Sewing success

West Coast Business Park Feature

Local entrepreneur Nerida Hansen is known as the queen of fabrics amongst the sewing community due to her self-titled business, Nerida Hansen Fabrics.

“Fabrics are our thing!” says Nerida.

“The secret to our success are the designs. We offer various looks and styles, utilising art from a combination of Australian artists and international illustrators, as well as our in-house designers. Not only that it is the quality of the textiles, expanding range of fabrications and recent inclusion of our own brand of sewing patterns.”

Since its inception in 2017, the textiles company has grown bigger than the founder could ever have imagined.

“It is unbelievable,” says Nerida. “We have become a household name with a cult following and I would contribute most of it to 2020.”

Like most businesses when the pandemic hit, there was a lot of uncertainty but it wasn’t long until Nerida realised she was experiencing a whopping growth spurt due to people being at home and having more time to sew.

“We had to re-employ old staff members and employ new members,” says Nerida. “We went from a team of three to 13, which is extraordinary!”

“Now we have just had a fourth lockdown. I am more confident that we will be okay.”

During the first lockdown, Nerida felt she had an opportunity to branch out of Nerida Hansen Fabrics and use her licensed designs for a more fun project.

That she did and launched Future Folk Designs as the home of prints, decals, stickers and labels aimed at the young and young-at-heart.
“It helped that we also had the license to print the iconic and much-loved artwork by the late illustrator, May Gibbs,” says Nerida.

“Her characters bring a lot of joy to people. They are as adored today as they were when I was a child.

“It is trip down memory lane that adults can share with their own children and grandchildren.”

Currently, Nerida has more than 40 artists on board with more on the way and their works are used across both brands, in some cases in return for royalties for each sale.

“I love seeing our fabrics turned into a jumpsuit, cushion or bag or our decals in a child’s bedroom,” she says.
“Some sewers are extremely creative. It blows me away what they make.”

Stay in the loop of what is coming next with Nerida and her businesses by following @hansenprintandtex and @wearefuturefolk.