Emily Jeanne Designs has closed.

formerly

A handmade boutique

based in Charleston, IL

Emily Jeanne Designs has closed

after 7 successful years as an Etsy shop :

1,028 items handmade and sold;

167 five-star reviews received;

rank among the top 6% of Etsy shops

in the world achieved,

piles of one-of-a-kind handmade treasures

sent to buyers in 44 states,

7 countries,

and on 4 continents;

and thousands of little moments

of joy and sorrow,

passion and grit,

naked authenticity and

heartfelt love,

shared with some of the

greatest people on Earth:

You.

Much love to those who

traveled on this journey with me,

and I wish you

all the best in the future.

~Emily

Emily Jeanne Designs on Instagram: "Part 1/7 : Fall has always been a season of change, of learning to let things go. And so it seems appropriate, in this moment when the world is exploding in myriad colors that delight the eye but which will inexorably fade away with time, that my own situation would mimic nature's spirit of transition. Seven years ago this fall, I opened Emily Jeanne Designs with a mission to bring beauty and practicality into the lives of moms like me who were neck deep in the baby years. The shop at that time was filled with nursing scarves, burp cloths, nursing covers, and bib sets. (If you joined my journey in later years - I bet you didn't know that!) A couple of years in, mirroring the growth of my own littles, I expanded into no-babies-required regular women's fashion with the creation of my first blanket scarf. As soon as I finished the first row of fringe, I was hooked. These giant swaths of soft, snuggly plaid were BEAUTIFUL! I wanted to make as many as I could to share with the world."

Emily Jeanne Designs on Instagram: "Part 2/7 : Fast forward a couple more years, and the shop had gone so plaid-crazy that it was hard to even find the mothering gifts anymore. It was all plaid scarves and snuggly ponchos and shimmering earrings - every beautiful thing I could think to make, so that I could share my love of their hygge vibes with other people and inspire them to feel beautiful as well. My fervor for spreading the gospel of plaid flannel, if you'll excuse the religious metaphor, was intense. I wasn't the only person who loved what I was making, and I was determined to share my love of all things soft, pretty, and WARM with as many people as possible. I booked multiple shows that year, including my first major Hobnob Market, and I was simultaneously selling so many things in my online Etsy shop that I was pulling things off the shelf mid-market to make sure someone didn't walk away with them before I could ship them out for the online order. I would come home exhausted from a long market, only to have to dig through all my tubs of inventory to find what had sold through Etsy while I was away so I could ship out all those orders. It was chaotic and exhausting for sure. As the fall of that year headed deeper and deeper into the holiday season, it became clear that, while I was making and selling more than I ever had before - how great! - it was starting to overwhelm me in ways I never could have imagined when I started as a girl with a sewing habit. I was drowning in my own success, and it hurt."

Emily Jeanne Designs on Instagram: "Part 3/7 : I made and sold over 400 items in 3 months that year. Stop for a moment and ponder how frenzied it was for me to personally handcraft 400+ things from scratch in that amount of time. To run not one but two online storefronts (that dream died quickly, let me tell you!) on top of it. To attend monthly large markets where I was constantly in danger of double selling items that were still available online. To also offer sales through my Facebook VIP group (there were several items so popular that I was constantly stressed about trying to make sure everyone got the fairest "first come, first served" shot at them) and PayPal. All while being a mother to two young kids and working a part time job at our family business as well! The apparent success I had thought I wanted was threatening to crush me under the weight of its responsibilities and expectations, and I began to crack from the strain. It's no wonder, then, that a couple of earth shattering personal crises layered on top of all this took me over the brink. By the end of that year, I'd tumbled headfirst into a full on anxiety disorder with panic attacks, sudden desperation for medication and help, and weekly therapy sessions to try and mitigate what I didn't understand: How could achieving all my perfect dreams leave me feeling so broken?"

Emily Jeanne Designs on Instagram: "Part 4/7 : I have tried many times since then to re-energize the shop. I took a lot of time to process my own grief and mental illness the year after my blowout autumn, but I still made some things here and there. Covid hit, and suddenly I was homeschooling my kids on top of nursing along my shop in the extra hours. At first I was thrilled with the "introvert's paradise" of being forced to stay at home all the time, but nobody - and I mean nobody, not even homebodies like me - has escaped the terrible mental toll of these last few years of the pandemic. Whatever relief it gave from societal expectations, it took away in equal measure in the form of fear and uncertainty. I think I benefited from all the recent practice with mental health coping skills.. but I can't pretend that experiencing a global pandemic smack in the middle of my own personal crisis was helpful timing. Fast forward again to last year. The kids went back to school. I was determined to beat my anxiety, once and for all, and to push myself to confront the demons that I could no longer escape when I walked into my studio. I was determined to face them, process through them, reach for what I wanted it to feel like and make it happen. And boy did I try. I sewed copious amounts of cute fall things last year. I spent a lot of time on social media, sharing my pretty things but also my struggles to cope with the ever-looming anxiety that being in my shop produced. I struggled and pushed and worked hard to reclaim what it had been BEFORE the major blowout year where I pushed myself too hard, to create things out of joy instead of expectation. I was met with disappointment and hurt at every turn. Things were getting worse instead of better, and one day in mid November, I realized I couldn't face the pain anymore. It just wasn't worth it."

Emily Jeanne Designs on Instagram: "Part 5/7 : I stopped checking social media, and my quality of life ticked up. I moved to a position on the front desk at the family business - an attempt to trade the desperate isolation of my home studio in my basement for personal interaction and a sense of belonging in a group - and that felt better too. I determined that I would never again make something for my shop without its inspiration genuinely coming from a place of joy instead of expectation, and the relief was immense. Spoiler alert: I never went back to my studio. I have left my shop open throughout all these ups and downs as a plea to myself that I would someday find the joy again. That I DO love creating beautiful things for people, and surely I hadn't killed all my joy just by letting it get too big too fast. But in a thunderbolt of understanding a few nights ago, I realized my shop is no longer a place of joy. It is a BURDEN, and I take it with me everywhere, even now. I didn't start this journey to become some kind of fashion boutique guru, but that's what it became. I didn't expect that I would have to become my own poster child, required to represent my own wares and - though I've never had any real interest in fashion beyond finding the softest, snuggliest clothing I could force to flatter my body - show off my own sense of "style" to make other people believe my shop was worth buying from. But that's what it became."

Emily Jeanne Designs on Instagram: "Part 6/7 : I was happiest when I was sewing for a niche group whose interests I shared. First, it was other women experiencing the joys and trials of early motherhood. Later I let myself explore geeky scarves with themes from Harry Potter, Star Trek, Doctor Who, and more. I LOVED those projects, but making fan art for profit is extremely tenuous legally, and I just couldn't bear the risk. I contented myself for a time in the cult of pumpkin and plaid everything (I can geek out just as much over a good tartan pattern as anything in Harry Potter lol), feeling very much a part of a group of fall devotees that were as delighted by all that as I was, but I also let myself become consumed in the expectations that came along with being a part of that often trendy, fashionable group. Trying to keep up with a group of people who honestly like staying trendy (unlike me with my constantly rotating wardrobe of staple shirts I bought 10 years ago..), it was too much. And ultimately, I think THAT is what killed the joy for me. I want to nerd out with you over things we both love. But when I'm supposed to keep up with what *other people* like to make sure I'm stocking the right trend items? That is not and never has been a passion of mine, and I haven't felt right in my own skin ever since I tried to pretend that it was."

Emily Jeanne Designs on Instagram: "Part 7/7 : In short, Emily Jeanne Designs started as a passion project. I was inspired to create for you, and I gloried in the love we shared over those pieces. Over time, it grew into something behind my imagination, and while that rapid success ultimately led to painful years of processing and struggle for me, I will be forever grateful for the memories and lessons of those times. You have been here with me through good times and bad, and I will always appreciate this journey we took together, even if it was only for a brief moment in time. Now, it's time to take a note from my favorite season 🍁 and let Emily Jeanne Designs go. To, like a glorious sugar maple shedding it's brilliant foliage one leaf at a time, take the happy memories and difficult lessons from this experience and let them quietly, but beautifully, fade away. As you might have noticed, I still have a shop chock full of pretty things. I intend to keep the shop open though mid December, probably, to allow the final holiday rush to play out before I shut it down forever. I expect I'll discount things pretty heavily because let's be honest - I already have a whole wardrobe of scarves I've made, and I'd much rather you get to wear them than for me to have to absorb them into my closet. I made them for you, after all, so I hope they can find homes before I draw the shutters on the shop completely. It's been a pleasure creating for you and growing with you these past few years. Thank you for all your support and friendship, and for being bright spots even on my darkest days. You are lovely people, and I will always love you. But next time we meet to geek out over plaid or fandom or whatever magical thing it is that brings us together, let's do it as just friends, not customers, yeah? I think in that, we have a bright future together. All my love, Emily"

Meet Emily, the Sewist behind the brand

Besides sewing, my favorite hobbies are reading (fantasy and YA are my favorite genres, along with an ever-present non-fiction audiobook in the car – usually history or science related), drinking wine and coffee, gardening, and doing my daily crossword puzzle. I also enjoy our weekly board game night with my husband and kids, as well as playing the occasional RPG video game like Zelda or Assassin’s Creed.

No matter what I’m doing, if I’m at home, I’m guaranteed to have at least one companion with me at all times – whether it’s one of our dogs : Sophie the shichon or Vincent the morkie – one of my parrots : Picasso the hawk-headed parrot or Coco the turquoise conure – or one of our kids’ pets : their budgies Queeny and Sunny or their guinea pigs Maple and Cupcake. We like to call it our own little zoo!

Travel is also a major passion of mine, so I spend a lot of my spare time studying up on places I want to go and casually learning foreign languages for fun – I’m up to decent fluency in Spanish, French, and Italian, with barely passable Duolingo / Memrise practices in Japanese, Greek, Latin, and German… so far!

I also work part time at our family business Tomco Insurance Agency, which helps keep me active in the community and involved with the business that's been in my family since 1972!

Emily Tomshack

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse