Springtime treats

I really love spring, although to be fair I say that about every season except winter! It's all the cliché stuff that I love; looking out to the garden and seeing bursts of spring bulb colour; the promise of longer and warmer days.... and more fine weather days in the school holidays.

This school holidays we spent a week in Christchurch catching up with family. Another highlight for me was also having a chance to meet Vivien, her husband, and the young man who inadvertently sparked the adaptive clothing brand Picklefish NZ. Since starting this Clothed journey, I have been fortunate to have many amazing people put me in touch with other amazing people, and that is how I came to being in email correspondence with Vivien.

So, we met at her home and, I shared my ideas for Clothed, saw her sewing studio, and heard how her brand started and grew. As the sky gradually darkened to rain outside, my heart lightened to near bursting point as she encouraged, offered business advice and collaboration! I came away enthused! When I think of Vivien the words that immediately spring to mind are: hardworking, enthusiastic and incredibly generous!

Arriving back home refreshed and raring to sew, I found myself spinning into a week of busy medical clinics and, new after school activities. However, I am happy to report that I did also have a D-day this week (see first post for explanation).

As I was writing about meeting Vivien, what should appear in my inbox but a pattern tutorial that she drew up for one of the most requested items! So armed with the progress of the last 2 hours of yesterday's D-day (I will not talk about the first few hours ....) and my new pattern tutorial, I welcome the longer days ahead. And no, I'm not telling you the details of what I'm working on just yet, where would be the fun in that?!

#picklefishnz

D-Days

Kia Ora and welcome to my blog. I'll be using it to keep you updated, document the Clothed journey, and even share some sneak previews from behind the scenes as we progress towards making this dream a reality!

Where to start? Well firstly ....this is so much FUN! Putting together designs that function, feel fabulous and further confidence and self-expression is such a blast.

Secondly.... it is rather involved! -I am constantly discovering things that I hadn't even considered yet. Each week my to-do list has multiple babies! This will be more of a "slow-burn" then a quick ignite but -good things really do take time.

Anyway, back to the title of this blog. I have just officially started these. They are my Design Days - which are now affectionately known as "D-Days". I have marked these off regularly in my diary, at fortnightly intervals and so far have had one. They will all involve great loose-leaf tea, a background soundtrack (this week was a random mix ranging from Kings Kaleidoscope through to Ludovico Einaudi) and most will be ably supported by my glamourous assistant "Dawn the Dressmaker's Dummy". They will not all involve a phone call from school saying your son has concussed himself resulting in a swift transformation to MumDoc mode! (We will call that a first-one wonder- he's fine now btw).

Despite the odds however some progress was made. Check out these initial prototypes. These designs are for people struggling to raise their arms or rotate their shoulders much. They are side opening with a feature to make reaching the fabric round to the side easier. I know tops are high up on the wish-list of may people I speak to.

Well, that's all from me currently. I hope to be updating you fortnight-ish so do keep checking in, or even better subscribe to my mailing list. If you or someone you know think you would like to be a prototype tester then please get in touch here.

Thanks for all the time, feedback, and encouragement people and organizations have already given, it's humbling and appreciated. Bye for now!