SequinLala takes Substack

Come for the needlepoint, stay for the sparkles!

Photo by Nechama Lock on Unsplash

If you are an early subscriber you probably know who I am, but in case you don’t, let me start with a little introduction. My name is Lauren DeVous, perhaps better known as @sequinlalastitches on Instagram. I am a self taught stitcher-turned-needlepoint-teacher-and-professional! How did I get here?

Well, my aunt taught me how to needlepoint when I was in middle school, but I recently found that project still a WIP, 20+ years later. In high school, my interest piqued a bit more and I stitched several key chains for my friends (a time-honored new driver tradition in St. Louis) as well as a belt for my dad. After high school, I took a seventeen year pause until Thanksgiving 2018.

I’ve worked in fashion and retail my entire career. In 2018, I was the Director of Pop Up Expansion for a luxury consignment start up company. I was running a pop up a few doors down from The Classic Stitch in a Chicago suburb. I thought it might be fun to make my mom something for Christmas and bought a project that eventually turned into the pillow below.

I really had no idea what I was doing (as you can see my stitches are backwards), but I just went for it and instantly fell in love. I blended threads, attempted french knots, and found satisfaction with every stitch. I stitched this bunny in a few days and was hooked! I went right back to The Classic Stitch for more.

Next up was a bookmark for my dad who was an avid reader. I was HOOKED. I started shopping for canvases on ebay (a goldmine in the pre-Covid days), looking for stores everywhere I could, and gobbling up needlepoint content on Instagram. That is where I found my local stitch club and realized needlepoint could come with a whole new set of friends as well.

2020 was a wild year for all of us, but it was also a year that set my life on an absolutely unexpected path. I had my son in January 2020 and was on maternity leave when the world shut down in March. My husband and I lost our jobs within days of each other that June, and my Dad died six months later. It was then that my husband and I decided to move back to St. Louis from Chicago.

Needlepoint became more important for me than ever during this time. It helped me through the grief of losing my father, the stress of looking for a job, and the ups and downs of post-pardom and having a newborn. It was my creative outlet and therapy all at once. I remember what I was stitching when my son was a newborn (an ebay find gingerbread house) and what I was stitching as he learned to crawl. I remember stitching my son’s first Christmas ornament and finding it hard to believe that my dad wouldn’t see it.

I was looking for work of all kinds when Megan, who owns the Needlepoint Clubhouse, said, “why don’t you teach a class here?” I had become friendly with Megan first on Instagram and then in person when I would stop by the Clubhouse anytime I was in St. Louis to visit my parents. By that time, I had started a needlepoint instagram that had gained popularity. As someone who is self taught, I had a bit of impostor syndrome, but thought why not?! And the rest is history!

I learned how to finish and did that professionally for a bit until I took over managing finishing for the Clubhouse and eventually started working there full time. I continue to teach classes there and am now traveling to stores all over the country to teach stitchers nationwide. I truly love the needlepoint community. I feel so lucky to get to meet other stitchers, share ideas with them, and learn from them.

It is my hope that this Substack facilitates more of this communication, connection, support, and learning. I was hesitant to start a Substack because I have been so active on Instagram and YouTube for so long. While I will keep doing my thing, there are limitations to those platforms. For one, they’re fleeting—stories disappear, saved posts get buried, and screenshots fade into no-man’s-land. Additionally, while I get to chat with people one-on-one, there’s really no way for us to dialogue and brainstorm together.

So, while this Substack is new (and while I’ve been nervous about starting it for a while!), in another way it’s also been a long time coming. I’m a firm believer in STITCHING SHOULD BE FUN (Read in a full Kyle Cooke voice for my fellow trash tv lovers)! If you have followed me on Instagram or Tik Tok, you know my style is lighthearted, non judgemental (knots on the back of canvases are your friends!), and full of major amounts of sparkle.

What will you get on Substack? Not only will you get more in depth “tips and tricks” than I share on my other platforms, but you will also get access to live monthly stitch clinics, free stitch guides, as well as even more “needlepoint tv.” From techniques to thread selection to stitch selection and beyond, what I thought could only be explained one-on-one or in an intimate stitch class, I am excited to flesh out and make accessible. If you can’t make it to one of my in person classes, this is the next best thing.

I’m so excited to launch this new endeavor and thanks so much for joining me here! I can’t wait for you to see what’s next.

Love,

Lauren

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