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Laura getting ready for a trip to Chicago a few weeks ago to attend h+h americas.

We begin this interview with Laura talking about her childhood growing up in a family of six children, as the oldest girl, in Ontario. Laura helped her mother with all the household chores including sewing. She recalls going thrifting to buy coats that were several sizes too large, bringing them home, and working with her mother to remake them. This process taught Laura all about clothing construction which turned out to be very useful later in life.

Laura married someone she knew from high school and she and her husband have three children. Laura worked did tailoring and dressmaking and worked in a variety of other positions. Her husband and some of his family members started a fishing lure business,  Thundermist Lure Company. One of their sons suggested that he start a YouTube channel to help promote the business, and encouraged Laura to create her own channel for sewing. That was the beginning of Sew Very Easy.

Laura recalls the early days of her channel and how she learned along the way to create professional videos. Laura shares some strategies she uses to present information as though she is explaining it to a friend. She explains the vision that guides her approach to creating YouTube videos and why she’s comfortable with her videos being somewhat longer than many experts recommend.

We also talk about Laura’s signature long white hair, why she chose to let her hair go natural, and how it helped her to build brand recognition. She talks about a test she did between thumbnails created with her photo and those without and the results are very enlightening!

One of Laura’s books with C&T Publishing, Sew Very Easy Quilt Favorites.

Laura also explains how some of the other opportunities she’s had have come about including working with a representative from YouTube to optimize her channel, writing articles for sewing magazines, and writing two sewing books with C&T Publishing (with a third coming soon). One topic we focus on is why there is a market for a book of patterns that have already been demonstrated for free on Youtube.

And, of course, I ask Laura to recommend great stuff she’s enjoying right now. Laura recommends:

• entertaining outside during the brief summers in Ontario
• taking small cross-stitch patterns with you inside of a glasses case to work on while on the go
• English Paper Piecing

Subscribe to Laura’s YouTube channel, Sew Very Easy, to watch her videos each week!