This is the first post on the Makersew blog. Here we'll tell you what's new in the directory and how to use it, and we'll start with a big overview. The directory has changed a lot over the past few months: it has a new look, it now has sections for specialists and brands, and companies get their own account where they can manage their listing themselves.
New look and search
Open the home page, and you'll find search right at the top: pick a city, type what you're looking for, or go straight to the full directory. Further down are categories, cities and a short guide to finding a manufacturer and dealing with them directly. If you sew or supply fabric yourself, there are tabs for manufacturers and suppliers too: how to get listed and how the directory helps.
The directory is also easier to browse by topic. The Cities page shows where companies are and how many there are in each city, while Categories bring together products, production supplies and services. Choose a city and a category together, and you get a page of its own, for example clothing in Almaty. There are country pages as well, and the breadcrumbs above the heading show where you are.
The site is becoming multilingual. Right now it works in Russian and English — you switch the language in the header (on a phone, in the menu) — and next we'll add Kazakh, Uzbek, Kyrgyz, Turkish and Chinese. The theme is in the footer: the site follows your device's light or dark mode, but you can also pick one yourself.
Company listing
We rebuilt the listing so that it's easier to get in touch with a company. Contacts sit on the right, and on a phone they come right above the map. The Message on WhatsApp button opens a chat with a greeting already typed, and next to it there's a hint on what to send for a quote: the model, the fabric and quantities by size. You can call, email or write on Telegram with one tap.
If a company has several branches, they all appear on one numbered map, and each address has its own opening hours, phone numbers and links to 2GIS, Google Maps and Yandex Maps. Listings now show a logo, a video and the date the details were last updated, and photos open full screen. The Verified badge means we've checked the company's registration number against the state register, and Confirmed by owner means the company manages its listing itself.
To share a company, tap Copy page link. Listing addresses are shorter now — makersew.com/en/c/company-name — and old links still work. If you spot a wrong address or phone number, the Found a mistake? block at the bottom of the listing has our contacts.
Owners can now tell more about themselves. A listing can show starting prices for what the company makes or sells, answers to common questions, and documents and certificates with an expiry date, which we check before they go live. Next to the contacts there are the owner's own buttons, such as a price list or a marketplace store, and a WhatsApp Business catalog button.
Mobile listing and QR code
Every published company now has a page made for phones: makersew.com/en/m/company-name. It has only what you need to get in touch: WhatsApp, Telegram, call and email buttons, the address with directions, opening hours with an "open now" mark, photos, prices and answers to questions. Photos and products open full screen, where you can swipe through them and pinch to zoom. Save contact adds the company to your phone's address book, Share sends the link, and Request a quote emails the owner a short request so they can reply to you directly.
The owner sets this page up on the Mobile version tab of their account: the button colour from a ready palette or any colour they like, which blocks to show and how to fit the cover photo. There they can also add staff business cards, so a manager or a technologist gets a page with their own contacts.
The same tab has a builder for an image with a QR code: a square or portrait for a post, a vertical one for Stories and Reels, a business card or a reception desk stand. Choose what goes on the image — the logo, the name, the address — the style and colour of the code, a pastel, bright or gradient background, the size of the code, and where it leads: the mobile page, the full listing or a staff card. Before you download it, we check that the code scans. And on the main page of your account, under My cards, you can see how many times visitors tapped your buttons or followed the QR code over the past week and month.
Specialists and brands
Besides workshops and suppliers, the directory now lists specialists: independent professionals who take on work themselves, such as sewing a sample, making patterns or developing a design. They work in the same areas as the companies in our categories, from clothing to leather goods. You'll find them on the Specialists page, and brands looking for someone to make their products are on the Brands page. Both links are in the footer.
They have listings of their own. A specialist's listing shows photos, experience and how they work: remotely, at their own place or on site at a factory. We don't show a specialist's exact address; they'll arrange where to meet. A brand's listing shows what it makes, in what quantities and who it's looking for — a manufacturer, fabric or specialists — so manufacturers and suppliers can reach out to a brand first.
Your account
You no longer need to ask us to update your listing. Sign up and confirm your email, and in your account you can change contacts, phone numbers, opening hours, branches, the description, photos, video and logo. Until your listing is published, you can preview it the way visitors will see it. The editor is split into tabs — Basics, Contacts and addresses, What we do, Photos and documents, Mobile version — and each has its own Save button.
You can also add a new company yourself. First choose the type — manufacturer, supplier, specialist or brand — and the form shows only the fields that matter. The listing goes to review once you confirm your email. If you already have a personal link from one of our emails, you can use it to upload photos and create an account straight away.
We review edits from new accounts before they go live. If your confirmed email is on your company's domain, or the company is Verified, your account becomes trusted: your edits appear on the site straight away, and you can publish a draft listing yourself. Any owner can take their listing down.
You can sign in with a password or a link sent by email, and for extra security turn on sign-in with a code from an app on your phone. Your account is also where you change your email, the language you prefer us to use with you and your mailing preferences, and if you no longer need the account, you can delete it.
Any address on the map
Addresses are now entered step by step, and each step suggests options: country, region, city or village, street or neighbourhood, building. Suggestions only search within what you've already chosen, so a street is found in your city rather than in the next region. Pick an option and the pin drops onto the map by itself.
If your street isn't among the suggestions, type it as it is and put the pin on the building — the address is saved exactly as you entered it. This way you can add a village that wasn't on our list of cities before: it will appear in the directory once the listing is published.
If something is missing or doesn't work as it should, write to us at hello@makersew.com or on Telegram @makersew.