Mouna, creator of the brand Mouna Sew, was so kind to give her time to answer some questions for us, to tell us about her daily life and her atypical career. To view all of her wonderful patterns on makerist.com, click HERE.
Hello, thank you for accepting our interview! First of all, could you introduce yourself and tell us about your journey outside and inside the world of sewing and knitting? How did you come to sell your own patterns?
My name is Mouna, I am 27 years old and I live in Clermont-Ferrand. After studying mathematics and computer science, I worked for a few years in this field. Three years ago, I started sewing for leisure by opening a Youtube channel that I wanted fun and modern. For many at that time, sewing was an activity for grannies, while for me sewing is the must of the trend! Very quickly, many people followed me and encouraged me in this direction, and that is why I wanted to start my activity. So I decided to resign, then I took training in sewing and modeling and created my company. Mouna Sew is today a brand of patterns and sewing kits that is meant to be fun and that has the objective of making sewing accessible to all. That’s why our bosses go from the 34 to the 58 and we work more and more to make the sewing easier thanks to our video tutorials available free on YouTube.
Is the creation of patterns your main activity?
Now yes! Today we are a team of 3 full time to develop the models, manage collaborations, to form partnerships, and to manage the production.
How do you organize yourself to create a tutorial or a pattern?
So this is the program – our particularity is that for every product proposed for sale, there is a free video tutorial accessible on YouTube to facilitate editing and sewing. The first step is always to imagine the pattern with drawings. Then we trace a first pattern, we sew it and we look at the result! Generally it is necessary to start again between 5 and 10 times to make all the necessary retouches so that the pattern is perfect and enjoyable to sew. The second step is to realize the instruction booklet which provides a step-by-step explanation for sewing the pattern. Finally the third step is to film the video. This involves stitching the pattern according to the booklet by choosing the best angles of view for a good understanding. Finally, it takes between 12 and 17h of editing depending on the length of the video.
How do you organize your time between the creation of products and the tasks related to the management of a small business (communication, accounts, customer relations, blogs, social networks)?
We are a team of three and each one of us has their own missions. I take care of the creation and teaching of the tutorials and the sewing booklets, the film of the video and the assemblies. I also manage any communication (blog, social networks) and workshops organized on our premises. Christophe manages the commercial and administrative part as well as the after-sales service. Finally, Chloé, our graphic designer, helps me to design products, test and retest, model them on computers and animate the sewing workshops.
Which tasks are most challenging? Do you have any help?
I would say that the biggest challenge is to do everything within the time! We have lots of ideas and projects but their implementation takes time and there are unfortunately only 7 days in the week! Luckily we have 3 of us to handle it all!
Where do you draw inspiration for your creations?
I would say that my main sources of inspiration are my subscribers who are full of ideas and make many suggestions. I then rework them according to my tastes and the subjects that I like to work. Of course I must also quote Pinterest which allows me to create moodboard!
What is your favorite part of the job?
The fact that everything is possible! Just an idea, motivation and then provide the amount of work needed to bring this idea to life.
Would you have any advice for someone like you who would like to get started?
To start, I think that you must first feel ready and assimilate the difficulties of the life of an entrepreneur: a lot of work and energy spent – wait and be patient before seeing the first results, no holidays and manage contingencies at all times!
You can view all of Mouna’s wonderful patterns on our website here.
