A Day In The Life: Rachel of Momi Boutique

If you have a little girl, or have one in your family, then you MUST have a look at this week’s featured artist! I found this talented seamstress through Around Main Line and instantly fell in love with her pretty, unique, and well-made clothing. Rachel of Momi Boutique and Pink Momi is a mother of two and energetic designer/seamstress. I hope you will enjoy a day in her life!

A typical day in my life begins anywhere from 6-8 am, depending on the events in my shop the night before. I never set an alarm (pure bliss), so I am either abruptly awaken by my internal clock, who has no rest for the weary, or one of my two sleeping angels, typically the youngest.  The events of my day have become pretty predictable and the day usually plays out as follows…
 *I take the 10 step commute across the hall and dive right in to all that needs to be done.  My mornings are usually filled with putting the finishing touches on orders that will be shipped that day.  After all orders have been tagged and pressed to perfection, all folded nice, and lined up on my cutting table…I get into a pure packaging frenzy.  Tissue paper, tape, & ribbons are flying.  That’s usually about the time Leah (1) & Lily (3) wake up and the work is put on hold for a breakfast downstairs. If I feel overloaded I will just serve them dry waffles in a tupperware and let them watch tv upstairs so I can get back to work right away.  

After their breakfast I am on on-call diaper duty and play referee as they play about & bicker often.  I would say that packaging takes up about all of my morning from approx 7-12.  After I place all of the orders on the post office counter and drive away in my car I feel relief and a large weight lifted from my shoulders. Sometimes I feel so good that I take the girls to a local drive thru for lunch. 

*The afternoon hours are usually spent cutting new orders and new designs that will be sewn that night.  I found this is the best time to cut orders because Leah is usually napping so that is the time with the least distractions. I use my own copyrighted patterns but for some of my designs I do not even use a pattern and it just takes a lot of simple arithmetic to cut the order.  When I have little mouths chattering at me it can be hard to add and subtract at the same time and that is why I choose nap time to cut orders!

*The evening hours are used for sewing, sewing, and more sewing.  I currently have 3 machines in my shop but, only 2 hands! My husband arrives home from work anywhere from 8:30-9:30.  He is gone approx 70 hours a week so the majority of the time the girls are my sole responsibility and they have learned to march to the beat of my drum…for the most part. They know that mommy makes pretty dresses for little girls all over the world but, heaven forbid if I should try to get them to put a dress on! I will have to chase them around the house and wrangle them like a rolling alligator.  I believe I have given them a dress phobia with all of the modeling that they have done and still do for Momi boutique and Pink Momi.  

Around 12 midnight I will make coffee & see if I can stretch my day just a little longer…afterall I do not have elves in my shop at night.  Some days time is on my side and I will stay awake sewing until 3am, other times the eyelids can not stay open and it’s just time to call it a day. However, I will never go to bed early if there are orders half complete.  I run a very tight ship at momi boutique and know that it shows in my turn around time and the quality of my work.

 
Of course everyday is not the same as I do have to make time to blog, photograph my designs, create new listings in my shops, and customer service of course!  I check my emails and sales approximately 12 times a day. Typically I do this from my phone while I am working so that I do not have to jump on the computer.  Get me on the computer and I may just never get off!

Michelle is a graduate of Albright College with a B.A. in Visual & Apparel Merchandising. After years in the fashion/ retail industry, she is now a WAHM. Michelle is a self-taught jewelry designer and owner of Michabella Creations.