Personalised Towels and Gifts

Easy Living Magazine February Issue

I was thrilled to feature in the February issue of Easy Living magazine. This was a first piece I’d ever had in a publication. Setting up a business isn’t easy so it’s great to get a boost. I now feel confident to move forward & grow my little venture.

I have been personalising towels for 20 years while bringing up a family and since I set up Jane Hamerton Ltd 18 months ago, I’ve been having a ball. I have never worked so hard in my life and it is definitely the most difficult thing I have ever done. It is one step forward and several back.

My aim this year is to get the website right, pump up the volume of sales and set up a pop up shop locally to get basic sewing skills back on the agenda for anyone who wants to learn or ‘brush up’ skills.

The offer of free gift wrap was popular this Christmas. One customer ordered 16 bath sheets for members of her family.

I wrapped, ribboned and wrote personal messages for each one & sent them all over the country. All she’d done was to make a ‘phone call.

The feedback was fantastic. One recipient ordered one straight away for his god child.

White towel with boats

Towels are certainly not glamorous things but they are necessary! I am always amused by people who say they still have Jane Hamerton towels after 20 years or they hang them over the cot as they are too ‘nice’ to use!

What I have achieved is to change a boring item in to something special by hand crafting beautiful material on to it in a rather laborious way. There is an emotional feeling experienced by the receiver which is difficult to convey on a website.

What I want to get through to people is this towel, dressing gown or hoodie will last for years and may even be kept in a special box. It is not made in China but Suffolk and it will last and last.

I have supported Action Medical Research for many years. When living in Essex a fabulous sewing friend asked me help her and we amalgamated 2 committees and for years a fair was held at Great Braxted. It became so successful it had to be moved to a bigger venue at Cressing Temple Barn near Braintree CM77 8PD.

The great and good of Essex come and do lots of shopping with unusual stall holders and raise masses of money for the charity. Action Medical Research’s work includes research in to premature birth, disabling conditions, infections and rare diseases (including new treatmens for epilepsy & new diet for children with liver disease).

I will be donating a percentage of my sales between now and Christmas to the charity and of course donating at the fair on Wednesday 6th October 10-3pm.

Sequinned elephant by my lovely daughter

My personalised gift website has finally gone live. I honestly feel it is like giving birth to an elephant. A tweeter friend said,”A new website is like a new child – long gestation, the agony of birth but you forget all that when you hold that baby!”.

First, excitement deciding to start a business then as time goes by a feeling of incredulity at the enormous responsibility of it all. What on earth have I done?

The family certainly did not realise that I would turn into a mad, menopausal woman – trying to write a business plan, networking, meetings, radio, interviewing sewers, no food in the fridge…..grumpy, twittering, tired mother!

Has it been worth it? Only time will tell. Life is an exciting roller coaster. If you never dip your toe in the water you won’t actually experience the temperature. I have had a ball and life certainly begins at 50!

If anyone reading this is thinking of starting a business. Go for it. There is a lot of help out there but have no illusions – it isn’t easy.

I must mention the fantastic help I have been given by Nikki and Jean de Villiers at http://thewordwell.com/

Bath time

I often get my customers telling me after many years their children’s towels are still going strong. Yesterday a customer told me her 18 year old, 6′ 2″ son still used his and I had to laugh.

People often say I should not make such a good quality product but that is what I feel passionately about.

Plastic toys and the latest crazes have their place but I have turned a boring utility item in to something a bit special. It takes an hour to personalise each towel as it involves a lot of cutting, fiddling and finally stitching around each letter very precisely.

Clean at last

Children seem to like them and learn their names from the letters, Mummys find them useful and when they’ve reached their sell by date you can always use them for the dog!

Blue gingham with stripe

I often get asked to personalise towels with people’s nicknames. Let’s face it lots of us are given funny names at some point in our lives – we may even have more than one!!

At nine I was christened ‘Hammy’ and it stuck well in to my twenties. It makes me cringe if someone yells it across the street!

Here are some samples of ones I have done in the last couple of weeks.

Pink gingham

When I personalise a towel I know it brings a smile to the recipient’s face.

Large red gingham

At the end of a school year many parents think of a present to say ‘thank you’ to their child’s teacher.

My sister used to get many gifts of the same type: soap, chocolates, wine. I always gave the teacher a towel and they went down well and were completely original.

Blue floral print

You could order a flannel for as little as £8, get a hand size (£18) a bath towel (£34) or spend up to £39 on a sheet size (100 x 150cms)

The personalised gift will give so much pleasure and unlike a bouquet of flowers will last for many, many years.

You can choose from white, cream, red or blue towels and I have lots of fabrics to choose from.

Do visit my site and contact me.

Blue with beach huts

Twenty two years ago today I walked up the aisle at my old school in my home made wedding dress.

I wanted to try a basket weave icing on the cake as I am not a professional. The only trouble was we could not cut it!!

Despite things not going to plan sometimes, you need to remind yourself what you are good at and why you are doing something. This is what I feel passionate about – making towels for newborn babies. My long term vision is to get sewing skills back into schools so people can mend a hem or sew on a button.

On my quest to find sewers to help me in my business, I am shocked how hard it is to find basic sewing skills. I will keep nagging the powers that be!

I have been amazed at how helpful people have been with advice during the first challenging year of my start up. You all know who you are.

It won’t be long now until I can launch.