Hello I am Alison the founder and designer behind Flora Patterns.
My background …
I originally trained as an architect and interior designer, but my career has been in education. Over the years, I’ve moved from using a traditional T-square and drawing board to training teachers in CAD/CAM and transforming the written Design and Technology curriculum into engaging, visual resource packs.
Where did it start …
My love of making began in childhood, inspired by my wonderful parents. My mother who could turn her hand to anything, taught me to knit, sew, crochet, and bake. My father, a woodwork teacher, taught me to hammer, saw and drill in his incredible workshop filled with jam jars of screws and mysterious tools, each with its own place. Even now, the smell of cut wood takes me straight back there. We didn’t have much money, but my childhood was rich in creativity.
Many years later …
After my mother passed away, I found a box in her sewing cupboard filled with pattern pieces cut from old cereal packets and tied up with string. My parents had made these toys together while recovering in a TB hospital as young adults. I kept them for years, and when the Covid‑19 pandemic arrived in 2020 and life slowed down, I opened the box again and began to sew.
Contact me: alison@florapatterns.com
Or alternatively email me here
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