Hi there, welcome to my blog, my name’s Jillian from Jillian Sharples Design. That’s right, it’s my very own little cottage industry where I get to pick beautiful fabrics and designs and use them to make lovely soft furnishing!
So, to give you a little background, I’ve been dreaming of setting up my own soft furnishing business for years. Ever since I worked in the lovely soft furnishing department in Harrods, London, when I was a student. I totally fell in love with fabric that first summer I worked there, the textures, the colours, the designs, everything about it just spoke to me. So I developed this daydream about wanting to set up my own curtain making business. But, as is often the case, life just got in the way and I went off on various tangents! Anyone else find life gets in the way of your dreams?!
Well, I worked in the social sector, I worked in retail, I worked as an English teacher abroad, and somehow everything managed to lead me back here. I was living in Russia with my lovely husband, Jack, teaching English and enjoying the museums when I realised I finally had time on my hands! Not something that had ever happened in my previous working life!
So I started studying and completed my Diploma in Interior Design. I loved it! It was great fun and really interesting. When we came back to the UK the following year I then enrolled in my next course and completed my Diploma in Curtain Making and Soft Furnishing skills, which I also absolutely loved! Since then I’ve had a baby, moved to the beautiful Cotswolds and been carrying out private jobs for people on a word of mouth basis. Until now, finally, when I am ready to actually set up my own business. Can’t believe I made it!
Life is a funny thing. I’m quite a cautious person so I was originally planning to make my first range and take part in a few Christmas markets to see what the feedback was. And then Covid happened! Well, I thought, who knows what will happen about Christmas markets this year so let’s rethink and give it a go. So, somehow, I’ve gone from selling a few things in a market to creating an entire range and setting up an Etsy shop! My shop is called The Cosy Cushion by JSD by the way! It’s been a crazy 5 or 6 months, researching eveything and figuring out answers to hundreds of questions, where to sell, how much to charge, how to advertise, and the list goes on, and on, and on!!! But here I am and quite frankly, it’s super exciting!!
So what about my blog? What can you expect from me here? The answer is a few things! Over time I’m going to delve into things like design principles for beginners, style, colour and texture ideas, fabric craft projects, a bit more about what I do and how I do it, things that inspire me, and so much more.
But, given that my first range is all about Christmas – yep it’s not far off now even if it is still only August – let’s start with that! Because, let’s face it, it’s been a rough year all round, so perhaps we all need to feel the love this year and get into the Christmas spirit even more than usual. So over the next couple of months I’m going to be bringing you my ’12 Crafts of Christmas’, some lovely DIY craft projects to get you feeling festive. They’re perfect little projects for when you want to get creative, they’ll help you create beautiful items for the house or even as gifts, and some of them may even make you feel a little more environmentally friendly or money saving. What’s not to love about that right? So if you’re interested, stay tuned in to my blog over the next few months and lets get festive together.
Jillian Sharples Design 