Meet Natasha. (And one of her cute little poppets, above!). Natasha runs two boutiques: Little Love: home of the small via etsy and Piper + Lily via Made It. As well as being talented, inventive and generally just all-round lovely, as our maiden wearer of the Clogs she's clearly a very brave person indeed.
I'd like to say that Natasha and I sat down over a lavish meal at North Bondi Italian (like all the interviewers seem to do), but we didn't. Nope, it was a lot more like heeellllloo Gmail.
So, like, hi... and, um, what do you, like, do? (Bear with me, my never-before-seen-the-light-of-day interview technique clearly needs some polishing!!)
I'm a Mum, Wife, tiny business owner, blogger, lover of handmade, vintage & photography. My business, Piper+Lily, is where I get to run my sewing machine into the ground making vintage inspired children's clothing & accessories made from eclectic fabrics ensuring that there's no matchy-matchy stuff in the collection! little love : home of the small is my new venture selling hand picked vintage pieces for kids. I love taking way too many photos, sewing from scratch and repurposing what we've got lying around or what we've picked up from the op shop. One day I hope to have time to learn how to screen print, quilt, crochet & knit properly!
Reversible Cotton Baby Slippers (I would like some in 'Extra Enormous' please, Natasha!)
What sparks your creativity the most?
I have no idea! Probably my girls - I like to make them cute things and see how excited they get when I make them something.
Piper in her Reversible Hooded Capelet
How did you learn to do what you do?
I think that I learnt to sew by osmosis.! My Mum has been sewing for all of my life. Being the youngest in my family by 13 years I spent a lot of time hanging out with my Mum while she was sewing my dancing costumes so I kind of just picked up how to do it while I was most likely annoying the crap out of her!
How on earth do you make the time?
I would LOVE to say that I have fantastic time management skills and I am super organised but the truth is I suck at these two things! Between working 3 nights a week, ferrying the girls to kinder & their activities, general mothering & wifely duties(trust me, not those kind of duties!) and running two tiny businesses something has to suffer and it's usually the housework!
Where do you do your sewing?
I work out of my study/sewing room which unfortunately has no doors to hide away the chaos!
Here comes the tough one: what drives you to create?
Some internal craziness that won't just let me relax and do nothing! While I can easily avoid boring things like cooking and cleaning, if I'm not making something I can be a bit like a kid with ants in their pants!
Ruby models the 'Ruby Tuesday' Fabric Necklace
Can you recommend some sites that might have tutorials for us to learn your craft too? Made is quite good, it has a heap of tutorials. The Burda Style website is quite good as well and Grosgrain have a heap of tutorials and a sew-a-long called A Frock by Friday where you can follow along, sewing a bit each day and hopefully have an outfit made by the end of the week. A great one to get you going.
Thank you for sharing, Natasha. Before we go, can you share your Top 5 crafting sites with us - we do love a new blog!
Craft:
elsie marley
Crafterhours
The Crafty Crow (great for kids crafts)
Homemade by Jill
That's it for my first Clever Clogs! Be sure to visit Natasha at her blog - I particularly love her Piper's 4th Birthday Party post and her thoughts on choice in breastfeeding.
And, pretty please with vodka on top, let me know if you like the Wearing Clever Clogs idea. Works for you? Bores you to tears? Okay but things could be better? Let me know what you think!