Megan Pederson is a mom to two adorable girls. She is raising her family in Sioux Falls, SD, where she was raised as well. Megan started a children’s clothing and pattern line called Bridget & Lucy. This is her guest post.
My mother is uber creative. She sewed a lot of her own clothing while growing up. She made her wedding dress. When we were growing up she would be needlepointing or knitting when we were still or sitting anywhere. We would occasionally have a quilt that she was hand-quilting on it’s frame near the piano. She taught quilting at the local quilt store. She still hand calligraphs their Christmas card and then has it printed. When she has people over the good dishes come out, flowers go on the table, any tea light in a 20 foot area is lit and a homemade meal is served.
Megan and her uber creative, warm, fun mom!
Although this was modeled throughout my entire childhood, I really didn’t show a huge interest – unless you count the stage where I sewed as many headbands as possible and wore them “Rambo style” on my forehead and thought it was a fashion statement. Lindsay, Expressing Motherhood’s co-creator, had a front seat for that “phase”. Now – I would still have considered myself a creative person; I danced my entire childhood, I was a dance major my first year in college and graduated with an Art degree (both very practical pursuits by the way;)). I was not creative in the domestic arts though – which to me means sewing, knitting, cooking and repurposing.
But then I got pregnant with my first and I needed curtains, a crib skirt, changing pad covers and basket liners because I just couldn’t find any I liked. In stepped mom and her sewing machine. She sewed as I cut occasionally but mostly watched. That ignited something and I became a little obsessed. I wanted to sew. I searched for patterns, and although I found some to try, I didn’t love any of the lines I could find. Mom made a skirt for Bridget on a whim that turned into our first design and best selling pattern to date – the Ruffle Joy Skirt.
Megan and Kim’s adorable “Ruffle Joy” skirt.
Another obsession of mine was to have a creative business with my mom. We had brainstormed before and knew when the idea was right it would just work. Well, we had our first show at a friends house and nearly sold out. We started an Etsy account and sold some items. We started wholesaling our hats to a local children’s boutique and hit the Art Fair circuit in our area. We hired 4 local seamstresses to sew with us to meet demand. We were cookin’! As the business continued to grow we quickly realized we could not wholesale our skirts to the local markets because the prices were too high for the midwest. What was shocking to mom and I is that we didn’t really hike our prices up, we followed the formula for covering materials cost, adding in time, adding in packaging – really nothing elaborate. We wanted to keep the business going, but without wholesale contacts on the coasts and not enough time to make those contacts, we looked at pattern publishing.
I could continue with more elaboration on where the business is but it’s slowed a lot. Mom is traveling a lot and helping my husband and I raise our girls. My husband and I are building and opening a storage unit facility which is obviously very time intensive. We still sell our four original patterns and mom has ideas for more, but we’re on hold. And that’s OK. My creative fire is still there but muffled slightly for the time being. And I’m OK with that too. I make the occasional baby gift, I peruse Raverly and “favorite” all the new patterns out that I must knit, I break out the friendship bracelets with the girls and I do still make jewelry. My creative life is constantly changing and I’m excited to see where it takes me in the future!
