UNFORTUNATELY, THIS GIVEAWAY HAS EXPIRED. PLEASE CHECK BACK ON THE HOME PAGE AS WE FREQUENTLY RUN SIMILAR GIVEAWAYS.
I wanted to update all our readers on some changes we're making on our sites, particularly regarding our weekly emails that many of you receive.
We love sending out our free weekly email from both So Sew Easy and our sister site at Sewing4Free.com. Unfortunately, while the emails will always be free for you to receive, they are not free for us to send to our nearly 300,000 readers.
While our loyal readers do a wonderful job in supporting us over on Ko-fi.com which gets us some of the ways there and we get a bit of revenue from advertising (it really helps if you click on any of the ads you see..) and from the few paid patterns we have on the site, email sending costs continue to rise now to the point where we simply can't continue as before.
Here's a quick look at our current bill from Mailchimp, our current email sending service…
Now, I'm not complaining. We love having email as a direct communication method with our readers, but we're just changing how we send so there may be some small disruptions.
What's changing?
Effectively, we're going to buy “wholesale” email sending from Amazon, rather than “retail” sending from Mailchimp which should save us a lot of money. But like any major change, there may be some bumps along the road, so to speak. Amazon is one of the largest email delivery services in the world and while it is a little more technical of a solution on our end, I think we can handle it.
Emails may take a little longer to get to you at first but things should iron out in a few weeks or even days.
What you can do to help.
Your email service provider is always on high alert for spam emails so when we switch over to a new sender it may look to them like unwanted email. So here's what you can do:
- Open the email you receive from us. This tells your ISP you're interested.
- Click on the links in the email. This again indicates to your ISP that this mail is something you want to see.
- Move the email you get from us into your Primary inbox as opposed to Promotions, at least on Gmail.
- If you don't want our emails anymore, just unsubscribe with the one-click link at the bottom of the page. Please don't label us spam.
Now on to the free gift.
As a “thank you” in advance for your patience with any disruptions, we'd like to offer you one of our very popular paid patterns, the $6.95 Travel and Passport Wallet Pattern absolutely free, just in time for the summer holidays.
After a very long wait due to health restrictions, many people are starting to travel again. This fun project can hold travel documents for a family and speed you through check-in and security without having to rummage through bags to find everything.
Just follow the link below to the pattern page on our website to learn more and click the link in the orange box to download from our distributor, Payhip, absolutely free.
Travel and Passport Wallet Pattern
Going away somewhere exotic or far-afield? Or maybe you just need somewhere to keep your passports and travel documents safe between trips so you’ll always know where to lay your hands on them.
Thank you for all you do. I appreciate ya’ll so much. I certainly will pitch in more and try to pay for patterns as I go. You are so generous. Thanks again.
Wow I had no idea it cost so much to send out an email list! I’ll for sure chip in more often, i love getting your sunday morning emails! I would miss that just terribly. Thank you for all you do, i’ve made so many of your patterns, and loved them! I regularly go to your place to look up any new sewing/bagmaking techniques i’m tryin out!
i hadn’t realised you also run sewing4free – i send friends there all the time to look for patterns before they hit the shops!
I’ll definitely meet you at the cafe more often to show my thanks & appreciation – I don’t always get round to the projects but I enjoy and learn loads from your emails, especially the tutorials.
Thanks for all your hard work, and for sharing your sewing joy so brilliantly,
Natty
I would make the cami top and matching loose fit capri pants
Thank you for your time and dedication to bring us this content. I was unaware of the cost. Wow.
Thank you so sew much for the emails and gifts.
Thanks for this heads up!!! I love the content you put together. I learn so much! It is also great to know some of the ins and outs for you to provide this site to all of us sewists out there. I was so worried that I did not see a newsletter and wondered if something bad had happened. Thanks for this notification and definitely knowing this is an encouragement to me keep in mind to support you every time that is possible.
Hi Cece, I hope you did receive it in the end. It took a bit longer to go with the new system but we are still making improvements. Should be fine by next week. Thanks for your patience and all you support, Mayra
Helloo Mayra!
I’ve enjoyed the site now for some time (and time has certainly flown during Covid). I have also from time to time tried hard to find a direct contact using email but have failed 🙄 because there only seem to be social media contact options; I don’t use any of those for a variety of reasons.
Can you explain please how to get in direct touch and I’ll explain why I want to do so privately as a one-off message…… Thank you.
Wow, I didn’t know what the cost was. I so appreciate your emails and all the free patterns. I will buy you a cup of coffee next time. Thank you for letting us know.
I think you’ve handled telling us really well. Good luck with the move!
I’m in. Now I understand the cost, so I’ll “buy you a coffee” each time I get anything free from now on. I have done so sometimes in the past, but I’ll be sure to donate. I really do like both of your emails – So-so-easy and Sew4Free.
Thanks for your wonderful feedback and support, Paula. Kind regards and happy sewing, Mayra
Very much enjoy your emails but I had no idea of the cost! I’ll make sure to click on all the links and whatever else I can do to help. Thank you.
I agree with your comments Elena but it seems supporting the site is only easy/possible from countries using dollar currency….. not ours!
The cost is shocking. Appreciate what you do. Thank you!
Thanks Deb. It’s just that we have a big list –which of course we’re very proud of– and Mailchimp charges quite a lot. They have a lot of sales and marketing services that we simply don’t use since most of what we do is free. I think we have it under control with the move we’re planning so I think you for your support. Mayra
I had no idea it was so expensive either. Why does it cost so much? Knowing this, thank you so much for all the emails you did send. I savored every one of them!
Wow. I had no idea it was so expensive to send emails! In any case, I really enjoy receiving them. Thanks for what you do.