I’ve been meaning to start a designer spotlight for months and months and months – however, I don’t know that many designers! When Karen served me a pint at a pub, I had no idea that this was the beginning of something. Well, it was – and I have decided she will be my first designer to take the spotlight.

If you haven’t entered the Nadalittas bag giveaway, why not?! You have the chance to win one of Karen’s gorgeous bags, the best knitting bag I’ve ever had. Now is your chance to find out more about the mind behind the bag!

Interviewing Karen of Nadalittas

When did you start sewing?

I started to sew at my Nans dining table on rainy days mending the household linen and progressed to making little bags and embelishing my clothes from her scrap bag. This was when I fell in love with handcrank singer sewing machines.

I have seven sewing machines and two overlockers. Two of my machines are collectors items, a WW1 Singer with a shuttle and a Jones shuttle machine which is the most beautiful thing, it is an art decco masterpiece which deserves a place in a glass case just to be drooled over. I service and maintain all my machines and even the shuttle machines work great if not better than the modern plastic ones.

Where did you get the idea for your upcycled bags?

I remember having a pair of jeans which were not bell bottoms and I just split the sides of the jeans legs and chose a really wild fabric in swirls of funky colours, I inserted a triangle of this into the slits and had a really great pair of bell bottoms, I was the coolest ten year old in my street.

What was the first bag you sold made out of?

I was browsing Ebay and I saw some material the same as my nan had in her scrapbag and just on a whim bought it and made myself a small messenger and was told by my friends I should sell them. My world then went totally potty as I started to get orders so had to knock up some bags pretty quick.

I went mad on Ebay and bought just tons of fabric, my studio is stacked to the roof with storage boxes of great fabric and last winter made bags in earnest, I found out about Etsy and Dewanda, sites for handmade, and started my shops.

Last year was a big learning curve and this year I am branching out and have booked to go to events, the Larmer Tree Music Festival and some VW shows to sell my bags. My partner rents marquees and has given me one to use for the shows, so all set up and ready for an exciting time.

Have you ever tried to knit?

I am not a great knitter which is surprising as my Nan knitted those beautiful twin sets, skirts and coats for a shop in London, she used the smallest needles I had ever seen. I can knit and made stuff for the kids many moons ago but my love will always be the tic tic ticking noise when turning the handle of my vintage Singer.

How do you relax after a long day?

I spend my evenings usually sewing vintage buttons on my bags or hand painting the vintage military bags. I have begun to add silk or leather flowers to my bags so it’s great to sit with a glass of wine in front of the tv with a pile of leather in my lap cutting out flowers.

I am also designing some funky leather bags as I was given a bin bag full of leather offcuts the other day so I am going to combine the leather with vintage fabric to hopefully come up with unusual one off bags.

You may ask how can I have hobbies with a studio (shed ) to do my sewing but I am an avid gardener and I grow all our veg and lots of fruit, I make lots of pies with the fruit and freeze them for the winter months. My partner and I are eco nuts and have a roof full of solar panels and are thinking of a wind generator, we had one when we lived in France and did not even have electric connected, it was great. My studio is run on solar and electric but with a windmill I could be self suficient all year. Sooo cool.

If you could be any superhero, who would you be and why?

What superhero would I like to be, I think that anyone who does their bit for the planet is a superhero.

So, there we have it! The bags Karen makes are gorgeous. I urge you check out her shop on Etsy, and if you are reading this before the 14th of February 2013, enter the giveaway if you haven’t already!

Much love,

Corrie xx