When I decided to start a sewing podcast this past winter, one of the first people I reached out to was Sarai Mitnick, founder and designer of Colette Patterns. I’ve admired Sarai’s patterns and blog, Coletterie, since I started getting back into sewing a few years ago. To my delight, Sarai immediately agreed to an interview. Rather than do a Skype chat (Sarai is based in Portland, OR), we decided to wait until she was going to be in New York, touring with her newest pattern the Laurel dress.
In mid-April, Sarai and I were finally able to catch up. She stopped by my apartment in Midtown, before heading out to a party at Brooklyn General for the new pattern. Sarai is just as smart and sweet as I thought she’d be. We chatted about everything from how she comes up with her designs to how hard it can be, as a woman, to pare down your wardrobe.
Before becoming a pattern maker and entrepreneur, Sarai worked in Silicon Valley doing user experience for places like Google. This analytical background has really shaped her approach to designing patterns and instructions, and I think ultimately makes her patterns wonderful teaching tools.
I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did recording it!
As I mentioned before, I’m only posting episodes every other week through the summer, because I’ll have my hands full with my newborn (who could really arrive any day now!). Stay tuned for the next Thread Cult episode, all about sewing on the bias (one of my favorite topics!) with Julianne Bramson and Susan Lenahan from Fashion in Harmony, in which we geek out on Madeleine Vionnet and all things related to fabric grain.
Happy listening!
Notes:
Free Sorbetto pattern
Thread Cult episode on sewing for your sweetie (and why it’s so hard to sew for men!)
Thread Cult episode with the Williamsburg Seamster
*Photo care of Sarai Mitnick
threadcult.com 