Allison Allan

MiniAStore

163 Sales

Twickenham, England

5

1 Following 5 Followers

I’m Allison, Mini A’s one handed designer and maker. I grew up in New Zealand in a pretty little beach town called Plimmerton, in a house right on the sea front.

Sewing seems to be in my blood. My grandma was a seamstress, my mum was a seamstress, so not surprisingly I turned my hand to sewing at a very young age.

After studying Design in NZ, I took off to explore Europe with the intention of pursuing my career in fashion. While I was getting to know London, I ended up in a marketing position, dreaming of starting my own business and began to cultivate ideas in the hope of one day making that leap.

However in December 2009 I suffered a major stroke. After spending four weeks in a coma, I woke up to find I had lost the use of the right hand side of my body and my speech had disappeared. This presented me with a catalogue of new challenges to face and over-come and was the beginning of a new chapter in my life.

Every part of my physical body was affected by my stroke but my creative brain always remained intact. This allowed me to use my hunger for design as part of my rehab. Over the next three years, I re-learnt how to walk, talk and communicate. Through many hours of frustration, practice, problem-solving, re-invention and trial and error I was able to teach myself to sew with the use of only my left hand.

Today I am a self employed designer, maker, crafter and web design enthusiast – doing all the things I love.

My stroke was a turning point and now thanks to a bit of grit, determination and a mind that doesn’t stop working, I have made that leap I had dreamed about.