Tell us about your current job:

My main role is running my own sewing pattern company, Nina Lee. I design patterns for women’s clothes and then turn these patterns into products (digital and printed) that customers anywhere in the world can buy and use to sew their own versions! I do all of the design, nearly all of the other work involved, and obviously the actual ‘running of the business’. 

I also do freelance publishing work - mostly proofreading and copyediting. And I’m the founder of The Career Girl! 

What and where did you study after school?

I went to Cambridge University to study English Literature. It was a three-year BA course.

How did you get from answer 2 to answer 1?

After university I was really unsure what I wanted to do (sometimes I still am); an English degree means all sorts of jobs are open to you but sometimes that choice is too overwhelming. I had worked summer holidays at Buckingham Palace and loved being there, so returned for another summer. Whilst accompanying a private tour I met a curator from the V&A Museum; he gave me his contact details and a couple of months later I was working there in the metalwork department as an unpaid informal intern. When a publishing job came up back at the Palace, in the Royal Collection Publishing office, I had the perfect mix of English degree and museum experience for the job. I started as a Publishing Assistant and worked my way to becoming a Project Editor. I was then offered the job of Business Development Manager by another publishing house who manage some projects for the Royal Collection. The role wasn’t best suited to my skills at the time however and after a year I was feeling restless and a bit lost. I was spending a lot of time reading sewing blogs and planning my creative projects, so when my partner suggested I quit work to set up my own creative business it seemed a challenge I could attack with passion. It took me a year to teach myself the skills I needed to pattern cut my own designs, to write, illustrate and format the accompanying instructions, to take my own marketing photographs and to build my own website and I launched in March 2017. Before the business began to pay its way I supported myself with publishing work and freelance dressmaking.

How does your formal education feed into your present career (if at all)?

Truthfully, my English degree contributes very little to my current work. It did however help me get my previous jobs in publishing, and the ability to do freelance editorial work has been essential for supporting me whilst I got my business up and running. And not to mention that the amount of work I had to do at university certainly gave me the right mindset for running my own business! 

What things have you learnt outside of formal education that have been helpful to your career?

At university, I volunteered for several roles with an eye on bulking up my CV - I was a student representative on the English Faculty Board, I was Features Editor for one of the student newspapers and I was a sub-editor on an annual publication of new creative writing from Oxbridge students. These experiences helped clinch my publishing job. Whilst in publishing, I learnt vital project management, quality control and design (e.g. Adobe InDesign and Photoshop) skills on the job that have been invaluable to my business. I’ve also self-taught myself basic HTML and CSS (I did a free Udacity course and signed up to Lynda.com for a few months) enabling me to build my business website with minimal cost. I have no doubt that publishing skills and business skills will be useful in whatever future path my career takes. 

What are the really useful skills for someone in your job to possess?

Well, to be a pattern designer you need to above all to be creative and meticulous, with great attention to detail - in a way I’d say this applies to a lot of product design/development roles. And then to run your own business: resilience (there are a lot of hard times and hard knocks); a willingness to just give things a go and to constantly learn new things (I taught myself to draft patterns, to use Adobe Illustrator, and to build a website); discipline and an instinct to work hard; a bit of a thick skin or at the very least someone you trust to tell you you’re doing ok when criticism and self-doubt rear their heads. And you ideally need to be adept at creating content for social media. 

What does an average day at work look like for you?

I usually head into a coworking office I share in the morning and try to get admin or other desk-based work out of the way first thing - this might be business admin like sending invoices, forwarding orders to my fulfilment centre, ordering more supplies or responding to customer enquiries. Alternatively I might tackle some proofreading or editing work for a client, although if these jobs are big then I tend to focus on nothing else for a few days. Around midday I check and post to Instagram - I’ve stopped posting to other social media channels for a while because I currently don’t have time to create content tailored to each one. In the afternoon I might stay in the office and write a blog post (rarely right now) or work on a new pattern - this could be formatting the pattern pieces, writing instructions, illustrating the instructions with digital diagrams, formatting the instruction booklets, editing the marketing photos... Often however I head home early afternoon as I always have plenty of physical work to do - drafting patterns, mocking them up, making finished versions, making new samples of my patterns to share on the blog or on Instagram, photographing my makes or photographing the processes involved. 

What’s the best thing about your job?

I LOVE seeing what customers make using my patterns - it’s incredible seeing your creative vision merged with someone else’s to become something entirely new and original. People have worn my designs to special occasions, have talked about how a particular pattern gave them body confidence at a time when theirs was low, or have simply loved them and sewn them again and again - all of this is so inspiring and heartwarming to me. Also ever since I was a child I’ve loved designing clothes (but I don’t have what it takes to be a ‘fashion’ designer) so spending time looking through magazines, blogs, Instagram, books and shops for endless inspiration is bliss. But I would be lying if I didn’t say that some days I think it’s simply the amazing freedom of getting up in the morning at whatever time I like!

What’s your least favourite aspect of your job?

The weight of all the responsibility being on my head. Sometimes it’s really easy to lose perspective because there’s no one else who can pick up the work for you if you’re sick, or meant to be on holiday - and you start to feel if you don’t work ALL the time then things will fall apart. There’s no set working day so it’s very easy for me to work almost from the moment I get up to when my eyes start drooping at 2am; it can also be lonely. At times like these it’s pretty much guaranteed that I’ll start comparing myself to other people and feel completely overwhelmed instead of focusing on what I have already achieved.

What advice would you give to someone seeking a job like yours?

If you want to set up a business, learn all you can about the industry you’re entering. Make contacts - I met people with their own sewing-related businesses at get-togethers I attended and they’ve been fundamental in helping me succeed. If you’re the sort of person who can, at the start teach yourself to do as many things as possible rather than paying others to do them. I managed to set up my business with very little upfront cost or overheads and even though I now outsource some things the feeling that if I had to I could do it all myself again makes it (and me) feel stronger. And finally, if you’re doing it on your own make sure you’ve got a really great personal support network - people you can go to for reassurance, to bounce ideas off, or even just to take you out if you’ve not stopped working for two weeks solid! Be open and honest with them about your struggles and let them celebrate with you your successes.  And dream big - if you’re working for yourself then the sky’s the limit!