My Journey to Creating My First Website with Squarespace

As much as I love fabric, thread and the hum of a sewing machine, I never imagined I’d be learning about website templates, fonts and plug-ins! I’ve been very fortunate: the last three years have been filled with wonderful workshops, classes and students at some fantastic venues, so I hadn’t needed to self-promote. But after being asked over and over, “Do you have a website?”, I knew it was time to create my own little corner of the internet — a place where people can find my classes, see what I do, and hopefully feel inspired to sew.

After much deliberation (and quite a lot of procrastination) I chose Squarespace because everyone I spoke to said it was simple and beginner-friendly. Simple, however, doesn’t always mean easy. At first I felt completely out of my depth — where do you even start when faced with dozens of templates, colour palettes and page layouts? It reminded me of the first time I threaded an overlocker: fiddly, confusing, but oddly exciting once you start to see how it all fits together.

Slowly, step by step, things began to click. I spent evenings experimenting with fonts that felt friendly yet professional and learning how to drop in my logo without stretching it out of shape. Google, AI and the Squarespace forum became my best friends, and I had amazing moral support from fellow tutor Sarah (My Handmade Wardrobe) and the ladies in the Virtual Sewing Room professional network I join regularly.

I worked out how to add a calendar with links to my classes and a blog for my sewing adventures. Each new feature I unlocked felt like finishing a tricky seam — fiddly at first, but so satisfying when you press it flat and see it come together.

There were frustrating moments, of course. Sometimes buttons didn’t do what I expected, or I’d spend an hour trying to move something only to discover a much quicker way. But, just like in sewing, mistakes were part of the learning curve. I finally conquered my procrastination by setting myself a clear block of time and sticking to it.

Now that the site is live, I feel proud — not because it’s perfect, but because I made it myself. It’s much like a handmade garment: a reflection of me, my style and my love of teaching. As I tell my students, it doesn’t have to be flawless — it just has to be yours.

Once I actually immersed myself in the process, it turned out to be less difficult and time-consuming than I’d feared. If you’re thinking about building your own website, my advice is the same as I’d give someone starting their first sewing project: take it one step at a time, don’t be afraid to unpick and try again, and remember that progress is more important than perfection.