First Design Project
The first thing I designed was a dress. An elderly aunt gave me some old velvet curtains that I definitely did not want, but they were the most beautiful colour. I thought they might make a great dress which I badly needed at the time. I loved the dress and found the design process riveting.
The velvet dress led to all sorts of enquiries. I quickly learnt that flattering as it was to be asked to design a one-off dress for someone it was vastly uneconomic in terms of time and effort. It was a learning curve. I decided to make a small collection of clothes twice a year that people could buy from.
I ran this little clothes design business for about 5 years. I loved it and I was thrilled by its success but I desperately needed to move on from dealing with each customer individually and the timing could not have been worse. I had 4 small children by then and reluctantly I gave up and concentrated on being a mother, promising myself that I would take the business up again when I had more time to devote to it. The next stage was going to require the sort of dedication that was never going to work with being a mother!