Tilly's Bowtique

Bow Making

Before a monthly sister's get together one of my sister in laws suggested that we spend a Girl's Night Out making hair bows for our little ones.  I quickly got caught up in making hair bows for my three young daughters.  As my fingers blistered over and my ribbon stockpile overflowed, I realized that a new hobby had been discovered.

Ribbon Art

Not content to be like everybody else, I just had to try something outside of pinwheel bows and woven headbands, though I enjoy those also.  While watching tv with my husband and fiddling with ribbon I came up with my princess hair bows.  After designing a number of princess look-alikes I started to branch out and put my figures on pin backs.  Thus was the beginning of my Pin Pals.  Every little figure ends up with her or his own personality. I never know who I'll meet when I start creating a new Pin Pal design!

Sewing

I believe my earliest sewing projects began when I was about 4 or 5 years old.  I would swipe swatches of fabric from my mom's sewing room and make "Pockets".  I would fold part of the fabric up, stitch up the sides, fold down the top, sew on a button, and cut a button hole on the flap.  As I got older, and a little safer, I was allowed to do some simple repairs using my mother's sewing machine: fixing a hole in the seam of a pillow case, for example.  Sewing was just something I did for years.  When I went to college I needed a job, and saw a posting for a job in the costume studio in the theater department.  I spent four years doing professional alterations and "builds" (sewing clothing from scratch).  I also took patterning classes to learn the skills necessary to create patterns using nothing more than a picture, paper, pencil, and lots of rulers.  It was a great learning experience for me and I learned a lot about how to make things look the way you want them.