Mimi and Bee is on the move

Well what a wild ride the last 3 years have been.

So where did it all began? Well it all began in the front bedroom of my empty nest house really. At the time I had a small business making ladies skirts and selling them all over the world, but it was tiring and taking a lot out of me physically. I already had access to the big warehouses so initially I started selling a few overstock fabrics on Etsy and by February 2020 I had a fabric shop in my house. We all know what happened in March 2020, so it was a bit of a baptism of fire. I think the fabric was breeding when I wasn't looking because It quite literally took over and short of putting fabric in the bathroom (which by the way was a complete no-no!!) there was no room at the Inn!

My husband is a barber and knows pretty much everyone in the area where his shop is so he found me premises straight away and a very happy 18 months I spent at 163 Holland Street. The unit was owned by Tameside Storage and I really have to give a shoutout to these guys as they have been the absolute best. Nothing was ever to much trouble!!

Following our recent house move to Darwen it was becoming increasingly hard to commute the 30 miles to my premises so it was time for another rethink and and I realised that what I have loved most this year is teaching. I know me, can you believe it!! Anyone who has ever watched one of my videos on Instagram will know that putting myself out there is very uncomfortable for me, but to my great surprise and joy I love it. So when it came to move Mimi and Bee to Darwen I wanted to be able to have the room to provide a lovely social space for my local community, and not so local to come and enjoy. I want to be part of it all! That's exactly what has happened. 

This week my move to 189-191 Duckworth Street, Darwen has been a lot harder than I expected (probably because I am not as young as I used to be lol) for instance every single bit of fabric had to be removed from the display units and packed up for the move, that's roughly 66 bolts of fabric per unit and I have 20 of them and that doesn't include the haberdashery, wool, packing boxes, fat quarter boxes and photography equipment and other stuff that I seem to have acquired, but don't necessarily need. The Luton van was so full that not one more thing would go on the van and I had to pack my car up too! It was crazy!! Up and down the stairs at the other end was a bit of a challenge with my knees too, but hard work it may have been, but it was incredibly rewarding. 

I have loved every minute of working out where everything needs to go. I think I must be quite a visual person because I see things in my head like a picture but I always seem to have trouble communicating my ideas to Mr Stansfield. I tend to point and gesture wildly while my bemused husband tries to make sense of it all. Weirdly I can have the same pointing/gesturing conversations with my daughter and she completely understands so I am not really sure who is at fault here!

I am a little scared about the whole adventure, but mostly excited, although I have woken up a few times in the night thinking oh my goodness I hadn't thought of that. For instance I realised at 1am that I would have to get a new POS system so that the till in the shop talks to my website to make sure that the inventory stays the same for both. I probably could describe this better if I wasn't so techno challenged, but I think you know what I mean. The other one that passed me by at first was that all the fabrics will need a price on the bolt, so guess who ordered some pricing guns but forgot to order the plastic thingies that go in them and the tags!!!

Now this one, this one was a biggy, I woke up and realised I didn't have a separate door to my shop. We are upstairs, so there was a door to the downstairs shop and one to outside the building, but not for my shop. It's sorted now though, well ish, but I won't bore you with those details!

Anyway on to an update, all the fabrics are on the shelves, thanks to some help from the lovely Katie. We have all Robert Kaufman together, Michael Miller, Laura Ashley etc., all colour coded of course, you know me! We have managed to keep all of the fabrics in one room and the 'sewing studio' plus the big cutting table in the other although the wool has crept in there. We have 6 desks for teaching and 2 overlocking stations. Today my hubby put up the chairs, so they are all in position and ready. I just need to decide where all the haberdashery items are going, do all the pricing, order some mini irons, oh and decide which ridiculously priced POS system I am going to have, help me on that one!!!

I can't wait to work in the shop. A front of house person should not be in the back office (my unit) like Cinderella in my view, I am a people person for goodness sake!! 

Take care and thank you for following the journey! 

Dawn x