About me
About me!
I think I had a sharp needle in my hand from the age of 5! My early sewing learning was at primary school and at the age of 8 we were taught to sew evenly and neatly by hand on a large sewing project that lasted all year. When I was 10 we used sewing machines powered by hand and completed sewing projects that built up confidence and basic sewing principles. Although my mother doesn’t sew she has always been very encouraging so when I begged for a sewing machine at the age of 11 my parents consulted my grandfather who was a tailor and I was given a Jones treadle sewing machine in a mahogany case for my 12th birthday! I loved it! And I have never looked back…. I studied Textiles and Dress at school and then a Clothing Management Degree at the London College of Fashion followed by a successful 25 year career in production and design management in the fashion industry.
When I was twenty-three I had a fantasy about owning a clothes shop where you could actually see people making the clothes you could buy, because my interest has always been in the actual making. But with a career that took me into large manufacturing companies supplying leading retailers I never really got the opportunity to explore this idea until I worked freelance. Although I was involved in other exciting pioneering projects, including inventing and developing the first electronic tape measure, I managed in my spare time, working around two small children, to share my sewing skill and production and industry knowledge by teaching children and adults privately and fashion students at the London College of Fashion.
It was not until December 2007 that I actually opened my shop, some 25 years after my original idea, but this shop is different to my original concept. It is still about sewing and making but this time I am teaching others to sew and make and in between my classes designing contemporary projects and patterns that will suit the new 21st century sewer. I have already inspired and helped students go into business and sew and design for themselves for a living. I have run a customer activity at Top Shop during London Fashion Week and I also teach aspiring fashion students to improve their sewing skill portfolio’s to get into leading Art Colleges.
To see others enjoy the creativity of sewing gives me such a thrill and I am so pleased the interest in the craft is not dying out and that I have been able to develop a business to share my sewing passion…… it has always served me well.