So, what's it all about?

After many months of plotting, sewing, stressing and excited laughter, we're finally ready to tell the world about our little hair-brained scheme that grew up to become our brand new business!

By Hand London is an independent sewing pattern company aimed at beginner and intermediate sewists.  Designing patterns inspired by the stylish women we know and admire, we are all about championing individual style and celebrating strong femininity. Released in bi-annual collections, it's your own customisable fashion line.

We imagine our typical By Hand girl to be smart, ambitious and switched on. Interested in fashion, she'll be mixing it up with vintage, high street, her mum’s hand me downs and the odd prized designer accessory. She's creative and has a strong sense of identity, with an interest in making her own clothes in order to best carve out her own individual look. Inspired by celebrity as much as street style and her own group of friends, she keeps up with current trends from around the world via blogs and magazines. Particular in her tastes, she often finds herself putting together and designing outfits in her mind.

Our first collection will be launching in October 2012 and we will be blogging the whole process - so watch this space!

And who are we?

We're Elisalex and Charlotte, two London gal pals and customisation lovers. We're part of a new breed of feminists who believe that enjoying fashion, a bit of pop culture, doing your nails and girl talk doesn't detract from being an ambitious, intelligent woman. It's about doing what you love, finding a style that suits you and being proud of yourself!

Elisalex is an advanced seamstress (check out some of her past projects on her personal blog here: http://stitchmesoftly.blogspot.co.uk/) and Charlotte is a beginner (tumblring stuff she likes right here: http://shtuffff.tumblr.com/), which makes for a perfect mix of abilities for this project, with one always tempering or teaching the other.

We reckon this might be enough information for now, but we just wanted to say hi, we're here and we're really excited to be getting started and hope some of you will follow our journey!

x Charlotte & Elisalex