When I started up my own business this second-time-around with Love & Victory, I swore that I’d have products manufactured for me so that I could grow the business more easily. I’m not talking manufacturing in China or anything, but working with other artisans in New York, let’s say, to produce them. The first time around with my business La Voleuse, we made these rad, hand-painted ballet shoes, and while we sold a ton of them, they required a lot of our labor to make them. Sometimes inquiries about selling them, like from Henri Bendel, made us nervous that the order volume would be so high that we would have no social life!

But DIY is in my blood! And so our trip to Portland, OR where DIY is a way of life and hanging out with Sarai Mitnick was kind of a reminder of from whence I came. Sarai runs this amazing business called Colette Patterns where she creates beautiful, vintage-inspired sewing patterns for folks to make their own clothing. Brilliant and beautifully packaged, they completely make me want to break out my sewing machine. And as if her business wasn’t inspiring enough, she has this sweet blog, Sweet Sassafras and has some rockin’ vintage style herself.

[packaging photo via this is love forever]

Especially inspiring are all the pics in the Colette Patterns gallery if girls of all shapes and sizes who have made their own clothes with Sarai’s patterns. They look umpteen times better than they could in any off-the-rack bullshit (says the woman who just had a baby!).

AND, as if that wasn’t enough, if you love cocktails, historic and new-fangled both, you should check out Sarai’s husband, Kenn’s, website Cocktailia. Thankfully, he led us to some fantastic cocktails in Portland.