We are recording today on the traditional ancestral and unceded territories of the Coast Salish and Kwa Kwa Kwa Kiwak peoples, including Slaywa Tooth, Squamish, Musqueam and Comox First Nations.

Hello and welcome to Love to Sew. I'm Helen, the designer behind Helen's Closet Patterns, and I'm Caroline, the owner of Blackbird Fabrics.

We're two sewing buds who love to sew our own clothes and want to encourage you on your sewing journey too.

Join us for today's interview with Treasure Mallory from Nikki and Mallory.

Hello, Treasure. Thank you so much for coming on the show today.

Hi, ladies. Thank you for having me.

We're so excited to talk to you all about sewing leather and your amazing business today. Can you please introduce yourself to our listeners?

Definitely. I am Treasure, also known as Nikki. A lot of people call me Nikki or Treasure. They really don't know what to call me.

I am the owner and designer of Nikki and Mallory, I specialize in custom leather goods, mainly handbags and accessories and newly home decor.

I'm also a leather craft and handbag design instructor.

Amazing. And where are you from? I'm from Pasadena, California.

Awesome. And one of the things we love asking our guests on the show is to tell us about their sewing journey.

So we know you started sewing a while back. We want to hear more about it. Tell us how and when you learn to sew.

Yeah, actually, you know what? I didn't learn to sew until I got to fashion design school.

My grandmother sold while I was younger, but it was never anything that was interesting to me.

I think she was actually doing it as like a little side hobby. So I knew of, you know, sewing.

I just didn't understand how to do it. And so I worked in entertainment industry for years, a really long time.

And then when I got burned out with that, I said, you know, what is the last thing that I would want to do?

And I've always been really intrigued with fashion and design. I really wanted to style for a long time.

When I had hit a really rocky place in my life, creativity was the only thing that came to mind.

So I enrolled in fashion design school. And that's actually where I learned how to sew.

And then the aesthetics that I learned in sewing classes, I used those same aesthetics for making bags, which is a whole nother journey in it.

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