Meet Heather Lou, the entrepreneurial brains behind Closet Core. Starting with a single pattern on Etsy, Heather managed to build a wildly successful pattern brand in vibrant Montreal, Québec.
What prompted you to start a business?
I was working as a commercial interior designer for 5 years before I started Closet Core Patterns. I had always been entrepreneurial (over the years I had done everything from cleaning house to selling vintage on Ebay) and once I got into sewing I became really interested in pattern drafting. As a trained technical designer, the leap from interiors to clothing wasn’t as dramatic as it might sound. I released one pattern on Etsy as an experiment, and it did extraordinarily well (thank you, Bombshell swimsuit!), which planted the seed of turning this into an actual business. Within a few years, I was doing Closet Core full time, and I’m so grateful I took that risk. It’s led to tremendous growth and opportunity, from launching our sustainability-focused fabric store, Core Fabrics, to our monthly sewing club, Crew, where we release a new pattern each month. I work hard and always have multiple projects in motion, but I’m genuinely happy to go to work every morning. I can’t imagine what my life would look like if I hadn’t made sewing my full-time, lifelong focus.
Where is the name coming from?
When I started my sewing blog, I called it Closet Case Files – a pun on detective stories and the writing I was doing about what I was making. That evolved into Closet Case Patterns, and in 2020 we rebranded to Closet Core Patterns, which better aligned with our brand mission and values. It’s always hard to change your business name, but I’m so happy I did – it truly reflects what we do. That said, between Closet Core, Crew, and Core Fabrics, managing all the C words can get a bit confusing.
Favourite and least favourite parts of running a business?
My least favorite part is dealing with things I can’t control: changing international tariff and trade policies ( a true nightmare this year), websites and apps that suddenly stop working, or spending two hours on the phone with FedEx customer service because they overbilled us by accident.
My favourite part is managing a brilliant, creative team of some of the best humans I’ve ever met. It’s been a huge personal journey to become a good boss, and I’ve had to do a lot of personal work to get better at it. It’s been so unbelievably and unexpectedly rewarding. I love nurturing people’s talents and watching roles expand over time, and nothing brings me more joy than those moments when we hit our stride and make incredible things happen by truly working together as a team. While leading has its challenges, it’s deeply comforting to know it doesn’t all rely on me anymore; we’re building something that will hopefully outlive my own contributions.
Favourite sewing patterns / designers?
To be honest, I’m pretty out of the loop with new patterns and pattern companies, one of the side effects of personally quitting Instagram. I very rarely sew a pattern we haven’t designed ourselves, and while I miss being as in the know as I once was, it’s really liberating to not compare what we’re doing to anyone else and just live in our little creative bubble 🙂 With that said, I am always curious what Cashmerette, Friday Pattern Co, Named, Puff and Pencil, and Helen’s Closet are up to.
I definitely have favourite patterns from our own catalogue. This is kind of like choosing your favourite child but here goes…
- We initially released the Azure dress as part of Crew and then expanded it into a standalone print and PDF pattern. It’s such a great warm weather pattern, because you can make a top, skirt and dress in various configurations. I live in my yellow maxi dress version in the summer.
- Our Jenna Shirt is my platonic ideal of the perfect button-down; oversized with great details, I’m wearing it daily.
- Some of my favourite patterns from our monthly Crew patterns this year include the Bianca Swimsuit (a foxy 70s inspired suit), the Chloe Jeans (with a 90s inspired wide leg), and Celia, my dream boho dress, out on November 1, which is inspired by Ossie Clark, my favourite designer from the 60s and 70s.
Favourite fabric stores
My favourite sewing stores are the brick-and-mortar hubs that help nurture local sewing communities. I highly recommend visiting The Workroom in Sprucedale, Ontario, Stone Mountain & Daughter in Berkeley, California, Fabrications in Ottawa, Ontario, New Craft House in London, UK, and Josephine’s Dry Goods in Portland, Oregon.
Any advice for people considering opening a store?
My biggest advice is to hire good people when you need help. Hiring my first employee had the single biggest impact on my quality of life and the growth potential of my business. You can’t do it all alone, and it’s so much more fun to do it as part of a small team, especially if you can find hard-working folks who are engaged and excited by your mission.
I also heartily recommend getting into therapy when you’re managing people. We all have work to do on ourselves, and being a leader can be stressful and trigger a lot of personal issues. For me, being in therapy helped me work on my emotional reactivity and learn how to resolve interpersonal conflict with empathy and clarity. Good bosses are self-aware bosses.
What are you most looking forward to?
In January we’re debuting our new annual theme for our sewing patterns and it’s going to be soooo good; all are key pieces in my own wardrobe, I’m so excited to sew them all up. We’ve also loved making videos for YouTube (we get to create our own sewing show every week!) and have so much fun content coming in the new year. We’re also working on a line of sewing labels that I can’t wait to release, and will hopefully be a few steps closer to getting B Corp certified. At Core Fabrics, I’ve started designing more custom prints, and we’re developing many of our own custom textiles. A lot of fun and exciting stuff, never a dull moment around here!
Replic: the blog 