ABOUT
Cowichan born and raised Hilary Else is taking wool to the next level with her hand-dyed merino wool creations for all ages. She has been making clothes for the community for over seven years now. Many locals can attest to her beautiful colours and elegant comfortable styles. She works with ultra-light summer weight wool to heavy-weight boiled wool and everything in between.
“As a child I loved to draw women in clothing - ballgowns, punk outfits the range was huge. I also started to use my mothers sewing machine at age 8 sewing outfits for my dolls. I guess it was in me from an early age but I didn’t know it until this past year, now I am embracing the reality that this is what I like to do, but I still have a hard time calling myself a clothing designer. It is the whole process that keeps me churning out garments - dying, designing, cuting, sewing and selling. I need to do each step for the fullfillment and joy of it all.
I only started to design clothing because I wanted my family to wear wool. 10 years ago it was impossible to find wool socks locally for your child let alone comfortable woolens for a women to wear daily. I am also really into doing everything from scratch as a contribution to our family economics. After spending $100 buying my 6-month-old longjohns I decided there was a better way. My friend who was in the diaper business hooked me up with a merino wool cloth supplier and I was in heaven with fabrics after that! Friends asked me to make a shirt for them and more and more people from my community propmted me to start selling my creations.
I noticed the natural wool white colour was easily stained and thus began the journey of dying. I hand-dye my wool using primary colours mixed together with a splash of brown or green to get vibrant earthy colours. The majority of the year drying is done outdoors but I also dry indoors in the winter hanging the cloth from my banisters and many clothes racks.
After the whole dying and washing process the fabric is very felted. I dye in 3 yard pieces so after cutting the cloth into the smaller pieces for sewing into clothing there is still room for shrinkage. I recommend washing by hand or in the machine on a cold delicate cycle, hanging to dry. Each type of cloth has a different potential for further shrinkage. The nice thing about wool is that you can air it out over night and it loses any smell that it absorbed that day, thus letting you wear it for many days at a time before washing.
I can feel like completely giving up the whole business but then after I do a batch of dying nothing can stop me! The inspiration comes from the colours and fabrics foremost. Many customers have inspired my creations with their ideas and also with sales trends. I am learning what people want from their clothes and this drives my design process.
The new autumn line consists of the best wool I have had yet! It is a super soft felted medium weight that is proving to be my favourite to date! I have also started to work with black that is pre-dyed at the factory, many of my customers are finding this a nice companion for thier existing wardrobe.”
Hilary Else
hilary@elsewear.ca
Excerpt taken from Cowichan Valley Voice, October 2013, Issue 59.