme for a company they don’t really know yet. So the barrier to getting a refill kit will feel too high for a lot of first-timers. However, for our existing customers who already know how they feel about us, whilst there is a paywall in place to buy the refill – it is priced at a level so that the discount on your very first refill kit purchase will cover the cost of the membership even with the lowest priced kit!

This means that customers who are looking at doing a whole series of kits can sign up, and then they will be able to access the discount and avoid getting loads of repeat materials. But it’s unlikely a first-time customer will do the research or consider signing up, so for first-time customers, we generally are able to protect the experience we think is so special.

It goes beyond this though - we are passionate about empowering creativity. I want to give you the tools and the confidence to eventually move on from our kits to creating your own designs because that’s where I believe true joy lies. I don’t want you to stay on kits forever – as much as that’s a bad for business mentality, I am very keen on you outgrowing The Fabled Thread.

So… if you have decided you like the sewing process enough to want to do lots of kits and hence taken up a studio membership to buy refills, then it’s likely that you’ve been developing your sewing confidence and there is a higher chance you could be one of those who just needs a little nudge into designing your own work. So by becoming a member, you also get access to all our craft guides, our creative exercises, our inspiration bank and topic deep dives. Things to excite you about creating designs! There is a hidden mission within this to help empower you creatively.

So whether you choose to sign up for one month just to take advantage of the refill kit discount and then leave, or whether you find, actually there is more you can take from the membership than expected, we don’t mind! But this is why our system is set up the way it is!