A week in life of a Lingerie design consultant

Whether you are wanting to start yourself as ` lingerie design consultant, or whether you love a good nosey at what people actually do with their day *sneaks my hand up, or whether you are launching your own label, wish to be a freelance designer or just generally love lingerie design, then come with me to look at my past week.

So no week is the same, and often I think I show be able to get more done now the little person is at school and usually in the week I work school hours, so this week I have done the following.

Monday

I sewed two bras in an XS and XL to confirm that the bra pattern I was working on fitted, in the pattern sense and on the body. It’s bit close to the deadline as I needed it by Tuesday, luckily it’s a bralette crop top over 5 dress sizes so any amendments that needed to be made could be done quick.

Personally I am not a person that likes to work so close to deadlines, I know some people produce their best work under pressure and deadlines I’m more of a get it done with lots of time to spare.

In the afternoon I had a video call for the grading course, we covered session two which was looking at grading soft bras, I used the previous bra I had graded in the morning as an example to show grading, then I could send the pattern on for the person to print out, grade it and check their progress against the graded sizes. We also went through her patterns, I make them small my end then put the camera directed to my hands so she could see exactly what I was doing.

If you are wanting to grade your patterns this course is perfect for you to go through, by the end you will have a full understanding of grading, brief, soft bra, uw bras and any types of lingeire you wanting to know about.

Tuesday

Ploughed through the emails and spent the morning translating a pattern pack from German to English for a client, saying that makes me sound like I could riff in German, however it got sent to be translated by computer and I made sure everything sounded right, and corrected the grammar and added key sewing phrases.

In the afternoon I checked over the bra construction course for session one for Wednesday and got all the bras and straps ready to show them.

Wednesday

In the morning I went through all my fabrics and trims as I had arranged a visiting to a fabric warehouse on Thursday, the morning was a weird one, I had planned to get loads done and yet it was the afternoon sooner than expected.

In the afternoon I taught the session on bra making, unlike the grading one where it’s more structured, this one is is a bit more free flowing.

I’m also in talks with teaching ‘A’ Level students a class on making briefs, this is a section of my business I am opening up so if you are interested in me hosting a party/teaching a class, get in contact.

Thursday

I attended a Harvest festival at school, saw a dingle dangle scarecrow come into action! Then afterwards I drove straight to CSF where I was in heaven with all the fabrics and trims, I even managed to get in a coffee and a catch up with them. On the list I had planned on getting a light midnight blue mesh, but fell in love with the deepest of blues, I’m so excited to make bras out of this.

The afternoon saw me staring dreamily at the fabrics and drafting out a mini collection, I love names for the collections, and I go with what comes into my head, rather than over think, so soon dropping will be ‘Out of the shadows and into the light’.

I then also took a call with a client on the mentorship program, talking about fits and manufacturing.

Friday

In the morning I went over the grade session for next week (session three) to make I’ve got everything covered for their slot on what they want. I also wrote to pattern magazines with an option to do collaborating on the pattern front. I think it’s one of my favourite things, taking a sketch into an actual pattern.

This afternoon I wrote this blog and got bras and briefs cut out from my amazing new fabrics.

Boom done for another week.

*If you any further questions about what I can do for your business or designs please contact me on laurie@vanjonssondesign.com