hi, i'm rowena! i live in nashville, TN--music city, USA!--with my husband rudi and our adorable daughter ella. we also have two dogs--one really good one named coal, and one small, not so good auxilairy dog name sprinkles who is attempting to dig a hole to china in our front yard. we have three cats--lewis, abbey, and bea--all of whom have successfully intimidated coal and sprinkles.
being MAMA of ella has fundamentally changed who i am, and this blog is my attempt to document that. it is also my attempt to record who ella is--to be the ELLA echo--because as every mother knows, it all goes by pretty fast and i don't want to lose one single moment of it to the fog of motherhood.
i came to motherhood late in life (not by choice--it's just how things worked out). the first part of my life i was a professional ballerina, traveling much of the western world and dancing principal roles in all the traditional classical repertoire. the next part--the part when i was trying to decide if i was getting too old to keep dancing--i become a union stage manager, supervising over four dozen productions in theater, music, dance, and opera, plus home movies of my pets, my husband's golf swing, and numerous nieces and nephews.
eventually my love of sewing lead me to a costume shop, where i've been ever since. i learned the art of patternmaking from the many talented cutter/drapers i have worked with, and in the process discovered the joys of digital patternmaking. i bought my first computer patternmaking program from wild ginger software and, eight years later, i am an instructor for wild ginger software and for their sister company, fashion design online. i have also been, for the past seven years, the costume designer for the vanderbilt opera theatre.
the founder of wild ginger, lisa shanley, and i have written a book on patternmaking, "digital flat pattern: the apparel designer's handbook". i'm working on another, less textbook-y book, but that labor of love gets pushed aside most days in favor of the labor of love that is homeschooling.
you can follow my updates on Twitter @rostitchery.
if you'd like to ask me a question or pass along an idea, please email rowena@wildginger.com. I read and appreciate every email and comment, and do my best to answer any questions within that section of each post.
