Monday, March 17, 2014

Industry Insiders - Line, Seamstress and Sewing School Owner.

Today's Industry Insiders guest is a bit of a rock star for me. Not only is she extremely focused on, and determined to deliver quality - both regarding sewing techniques and fit but also fabrics. She is a Liberty fabric addict and knows the names of the different prints...I mean who does that or is that just me? 

Her blog Marapytta was also the very first sewing blog I ever saw - before Rikke (from the very first Industry Insiders post) showed it to me I did not even know you could blog about sewing. She is definitely without doubt a big inspiration for starting my own blog.


She has started a sewing school with a unique concept and is now sharing all her knowledge and her super cool style to all her lucky students. I wish I lived in Denmark so I could go there just so I could sew her amazing patterns.

Okay, let's hear Line's story:



Name, age, civil status, kids:

Line Galst Jørgensen, 41 years old. 
I have been married to Sebastian for almost 11 years....wow, that long!!? 
We have a daughter Lily, 7 years old.

Education (where, when, what)

Seamstress/sample machinist - 2002 from CPH West.

Current job:

Own and teach at 'Marapytta Syskole' (Marapytta Sewing school, Edited to add.)
I offer classes both during the day, evening and on weekends.
The sewing school is build around my personal universe. 
Once in a while I have students with their own personal projects, but mostly the students are sewing my self-drafted kids and women patterns. The students have free access to them during the classes and are allowed to copy the patterns and bring them home to sew more at home.



I have all the models sewed up  for inspiration. (You can see a lot of them on her blog Marapytta. I know it is in Danish but do yourself a favor and just scroll through and look at the photos - AMAZING clothes! Or check out her Made By Me Pinterest Board. Edited to add.)
I started the sewing school 3.5 years ago with 6 students - now I have 60-80 students a months - and yes sometimes I pinch myself!


Former (sewing related) jobs:

I have worked as a freelance streamstress in the Danish fashion Industry for many years before I opened the sewing school.

I have worked a little bit on costumes for movies, theater and commercials. And I have sewed a lot of wedding dresses and other custom orders.

I never had a full time/one place job - always freelance.

You can see my portfolio HERE.



What do you like the most about your current job?

I absolutely love the thought about me having build up this little business. All by myself with no start up money and no one to help me with the process.....since there are hardly any sewing schools and definitely no one with this concept in Denmark. Today I can live from the income the sewing school is giving me.

It all started almost by coincidence. The fashion industry was not doing good because of the recession so I needed a new income source.
Through my blog - which is just a hobby for me - someone encouraged me to start a sewing class - and from the 6 original students it suddenly took off.

It gives me so much back to teach. It is an absolute pleasure to see my students grow and enjoy their new found skills. I am being confirmed daily that this is a special place.

I have a skill (sewing) that I am very proud of and I value it so much more, now that I am teaching and sharing it, compared to when I was working in the hectic fashion industry where everyone is always so busy and stressed.


And the least?

The worst about being self employed is definitely the boring bookkeeping.
I wish I could afford a book keeper and a cleaning / tidy up assistant.
I hate when I do not have time to be creative and the ideas just keep piling up because I have to do all the practical things first.

How does a normal work day look for you:

My day usual starts with answering a lot of emails. Then I love to take a trip around cyberspace - Instagram, blogs, Pinterest etc. I am always looking for new inspiration.

When I am not teaching, I am drafting new patterns and sew whatever I want.
Almost everything I sew is used as inspiration for the students at my school.

Sometimes I am teaching during the day and other days my classes are in the evening.



If you could forget about logistics, family, sleep, money etc: what would your dream job be:

Honestly, this is my dream job and I could not imagine doing anything else.

BUT if I won the lottery, I would buy a beautiful house somewhere nice in Copenhagen and I would invite my creative friends and 'colleagues' to make a workshop with each their specialty on each floor and we could be one big creative collective.

It had to be a big house because I work best when I am alone so I need my own floor.

But it could be soooo cool. You could take embroidery classes at the 1st floor, textile printing on the 2nd, knitting on the 3rd floor and so on and so on. (Uhm YES that would be cool! Edited to add.)





Line thank you SO much. 
Please don't ever stop what you are doing! 
You are amazing!

 And raise your hand (or leave her a comment here) if you think she should look into the pdf sewing pattern market! I know she is thinking about it, so maybe she just needs a little friendly push?

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I have more amazing and interesting ladies who have said yes to participate but I am not sure when I will receive more material from those busy ladies sooooo all I can say is stay tuned because it is hopefully not over yet.

9 comments:

  1. Thank you for bringing a great post Mie. Sounds like a great job Line - thank you for sharing:)

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  2. Of cause Line should do PDFs!
    I am sooooo lucky – in just a little more than one month I will have an entire weekend at Lines school. Can’t wait.

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  3. Oh I LOVE Line. Well, everything she does that is. and YES to patterns- pretty please. I totally wished I lived Denmark. Seriously.

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  4. Ok. I want to go meet Line right now. I would love to just follow her around for one day (ok, that sounds creepy... I did not mean it like that, hahah!). Seriously, Line, consider the PDF world... we need more of your creations. Now, I am heading over to check out your blog!

    Natalie
    XX

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  5. What a great way to make a living. I love all the garments shown, and would love to sew that drop waisted dress!

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  6. how fun would it be to hang with her for a day:) i love her style and hope she gets into the pdf pattern sales:) and i really hope this series does not end...i love it!

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  7. I think I feel a little more like a geek every time I read one of these posts, Mie! Line seems so cool, just like the others you have interviewed so far! What a fun life and talented lady!

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  8. Great post Mie! I loved to get to know Line (off to check her blog now). Thank you for introducing her to us and for this inspiring and so interesting series!

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Thank you!