About Shelagh M
I was born on Tyneside, so my claim to fame is that I am a Geordie. I loved sewing even before leaving school; I knew I wanted to work in the fashion industry.
My first job in the industry was working with a company who made ladies-wear for Marks and Spencer. This company took me from the very bottom (picking up pins) to making the samples that were shown to the customer to order from. The training here was tough, nothing got past my trainer unless it was perfect. An old fashioned apprenticeship. The last part of working with this company was with the design team. Having an idea which fitted the brief given and producing a commercially viable garment, along with the list of components, costings and written directions on the quickest and cheapest way of putting it in the begging of the production process to the end garment bagged and packed ready to go to the customer.
The next ten years saw me making, night-wear, soft-furnishing (which I still hate doing) Suede leather and sheepskin coats, men’s tailoring, dance costume. I then set up a business doing day and evening wear for ladies building up to around 40 clients, who I made all their clothes for, that was fun, I met a lot of lovely people. In the course of doing that I was asked to make Wedding Gowns. I soon grew to love this aspect of the industry and decided to pursue this.
Shelagh M Ltd was born; it was to keep me very busy for thirty years. When the company was at its height we supplied around 90 retailers in the U.K and did a little export to France and Belgium. The staff grew to 24; my feet did not touch the floor. I spent a lot of time being the boss and not doing the things I wanted to, so I downsized to 12 staff. This meant I could still do the design, pattern making, and working out how I needed to gown made. I had time to enjoy putting a collection together, even if it did mean working on a Sunday. As a company we still felt it was a good marketing tool to work with the general public and find out what the brides were asking for in their wedding gowns, so we had the best of both worlds.
However I grew a little older and had to reduce my pace of work so Shelagh M Ltd was closed. After helping my other half to build a house, I fear next year I will be bored. So I would like to spend the time to pass on my knowledge of the industry, garment construction and alterations to you.