Patternmaker of the Month: Katie Vollik
This month I had the chance to catch up with CPMG Alumni Katie Vollick, the co-creator of the brand High Country Women.
N: “Hi Katie, can you tell me a little about yourself?”
K: “I’m Katie Vollik (She/Her). I am originally from Central Missouri, but I have been living in Lander, Wyoming for the last 4.5 years. We landed here because my husband spent some time here and really loved the rock climbing scene and outdoor activities generally. A lot of people move from all over the place to come here for outdoor recreation.
I'm 37.5 weeks pregnant, so we're like expecting our first baby shortly. And I am a dog mom! She is a border collie mix and loves getting outside and loves cross country skiing and hiking and every activity that we could get into here, so she's been super fun.
N: “Tell me about your patternmaking journey. How did you get started, why did you want to make patterns? When did you take CPMG, what patterns have you released since?
K: “Early last year I got laid off from my job in venture capital. I was working with tech-start up companies primarily. I think I always thought I was going to start some kind of company, and after getting laid off from my job it was just the right time. So now I run my company "High Country Women” full-time with my business partner and neighbor Toby.
But going back, I used to be really into making pottery, and that was my primary creative hobby while I was living in Lander. But then I took a job in Salt Lake, and we were splitting our time between Salt Lake and Lander. And it was just not possible to take my pottery wheel back and forth.
That's how I decided to look into sewing classes. I started taking classes as Salt Lake Sewciety, and that was my intro to sewing. I grew up with my mom and grandma who sew, but it was so nice to actually go somewhere where someone walks you through every step of the process.
After that I ended up buying a sewing machine and serger, and I turned a little corner of our apartment into my sewing workshop space.
From there, I think I was just curious about how to make adjustments. I made a pair of jeans pretty early on, and I wanted to learn how to make crotch adjustments, for example.
It’s kind of a full circle, actually of how I ended up coming across CPMG. It was my now business partner, Toby, who sent me a reel that Victoria had made months before I signed up for the class.
It was after I signed up that I was like “ I feel like I've seen some of her content before” then when I looked back I saw that reel Toby had sent me months earlier.
When I started the class, we didn't even have a business between the two of us in mind yet.
N: Speaking of High Country Women, Huge congrats on the Nellie Dress! Tell me more about that pattern, what inspired you to create it, and anything else you want to share about it!
K: OK, first of all, thank you for wanting to test. It was super fun to see your application come through and feels really good to have one of our pattern making instructors look at my work, so thank you for doing that.
When we launched the Esther set, we both knew we wanted something that we could wear postpartum because we knew we would be launching this right before we have babies.
We also wanted something that would work for us as our bodies changed. It felt like every single week we were pushing another dress to the back of the closet because it didn’t fit anymore.
So we knew we wanted something that was friendly for changing bodies, and we wanted it to be a fun summer dress.
When we started High Country Women we decided we wanted all our patterns to be named after High Country women
The Nellie is named after the first female governor in the United States who was a governor of Wyoming, and then she also went on to like be the director of the US Mint.
N: Something that I think you've done an amazing job on is your branding. You’ve gone beyond having a signature color or logo mark.
You have done such an incredible job creating a specific vibe. From the way that you take your photos and the way you name your patterns. It is very clear that you have a specific visual perspective, and I'm honestly obsessed with it.
K: Thank you! We're so excited about it too!
I don't know, at what point in the conversation it's relevant to talk about having a business partner, but I feel so lucky that Toby and I decided to partner together.
We are able to combine our interests and what we are good at.
Toby is really good at branding, marketing, and social media. And I am better at the business, and technical aspect of patternmaking.
I think the combination is honestly amazing and we'll see what this looks like in the future when we start having a take home pay and we’re splitting revenue, but until then it feels amazing to not have to be doing everything.
N: “What is your favorite and least favorite part of the patternmaking process?”
K: “ I actually think both my favorite and my least favorite is starting the testing process.
It’s the best because you’ve been working on this thing for months, and now you finally get to see other people making it and that’s so exciting! But it’s also the first time that somebody's going through our instructions and looking at our pattern files and all of those things, and that can be super scary.
It is scary to show somebody your work and open yourself up to the possibility that someone can see your flaws.
On the other hand, its pretty amazing that people want to test your stuff and they do it for free and they spend their own money to do it. Our testers give really awesome feedback.
Its also really cool to have something that we envisioned and then have people take it and do things that we could have never imagined with the pattern and change it in their own ways.
N: “ What is one piece of advice you have to give to beginner sewists and patternmakers?”
K:“ I think one thing that pattern makers and people with more established businesses don’t talk a lot about is ‘sticking it out’. Had I not had a business partner and been as psyched as I am about our business, it would be a lot harder for me to not know what was gonna happen long term. Our first pattern sales were fine, but they weren’t amazing. We're not taking home loads of money every month.
And I think knowing that, early on would probably be a good expectation setting for new pattern makers.
This is not a get richer rich quick situation. But the other side of that is if you put in the time and the energy and keep showing up on social media and keep producing work, you are definitely going to grow. The sewing community is there and they're so ready for everybody to keep producing new patterns.
It’s honestly amazing to see just how much we've grown over the past few months. 3 months ago, Toby and I started a growth tracking document, and it’s been fun to track and see where we came from and where we are and especially in the times that it feels hard or you’re wishing that you had more revenue.
We started tracking back in May when we started pattern testing for the Esther set, and we had 240 followers on Instagram, and now 3 months later we have roughly 2500 or something like that on Instagram. It's just really motivating to see that we are definitely growing.
You can't expect the first pattern to go viral, but if you keep showing up, engaging with people and producing quality work that people like and want to come back to, it is going to work.
N: Tell me what are your favorites right now?
K: Definitely my projector, especially as a patternmaker it feels crucial!
But some of my favorite people to follow right now are Cayden Naughton, and Christine from The Ordinary Folk. I love seeing a glimpse into their lives as they make an income making patterns but also how they are raising their families, and they take both roles so seriously. It’s especially inspiring to me as I am in a similar stage of life.
N: “Finally, where can people find you?”
K: “We are on Instagram primarily, but we are also on TikTok
You can shop both of our patterns on Etsy.
If this interview inspired you, check out our Confident Patternmaking & Grading Program where you can learn how to draft sewing patterns, and join our network of incredible alumni creating beautiful size-inclusive sewing patterns for all people.
Nat Della Selva
