Hello and Welcome to Emkie Designs!

My name is Emma, and I strive to write easy to follow sewing patterns that allow the user to create original and professional handbags. I always include lots of clear colour photos of each of the steps, in fact, I’ve even been told some people are able to make my patterns just by following the photos!

Let me tell you a little about me…

I live with my husband, 2 sons (T & M) and dog in Melbourne Australia. I am a self taught sewist, and have been sewing for 10+ years. I am also a qualified teacher, I am trained in Contemporary Arts and Psychology, and I taught in schools for 9 yrs (teaching teenagers) prior to starting our family in 2011.
I have always had a love of handbags, I used to buy a new bags all the time when I had a disposable income – ie. before owning a house and having kids ;)

When I was pregnant with T, Hubby and I were away for his birthday (one of the last trips we took where it was just the 2 of us), and we walked into this fabric store because I had seen this beautiful toy in the window. I walked past all the fabric grabbed the toy and asked how much it was – I was promptly told it wasn’t for sale, but I could purchase the pattern and make my own. I looked at all the patterns they had in store and ended up choosing a different one to the toy that had originally grabbed my attention, I paid for it and walked out of the shop – no supplies or fabric were purchased that day. Back at our hotel, I read the pattern and thought “I can do this” and when we had traveled back home again I borrowed my mothers unused sewing machine and had fun going to the fabric store and choosing fabrics. After a short time Dilbert was born and he waited patiently for the little baby in my tummy to arrive and love him. I made a few other things prior to T being born, and had discovered a new passion and hobby in sewing.

After T was born I found myself at the shops a lot. It was something to do while T slept in the pusher, except it was terrible for our household finances. So I stopped in at the fabric shop on one of these trips and purchased some felt and began hand sewing (I had returned the borrowed sewing machine)…this is when I designed my 1st 3 softies.

I decided to try my hand at sewing to sell. My monsters were a hit and spured me on to create a few other original designs too. In between my custom orders I made sure to sew items for family and friends as well as make quite a few bags for me – to fill the void not buying them ;)

At the end of 2012 I had been in “business” sewing items to sell for a while, and decided to start a blog to support my facebook page – where the majority of my business had come from up until that time. I had called my facebook page “For My Little Monster” and so I followed that name through to my blog.

When I was pregnant with M, I needed to take a step back, it was a hard pregnancy and I was no longer enjoying making toys as much as I once had. I decided to focus on sewing for family, friends and myself – My blog became more of a diary for what I was working on, a visual tally that I could share with readers as well as having a record for myself.

I also began designing what would be my 1st bag pattern. It was a long process as I had no idea what I was doing ;) but with some help I found my confidence and released my Everyday Tote Bag Pattern on February 2nd 2015.

The pattern designing, learning process has continued and I added many patterns to my offerings over 4 years.

In 2019 I decided to go back to university and study a Bachelor of Health Science (nutrition and exercise), and my pattern designing was put on hold.

I still sew in my spare time, but for fun rather than adding to my pattern library.

I hope you enjoy the patterns I have available as much as I enjoyed creating them 💕

Happy sewing :)
Emma