My first sewing blog started in 2010. My Etsy shop was opened in 2011.

Although I am discreet about my personal and professional life, I am keen to share my passion, as I do with my sewing patterns and books, and my experience as an entrepreneur. The anniversary of this creative decade is a good opportunity to do so.

I hope you enjoy this story. Happy reading!

The birth of a passion

Sewing appeared in my life during my higher education. Although my mother sewed clothes for me in my childhood, I was not really interested in it. But fashion has always been a fascinating world. I leafed through magazines, watched fashion shows, dreamed in front of haute couture dresses.

For me, sewing was going to be the way to have pretty dresses like the big brands, but at a lower cost. Let's not forget that I was a student! I remember my trips to Toto to buy fabric coupons by weight, my first floral dress sewn without a pattern to reproduce a Cacharel model in Liberty, my first hem that wasn't pretty at all...

In 2006, I went to live in Sweden for a year as part of my studies: six months at university, six months as an internship. I met a colleague, Margareta, who was passionate about sewing and a grandmother who sewed for her grandchildren. She had even sewn her daughter's wedding dress. She took me under her wing to pass on her passion and knowledge. She lent me her sewing machine for the duration of my internship and she took me to the fabric store on weekends. Needless to say, Margareta played a big part in my taste for sewing!

At that time, I was sewing without a pattern by molding the fabric directly on me. My first creations are therefore not exceptional but I cherish them because they represent what I like most in sewing: experimentation.

In 2010, having graduated and settled in Paris, I bought a sewing machine with my first salary and opened my first sewing blog (now defunct) to share my passion with other creatives all over the world.

At the time, Instagram did not exist, sewing bloggers were rare in France and my inspirations came rather from English, American or Japanese creatives. I share my creations on Burdastyle or Thread & Needles .

A new profession

Little by little, sewing is becoming more and more present in my daily life. Inspired by the journey of Sarai Mitnick ( Colette Patterns ), Nadia Izruna ( Nadinoo ) or the designer Alexandra Grecco , I realize that it is possible to create your online business easily and without too much investment.

In 2011, I opened my online store on Etsy. I offer clothes sewn to order and accessories. It is a test that allows me to discover the profession, as well as sewing, digital or entrepreneurship.

I enjoy creating my collections and doing photo or video shoots of my creations. I dedicate my evenings and weekends to it because I am still employed. I am also starting to share and transmit my taste for sewing during introductory classes in my apartment on Saturday afternoons.

At the beginning of 2014, I took a business creation leave (equivalent to a sabbatical) to try my hand at entrepreneurship and see if I could also turn my passion for sewing into a career. My brand was not profitable at all, so I planned to live on my savings for a while. What I really wanted was to have time to devote myself to developing the brand. I seized my chance!

With my few years of experience with my Etsy shop, I decided to work on developing a new concept (which still follows me today): customizable dresses . An "à la carte" dress where the top, bottom, sleeves and fabric can be chosen from a selection to obtain a unique model according to your tastes and body shape. I am developing my website with a customization module, dress patterns, prototypes, fabric sourcing... My ambition is to develop my brand exclusively online. Since the models are unique, I produce to order and I do not have any stock. I also want to free myself from the high margins of stores to try to remain competitive on prices.

A little anecdote, a week before leaving my job, I received an email from Marylise (who would later become my editor) offering me to write a sewing book for beginners. This message could not have come at a better time with my big leap into the unknown. So I decided to work on writing this book in parallel with the dress collection.

And another major fact of the year, I opened my Instagram account :-)

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Monday modeling / coffee. Have a good week everyone! #ateliercharlotteauzou

A post shared by Atelier Charlotte Auzou (@ateliercharlotteauzou) on April 27, 2015 at 2:17 PDT

Growth

The concept is there, all I have to do now is find clients and grow my community. I choose to focus my communication on weddings. My concept lends itself perfectly to bridesmaids' processions. I really want to adapt this Anglo-Saxon concept to the desires of French women.

The beginnings are timid, but I learn a lot! I struggle to find the right fabrics. There are many criteria to meet: material, drape, range of colors, price... In 2015, my creations are present at Love etc., I meet lots of great people.

My first sewing book, " Learn to sew your clothes and accessories " was a real success, so I signed for two new books, " Learn to sew your dresses and little tops " and " My wardrobe to sew for the whole year ". I'm on TV in "C'est au programme" thanks to France Duval Stalla to share sewing tutorials. And I'm also welcoming my first child in February 2016 :-)

In short, the pace is intense but I still struggle to live off my creations, I have to invest to accelerate my development. Photo shoots, showroom rental by the day, press officer, making dresses with freelance seamstresses, I launch lots of projects and my order book is growing.

In the summer of 2017, I signed the rental of a showroom near République in Paris. My 100% online model does not work, customers want to try and be advised to personalize their dress.

I am developing my concept for the bride with a collection of dresses, immortalized during an exceptional photo shoot by Laurence Revol . It is very well received, I have a lot of work!

My weeks are punctuated by fitting appointments, semi-custom pattern adaptations, discussions with my seamstress... I meet great people and seeing my creations enhance future brides is a real pleasure. But the pleasure is no longer there as it was when I started. I miss creating because I am taken up by marathon days of fitting appointments. Although my turnover is growing, I realize that I am at the maximum of my production capacity and that I would need to surround myself and invest again to be profitable in this extremely seasonal and competitive field.

In the summer of 2018, pregnant with my second child, I decided to take a break from making dresses, not to embark on a new wedding season while I wanted to take a real maternity leave. These next few months will allow me to think about what's next.

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Already more than 3 weeks that I can say "my husband" 💍 I had just put on my dress and was getting ready to join the church ❤️ Photographer @charlotteguiton_photographie #weddingdress #wedding #weddingpreparation #weddingday #weddingmemories #weddingvibes #wedding #lace #charlotteauzou #ateliercharlotteauzou #whitedress #loveday #provence #saintremydeprovence #wedding2018 #memories #weddinglook #justmarried #weddingphoto #weddingpictures #bride #weddingdress

A post shared by Anne-Maud 🌼 (@annemaudette) on Nov 5, 2018 at 7:02 PST

The sublime Anne-Maud in her personalized dress

Back to basics

Knowing how to listen to yourself and always evolving, that's what I can take away from the past year.

I realized that my primary motivation when I started was creativity and the desire to invent my own job, to be independent and self-sufficient in some way. No need to create the biggest company, just the one that will make me live and make me want to go to work every day.

The reception you gave to my latest book " Ma garde-robe sur-mesure ", which allowed you to discover my mix & match patterns, was great. My idea was obvious: to work in continuity by offering you sewing patterns of the models from my collection of wedding and bridesmaid dresses. The patterns are only in PDF, which gives me back the flexibility in my personal life that I had lost with the showroom.

Thanks to all of you, loyal readers of my sewing books since 2015, the personalized dresses #MaRobeAtelierCharlotteAuzou are very numerous and each one more beautiful than the last. All this motivates me enormously to continue on this path.

After having long combined the two hats of dress designer and author of sewing books, I chose only those of sewing patterns. I feel in my place and my creativity has totally returned. I have many desires and projects for my brand, always with this objective of making sewing less complex and allowing everyone to sew exceptional dresses.

Thank you for your presence and see you soon for even more creativity,

Charlotte

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Travel, professional life, personal life... There are many doors, you just have to open them to discover what they have in store for you. ⁣ .⁣ In short, I like 2019 :)⁣ .⁣ #ateliercharlotteauzou #sayyestonewadventures #inspiration

A post shared by Atelier Charlotte Auzou (@ateliercharlotteauzou) on March 15, 2019 at 12:01 PDT