Me: Hi Girls, Thanks for inviting me for this lovely lunch and a visit to your studio. For those that cannot be here, can you give them an insight into a typical day in the By Hand London Studio?
ByHandLondon: We meet at Elisalex's studio (ok let's be honest - it's her house!) and first things first we pour ourselves some big fat coffees and cue plenty of fast talking schemes and masterplans (and boy talk).
{Editors thoughts: Already feeling part of the team with my hot drink and my feedback form... In my head we all dress fabulous outfits and drink from monogram mugs}
Still wired, we head into the studio and, as a priority, start by getting on with whatever needs to be done on the latest pattern. This varies wildly depending on the stage we're at... For instance, right at the start you'll find us feeling up the mannequin or hunched over the cutting table as we go about toiling and tweaking, drafting and redrafting. Whereas, towards the end of the process we'll be making up an endless stream of samples and reading over the instructions for the zillionth time with a fine tooth comb. Tip from the top - to keep our wits about us, we take turns to read out the copy in different accents (our current favourite is Victoria's 'Home & Away'-worthy Australian!!).
By about about 12pm we send Mama (aka Elisalex!) off into the kitchen to prepare a slap up lunch - which at the beginning of the month is definitely more of an extravagant affair and it's not uncommon to spot us tucking into a juicy roast chicken with a crunchy fennel salad, followed by homemade apple crumble. Entirely different towards the end of the month though, when it's more of a fish fingers and beans on toast scenario! Armed with more coffee to avert the impending food coma, we get ready for the afternoon.
While the morning is usually a lot more practical and about getting our patterns ready for release, the afternoons are all about hustling! This is where we divide and conquer on new projects for the blog, collating examples of our patterns spotted in the wild, getting in touch with retailers, creating press packs, and more overall masterplanning (in our minds world domination is not far off!).
Our working day starts and ends fairly early as we leave the studio at 3.45pm to accompany Elisalex on the school run. Although we all part ways here, you can bet that come dinner time we're all back at our individual workstations tackling our endless to-do lists. Word to the wise - there's absolutely nothing quite like running your own business, but the work really is never ending!
These studio days are completely invaluable to us; at this point we only get three of them per week as we all have other part-time commitments. But fear not, in our heads we've practically drawn up the blueprints for the future By Hand HQ - complete with in-house sewing cafe, romcom room and Caribbean cocktail corner!
Me: I'm so lucky to be able to experience a little of the behind the scenes and testing the next pattern which I'm super excited, can you tell us more.
ByHandLondon: Victoria blazer is a casual blazer featuring 3/4 length sleeves, a turned up French seamed cuff and side seam pockets, with cropped and sleeveless variations. Designed with a generous amount of ease for a laid back style, this blazer is the perfect throw-it-over-everything wardrobe staple.
{Editors thoughts: In love with this pattern already, even more because I made it perfect for summer.}
Check it out Victoria herself, wearing my blazer while making final photo shoot samples.
{Editors thoughts: In love with this pattern already, even more because I made it perfect for summer.}
Check it out Victoria herself, wearing my blazer while making final photo shoot samples.
Me: What else is on the horizon?
ByHandLondon: We've been wanting to get into teaching for ages, so we're really excited about our forthcoming classes at Ray Stitch and The Village Haberdashery (and a couple of others - stay tuned for more details)! Also, our beginner sewing kits are doing really well, so we're always on the hunt for more delicious fabrics so we can expand the range. Plus, not to be too coy, we've even got a secret plan for a new product line that we're really mega excited about! But, enough about that for now ;)
Me: Future designs, I can see something amazing over the rails...
ByHandLondon: From the very beginning we wanted our look to be up-to-date classics, and so far that seems to be getting a great response. Yay! All you ladies out there who have supported us by buying and making our patterns, let it be known that you are blowing our minds and changing our lives! In terms of future designs, we therefore want to continue developing the look we've established whilst always listening to the sewing community to make sure we're giving you what you want.
After the Victoria Blazer, we can now reveal that there will be a Summer dress pattern coming soon, and plans are already well underway for an advanced pattern and a free downloadable PDF for the Autumn Winter season...!
Me:Thank you so much girls, I had such an amazing day and feel privileged to be part of the process.
ByHandLondon: Massive thanks to you Rachel, for being a brilliant pattern tester, supporter and general sewing wonderwoman!
To celebrate the launch of By Hand London latest pattern they kindly offer one lucky reader to get one fresh out of the oven (printers). To have a chance of winning tell us what fabric would you make the Victoria Blazer. This give-away will be open til May 30, 2013, Midnight London. As always, it's open to all my dear readers.
