Sewing, Sustainable Fashion and Reinventing Your Career with Nicole Akong

In this episode of the Sewing Social podcast, host Gemma Daly sits down with Nicole Akong, a talented sewer, maker, and content creator, for an inspiring conversation about creativity, career change, and sustainable fashion. 

Nicole shares her sewing journey from growing up in Trinidad and Tobago, where she first fell in love with making at her mother’s sewing machine, to building a corporate career in London before bravely pivoting towards a more creative life.

Nicole opens up about the realities of working in the fashion industry, including the challenges of balancing motherhood, entrepreneurship, and self-belief. 

She reflects on how appearing on The Great British Sewing Bee helped her reconnect with her passion for sewing, rebuild confidence, and find a supportive community of like-minded makers. 

Her story highlights the importance of embracing change, especially at a time when many people are rethinking their careers amid rapid technological shifts.

The conversation also explores Nicole’s current creative projects, with a strong focus on upcycling and sustainable fashion. She shares how she moved from traditional dressmaking to charity shopping, transforming pre-loved garments that might otherwise end up in landfill. 

Through her work, Nicole encourages others to see new potential in their wardrobes, rethink fast fashion, and adopt more mindful consumption habits.

Key Takeaways: 

• Nicole loved fashion and clothing from an early age
• She grew up in Trinidad and Tobago, then studied in the USA before making her way to London
• She believes that your own self belief should be "bullet proof"
• She's done several career pivots in her life
• Being on the Great British Sewing Bee gave her renewed confidence in herself
• She now loves to work with charities as well as focusing on thrifting and upcycling

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Guest details: 

Instagram: @nicole_akong

Youtube: nicole_akong

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Setup

00:10 Nicole's Early Sewing Journey

04:59 Transitioning from Corporate to Creative

10:10 Starting a Jewelry Business

16:06 The Impact of the Sewing Bee

20:57 Building a Community and Brand

27:19 Embracing Video Content Creation

30:22 Navigating Career Pivots and Family Dynamics

41:27 The Unique Experience of The Sewing Bee

48:24 The Journey of Upcycling and Refashioning

56:56 The Joy of Rescuing Fashion

57:50 Sustainable Fashion Week: A Community Effort

01:00:34 Creating a Runway Collection from Discarded Materials

01:03:13 Future Aspirations: Charity Partnerships and TV Dreams

01:05:54 Inspiration Over Products: A New Business Philosophy

01:10:47 The Power of Transformation in Fashion

01:19:57 Thready Set Go 

Transcript

Gemma Daly (00:11)

Nicole, welcome to the Sewing Social podcast. I'm so happy to have you on today. You're welcome. I was wondering if you could introduce yourself to the listeners.

Nicole Akong (00:16)

I'm so happy to be here. Thanks for inviting me.

Sure, I'm Nicole Akong I'm a sewer, a maker and content creator.

Gemma Daly (00:29)

Perfect. And I was wondering if you could sort of take us right back to how you first learnt to sew.

Nicole Akong (00:36)

That would be teenage me. So my mom had a sewing machine. So I grew up in Trinidad, Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean. And my mom, like many women of her generation, had a sewing machine. But I never once saw her use it. But for some reason, I felt drawn to it one day as a teen. And I asked her to show me how to use it, which she just about had the patience to do. My mom is not a very patient teacher, but she just about showed me how to turn it on and how to make it run.

I just started to get on the machine. mean, bear in mind, this was before the days of phones or any sort of digital-based entertainment, really, apart from TV. So we just had to entertain ourselves as kids, really. So I was always a very creative child. I got involved in all sorts of creative hobbies growing up. And I think sewing was initially just another one of my many creative pursuits.

But I've always loved clothes. Ever since I was a little girl, I always loved clothes. And I only made the connection recently, actually, looking back. mean, during the time I grew up in Trinidad in the sort of 80s, readymade clothes were very difficult to come by because the import duties on importing readymade clothes was so high that only the very wealthy could afford to buy readymade clothes. Everybody else had a local seamstress, including my mom. And we used to get all clothes made by a local seamstress. So I...

grew up around that culture of sewing and buying fabric and having things made. And I think when I got to the age where I was starting to get very interested in fashion I would look through my sister's fashion magazines and there was no way I could buy any of the things in those magazines. So my next port of call was to try and make them myself. So I think that is.

I honestly don't know what drew me to the machine. think in hindsight it was probably some sort of divine intervention, I suppose, some sort of calling that happened, but I loved it. I loved it. And I was just sewing quite a lot around that time. Like every weekend, I'd just jump on my sewing machine and I'd make clothes for my dolls. And then I segued into making a few things for myself. I somehow taught myself how to read sewing patterns and how to use sewing patterns. It all happened quite organically, really.

But I didn't really, when I left Trinidad at 18, I went to university in Miami and then I moved to London after that. And I didn't really sew a lot during the ensuing years. I didn't buy myself a sewing machine when I moved to London until probably about five years into me being here. So sort of my mid twenties. And even then it was very sporadic. I might sew myself a dress here and there, but I was always very self-conscious about it. I never really thought that the things I made were as good as the things I could buy.

And a lot of that was a hangover from growing up where readymade clothes associated with wealth and being better. And I think it's only really after many years of, well, in my twenties, I had a corporate career and then I left that and started my jewelry business and I was self-employed for quite a long time. And when I decided to quit that career and had nothing else to jump to,

Gemma Daly (03:19)

Mm-hmm.

Nicole Akong (03:36)

I, that's when I really got back into sewing because I'd sort of really plunged into a dark time, I guess, just feeling very existentially lost, losing one career, one identity and having to re-find myself again. And that's really when I came back to sewing in earnest and I started to make clothes for myself again, but with a new sense of accomplishment and a new sense of pride about it that I didn't really have before.

that was yeah about a couple of years before I applied for the sewing bee.

Gemma Daly (04:06)

Yeah, that's a really interesting story because there's a few things there. the culture over here now, and it's very different now, isn't it? We've got so much available to us. So that was quite a different time to grow up in and a very different place to the UK as well, because like I everything was available. But I suppose...

That is all part of what makes you you and how you approach your sewing. I did want to actually touch on your career journey as well. So you said you started in the corporate world, then you transitioned to a very creative job in making your own jewelry line, but now you're a designer and a maker. Can you tell us a bit more about that path?

And what made you change those directions along the way?

Nicole Akong (04:59)

Sure. So I am one of these people, even though I was a very creative child growing up, when where I grew up, in Trinidad, if you were a very bright child academically, which I was.

you weren't really encouraged to go into any creative, there weren't really creative careers at that time for anyone growing up in that country. So you were encouraged to go into medicine or law or accounting or whatever, a bit more of a respectable career and that's kind of what happened to me. I've got two older sisters, we're very close in age and both my sisters went down the medical path and they're both now doctors and I just sort of followed in their footsteps all the way through secondary school, all the way to A levels and halfway through university. I went into university declaring a pre-med major.

But then very quickly realised that that was really not, that was not my dream. That was not my path. I was dating a guy at the time who was an architecture major. And when we'd hang out, he'd be doing all his little assignments and making structures out of matchsticks and stuff and working with his hands. And that was the first time I remember feeling a real yearning, like a real, almost like a soul yearning.

to do something with my hands and to do something more creative. And at that point, I, because I'm quite an impulsive person, which can be sometimes good and sometimes bad, but the good side of it is I don't hang around with decisions a lot. When I feel something in my gut, I will almost always act on it straight away. And I did. I decided to just, from the next semester, I told my parents, I'm not going to go into medicine. I'm just not, that's just not my path.

And I took one art class because the way my university was structured, I went to university in America. You're able to take certain electives. So outside of your major, you were able to take just random electives. And I took an art class, a painting class, and I absolutely fell in love. And it wasn't even so much painting. It was just the act of being creative, the act of being around creative people I felt at home. And I told my parents I was going to go and change my major to art. They flipped out.

they were more

worried for me in terms of like, what are you going to do with that as a career? They were thinking very practically about And so I left university with an art degree, came to London. I mean, what job was I realistically going to get as a 22 year old with an art degree? But I started temping because I could type. One of the things when I came home from university and I was sitting around a home and just nothing to do, my dad was like, just teach yourself how to type, do something with your time.

So I did, I went into one these typing tutors and I taught myself how to touch type. So by the time I came to London, I mean, I could type 80 words a minute. So I went to one of these, at the time there were these temp agencies on the high street and I just walked into one of them, did my typing tests and my computer proficiency. They were like, yeah, great. Got into my first temp role and they were very much administrative roles. So being secretary, receptionist, whatever it was, very junior roles. And very quickly as you get more and more jobs and you get better and better paid jobs and

eventually I just got a temp job working at American Express. And I got taken on permanently after about a year or so. My boss wanted to hire me permanently and so she did. And that was really how I fell into a corporate career. It wasn't through planning. It wasn't through any ambition. It was just needed a job, came to London, needed a job, got a job and then just sort of fell into that career and stayed in that career really throughout my 20s. And during that time I got made redundant twice

Every single time it happened, instead of feeling scared, I actually felt kind of excited because I was like, my God, I've now got a little chunk of money. I could do whatever I want. I can change my job and do whatever I want. And I explored so many businesses over the years, everything from doing designer sales with a friend of mine to vintage reselling. know, like we'd explored all sorts of things, primarily around fashion. That was my keen interest at the time. And at the time being a very consumer of fashion, wasn't.

creating fashion. I was very much consuming it and I had a lot of disposable income at that time. And then it came to a point where when I was on maternity leave with our first son, I was 30 years old and I knew I didn't want to be in that career forever. I was really getting to a point where I just thought the longer I stay here, I know the harder it's going to be to leave. And when I went on maternity leave with my son, I knew in my own mind I wasn't going to go back. I didn't tell them that.

I was on a really good maternity package. I told them I'd come back in six months, but in my mind, I had already made the determination that I was not going to go back. And as things happened, three months into my maternity leave, my boss called, it was a startup company, my boss called and said, look, Nic we this is 2008, the credit crunch, Lehman Brothers collapsed, the credit crunch had happened, it was a stock market-based investment that this company was starting up a very innovative product around. And they just looked into the near future and thought,

Huge recessions coming stock markets going through the floor. There's no way we're going to survive it So they did the really responsible thing the board decided to wind up the company while they still had capital and they still had money So, you know, I got landed with a 20 grand severance check You know a newborn baby who slept most of the day and I thought well if I don't do something now if I don't start a business now I do what it is. I feel like I want to do then I've completely wasted this this feels like manna from heaven, you know

Gemma Daly (09:55)

Wow.

Nicole Akong (10:10)

So

I did, I did. At that point, I'd been making jewelry actually for about a year, just as a hobby. I stumbled across a jewelry class completely back, so I won't even tell you that side story. But I did a jewelry class, one day jewelry class, absolutely loved it. Started making jewelry for myself as a hobby and I'd wear my pieces to work and I'd wear them out and I'd always have women commenting about the jewelry. And so when I was at home with this, sitting on this chair going, what am I gonna do with this money and what job am I going to start now?

I suddenly thought, God, you know, here I am sitting on this, this scale, this, you know, and the beauty about it is for me was that I was able to start it off from home, from my dining table. I didn't need any premises. I didn't need to take out any loans. I could start it very small, scale it up if it went well. And if it didn't go well, I didn't lose much besides buy myself some materials and maybe, you know, booking myself on a trade show, which I

Yeah, that's how I got started really. I started as you probably would do in this day and age, I started Googling, I you started a jewellery line. And then I sort of, started reaching out to buyers. I mean, I remember cold calling the jewellery buyer at Harvey Nichols. mean, you know, really quite scary stuff. mean, you know, heart pounding on the phone, like just feeling like such a newb. But you know, there was something in me that just knew I had to, I had to take a leap. I had to stick my neck out and I really had to take those risks and I had to do the uncomfortable things.

Gemma Daly (11:21)

Yeah. ⁓

Nicole Akong (11:33)

And as part of my research online, I discovered the existence of trade shows, which if you're just a normal consumer, you have no idea these events exist, but they happen across all kinds of different industries. In fact, they have them for fabrics as well. So in Paris, twice a year, there's this huge fabric trade show, which is for industry buyers. So it's buyers, it's manufacturers, it's designers who go to these shows. And you buy fabric wholesale from manufacturers all over the world. And these are fabrics. I mean, I have never seen the...

a crazy array and the just stuff you've never seen fabric shops because there are just so many of them. And anyway, so I discovered about trade shows for jewelry and so I booked myself on a trade show and that's how I got started. I made my first few orders selling into boutiques and it just went from strength to strength really. I mean the brand took off very, very quickly largely to do with the fact that the jewelry was just so good. You know there's an element I think when people start their creative businesses that

They underestimate how amazing the product has to be, especially in this day and age. It's kind of good enough unless you're willing to sink a lot of money into marketing and promotion and influencer marketing and all that stuff and getting other people to the word out for you. In the absence of spending all that money, the product has to be so good that it can't be ignored.

That's what I had going for me. And at the time, the type of jewelry I making was trending very, very heavily. That's sort of very big statement, crystal jewelry, very editorial, very colorful. And yeah, so I just, took off way beyond my expectations very, very quickly. Now that does not mean that I was able to take a massive paycheck home. It was also a very expense heavy business in terms of the material cost, the labor cost, because I wasn't a trained jeweler.

It wasn't the type of thing where I can sketch out the designs and send it to a factory and get them made. I was designing by having my little mat here on my table, getting all my beads out, laying everything out. And literally I was designing as I was constructing. It's the same way I do with sewing actually. I was never the kind of designer that can sketch something out and then execute it. I would design through the making and through each step, the thing would evolve.

So it was a very difficult product to also outsource in terms of manufacturing. And that was my ultimate, that was the ultimate downfall of the business really, because once the volume started to grow to the extent that I could not do it and even me employing two and three other people could not do it ourselves. It then became having to look at outsourcing and that was kind of the beginning of the end actually, because there was no way that any factory out in Asia could.

replicate what it is I was doing by hand. yeah, after spending so many years in the fashion grinder, I mean, I was doing London Fashion Week, Paris Fashion Week, I got invited to Milan Fashion Week, New York Fashion Week. It was too much, you know, and in the meantime, had two other, popped out two other babies. Hubby was like that, trying to juggle work and kids. And the minute he'd come home from work, I'm handing over babies and I'm going upstairs and I'm working all through the night. And it was kind of untenable really. And then I think ultimately,

Nicole Akong (14:43)

What sealed it for me was the fact that when I really looked at my life and when I looked at the proportion of my day and my year that I was spending doing the thing that drew me to that in the first place, which was the creative Whereas before I might have been spending 50 % of my time doing the designing and doing all the great things. It was actually more like 5%. And I just thought there's I'm spending so much time firefighting and running this business.

and very, very little time doing the bit of it that actually gives me joy. And so again, slightly impulsively, but not really, because I've been building up for long time, but I just decided to quit. I just thought, I just don't, I can't do it anymore. I'm not even making enough money to make it a hard decision. And I just, I just don't want to do it anymore. There's got to be something else out there for me now. And I think, you know, I've become very comfortable with the fact that life has chapters, life has seasons, life has eras.

Gemma Daly (15:31)

Yeah.

Nicole Akong (15:39)

and I've become very good at not holding on to things because they feel safe. And of course, the flip side of that is I then just plunged into an abyss, really. You know, I sort of I completely give up my identity as a jewelry designer. I mean, up until that point, anybody else, what do you do? I'm a jewelry designer, blah, blah. You can talk about your work for two years. I used to dread that question. People ask me, what do do? It's like, don't look at me. I don't do anything.

Gemma Daly (16:04)

Yeah.

Nicole Akong (16:06)

⁓ You know, so it was a very difficult time of being stripped away. I mean, I remember someone told me once, it's always stayed with me, someone was shared with me an African proverb that says, to learn how to live, one must die at least once. And that has always stayed with me. And I think throughout my life, I mean, there are two distinct times that I have existentially died or, you know, had to shed something so major that...

Nicole Akong (16:34)

It's like I died, the old me died and I had to step into a new me. And that was one of those times. But that's not a process that happens overnight. cannot, know, unless unless you're going to jump into straight into another job, another career, you when you're faced with that question of what do I actually want to do with my life? That is a big question. Not a lot of people sit with for a long time or when they sit with it, the idea of it makes them so uncomfortable or they, know, or they just they just decide they don't know.

and they stay there. But I had to sit with that question for two years, really just digging and unpeeling and going layer by layer and deeper and deeper into discovering what it is I actually want to do now. And the answer didn't come magically, the answer unfolded. And it kind of started with the sewing bee really, because, so like I said, during that period, was sewing a lot, but just to keep myself sane really. Otherwise I literally had nothing else to do.

I would wake up and I had no other purpose. had no job to go to. My kids were at school. I sat at home and that's when I would sew. And I started watching the sewing bee actually for the first time. The season before mine was the first sewing bee I watched. And as I was watching the show, I kept thinking, would I be able to do that transformation? Like, what would I do? And would I be able to do that pattern challenge? And especially now that I was spending so much time sewing, those questions were really quite...

pertinent for me and I began to get very curious about how I would actually do on the show. And so I thought, well, the only way to know is to go on it and to see. So I applied for the show and then got into the show. And then that was really the start of the next evolution of my career and my creative trajectory, as it were.

And even now, think, there's no, even if you ask me now, like, what's my career? What do I do? It's not, it's, it's, it's no one thing, you know, it's, it's so many different things. I think I realised that I've kind of almost accidentally entered this gig economy, which I think is where everyone is going to be ended up with, with AI and technology coming in. So many people are going to be displaced, losing jobs, losing careers. I think.

Nicole Akong (18:47)

it's going to be the way a lot of us have to live is entering the gig economy, taking the jobs as they come up and just using your skills, using your skills where they're needed. And that's kind of where I've come to really. sort of after the sewing bee, I because obviously you get so much interest during the show and around that time is when I really started getting seriously into Instagram. I mean, I did have an Instagram when I had the jewelry line, but I never really found my voice as a brand.

I just really struggled with it. I didn't really understand it. But like the whole social media thing when it came to branding, everything just felt so glossy and the jewelry had to be on models. It couldn't be real. And I was working from a spare bedroom upstairs. All these stylists would be contacting me going, can we come to your showroom and pull some pieces? And I'm like, there is no showroom. There is no showroom. It's literally a rail in my spare bedroom.

Nicole Akong (19:41)

Yeah, so I felt very reluctant to peel back the curtain during that time because the perception, I mean, the jewelry was being sold in these very high-end department stores all over the world. I don't think anyone would believe it was really coming from a spare bedroom that I shared with my son, you know? it was only really during the sewing bee and after the sewing bee when I kind of, again, I stripped away a lot of that.

Gemma Daly (19:44)

Mmm.

Wow.

Nicole Akong (20:05)

And I just got to, I'm just me and I'm just here in my house. There's no errors and graces, you know? And I began to feel, to start to really embrace and to feel a lot more comfortable with sharing my authentic self and sharing everything about what I was doing and what I was making. Because ultimately it wasn't really about me. It was about the creativity. It was about the work. And I think after the show finished, this is when you get the most interest, right? And...

Nicole Akong (20:30)

especially

having gotten to the final. I've done all the challenges. Everyone's seen me all through the show. And when the show finishes, of course, everyone feels a bit bereft. They want to go, oh my God, don't let it end. And, you know, so they start to follow you and they want to follow you online and start to see what it is you're doing after that. But you see, was, I think I've always been, in some ways I've always been a little bit entrepreneurial, I think. And though I didn't, I didn't know what the sewing bee was going to bring.

Gemma Daly (20:38)

You

Nicole Akong (20:57)

All I knew was I had to be ready for whatever that thing was. And I was very, I was being very observant about what it is people were asking of me when I was on the show. Bearing in mind, during the show, we were under very tight contractual restrictions as to promoting ourselves and promoting brands and all that stuff. had to be very impartial. And that embargo lasted until a week after the transmission of the final. during the show,

I was wearing this tiger sweatshirt that I made that I cannot tell you the amount of emails and DMs I had about this sweatshirt. People going, my God, please tell me where it's from. I've looked all over the internet. I can't find it. And I was like, you can't find it because I made it. mean, it was was crazy. And actually, so that fabric, that tiger fabric was one that I found in one of the Paris fabric trade shows from a French supplier.

Gemma Daly (21:37)

It's so iconic, Nicole. I know exactly what you're talking about.

Nicole Akong (21:50)

that you would never find their fabric in any fabric stores. Like it was so incredible the stuff that they do. And I found them in this little corner of this trade show in Paris. Anyway, so I literally, so the final aired on a Wednesday, nine to 10 PM, literally 10 PM the following Wednesday, I made those fabrics available for sale on my website, pre-order.

Bearing in mind that because I had not been working for over two years, because my business had been slowly going into the red, you know, it wasn't making any money, hardly any income. But at the same time, obviously I still had expenses. I still had to run my website. I still had to, you know, all these ancillary expenses that you have. So I was my business, which is very, slowly like this, just going into overdraft, overdraft, overdraft to the point where I was nearly hitting the bottom of the overdraft. had agreed with the bank, totally freaking out and literally.

Nicole Akong (22:42)

when I ran those and it wasn't even, I didn't even have the fabric. I was opening for pre-orders to get volumes. And within 24 hours, I had 12,000 pounds of prefabric sales. Within the next 24 hours, it had gone up to 20,000 pounds. And this is, and I said this to my cohort of bees at the time. I said, guys, we're gonna have a very, very short time in the sun.

Gemma Daly (22:47)

You

Goodness.

Nicole Akong (23:08)

And if you want to make something of this experience, it has to be when the iron is hot. And that was for me the proof of it all. Because had I done that even six months later, I don't know it would have done as well. I think it's for me it was about listening, observing, and just serving people what it is they were asking for. And that was it. That was the start of me slowly clawing myself.

Out of my overdraft, out of debt, out of, you know, so many really yucky things that I had to sit with and deal with and experience and, you know, eating away at my self-esteem and eating away at my... I mean, actually, I have to say, one thing it could never eat away with was my self-belief because that is one thing I keep absolutely bulletproof, and I will say this to anyone.

If there's one thing you keep absolutely bulletproof in your life, it has to be the belief in yourself and the belief you can do what it is you want to do. Because once that starts to get eroded, know, you're ready. I mean, you're ready fighting a losing battle. So so that was the start, really. The Sewing Bee was really the start of me pivoting back into what felt like life again, what felt like I could actually do something.

fun and that aligns with where I want to be and creative and connecting with all these people who sew like me and who love all the creative stuff like me and suddenly I felt so part of a community because it's very different when you're a designer in the fashion world. You think that designers have a lot of camaraderie but it's very different. There's a lot of guarding, there's a lot of gatekeeping, there's a lot of almost like competition.

Gemma Daly (24:45)

Mm.

Nicole Akong (24:50)

know, when you see another designer doing well it's like well you know, good for them, there's a bit of saltiness that goes on. Whereas it was so refreshing now being part of a sewing community where my god people gate keep for their lives, you know. You ask people a question and they're just so happy to share the information with you, like it's just such a different, a very different vibe and I felt so much more at home in that community and I think for all those reasons it felt like

that was where I really needed to be and where I really needed to come back to. And I don't think that would have happened unless I had really taken that leap and I had done the big thing, which was applying for a TV show, you know? And I think at the time though, I was really ready to come back out. I really was ready to come out of my cave and to show myself to the world again. And I mean, what bigger arena to enter, to re-enter the world than a TV show.

Nicole Akong (25:46)

Obviously, no one has to be that drastic, but for me, I've been in a hole that deep that it really felt like, you know, this is just, yeah, go big or go home. And yeah, so for the next two years after the sewing bee, I was kind of just feeling my way around, really. I was doing a little bit of this. mean, whenever somebody would ask, ⁓ you, you you think you can bring out the sewing pattern? Like if I made something, like, you know, can you do the pattern?

So I brought out a couple of sewing patterns, even though it was so much work. You know, the thing is, you don't really realise until you embark on stuff sometimes, you probably follow this with a podcast, you know, it's like, yeah, start a podcast. You realise, my God, so much time editing and getting all the software and you you learn on the job, don't you? And it's almost like if you knew what was going to be involved at the start, you probably would never do it, you know? So there's some things that you just have to go in feet first and discover for yourself that it's not.

Gemma Daly (26:17)

Mm. Yeah. That's it. Yeah.

Mmm.

Nicole Akong (26:38)

It's not worth the work or it's actually a lot more work than I thought, but I still love it. And I spent two years trying to feel my way around all of that. For a while I was selling some fabrics, but then after spending days cutting off fabric, putting them in envelopes, printing out the labels, I'm like, again, it came back to the jewelry thing of running the business. like, is this how I want to spend my life? Cutting meters of fabric and taking them to the post office? And I was like, not really, no. So then I stopped doing that. Similarly with the sewing patterns.

I could probably afford to do one a year because they are a really good little... If you could get into a rhythm with it, actually, it's not a bad income stream. yeah, I think there were so many little bits of things I did here and there. And some of them I was like, never again, not doing that again. And there were others where I was like, yeah, this is doing quite well for me. And I don't mind it. I think I've only now recently, I think, come into...

Gemma Daly (27:13)

Hahaha

Nicole Akong (27:31)

what it is I feel like my focus is going to be and really where I want to place most of my eggs because I think up to now I've been sort of scattering them in a lot of places and trying to see what sticks. But really having done all of this video content creation work on Instagram and know starting to get pretty half decent at it, I think really my heart is there. My heart is with the video content and sharing what I know. I love the medium of video, way more than photos.

I think I feel very awkward with photos, actually. And so I think for me, when I discovered, I say discovered video like I invented it, but when I started to kind of accidentally really organically pivot towards video content, it's that for me felt like the best way to convey the story behind my work and the story behind the transformations I was doing. you know, I'm just getting my story across, my personality and all the rest of it. And yeah.

Gemma Daly (28:05)

you

Nicole Akong (28:25)

For me now, my focus this year is to diversify across different platforms because unfortunately Instagram is probably the hardest platform to monetize in terms of video content because it doesn't pay for views and really your best chance of making decent money on Instagram is through partnerships, brand partnerships, pay partnerships. And that is something that has become increasingly tricky for me a little bit because I have to choose brands very carefully that align with

Nicole Akong (28:51)

not just my values, but what my followers expect of me as well and the values they hold me to, which is quite a big...

Nicole Akong (28:59)

cross to carry sometimes, you know, I think, yeah, but at the same time, think once you, once you become, once your account grows to certain size, I don't think it's enough anymore to say, well, I don't care what people think. I do think there's an element of, you have some responsibility to uphold a certain set of values that people have come to know you for. And it doesn't mean you can't change. It doesn't mean you can't evolve past things and all that, but you have to bring people with you, you know, and that's, that's for me, the

biggest lesson as well in the whole being on social media and everything. It's like, as in life actually, it's communication. So many misunderstandings happen because of miscommunication. Somebody not saying something they assume the other person should know, they assume they should tell or gather. And it's like, no, you to tell people what's in your head sometimes. You can't expect them to deduce and to gather and to glean. I think that

that discipline of becoming more open and transparent with where you are, where your thoughts are, what decisions you're taking and why. I think those things are increasingly important in a way. If you want to bring your community with you as you evolve and as you transition and as you grow into new things, change your mind about other things and you know, we're all human. We're never going to stay the same. But yeah, it's been a growing process. But my big focus this year is YouTube, I have to say.

I've had so many people over the years going, have you thought about YouTube? Have you thought about YouTube? And I dabbled in it a little bit across the years and I just thought, oh God, so now I've got to film in this format, not that format. Obviously, know, 99 % of my content is in this format for Instagram. And even that act of turning the phone that way to film in landscape, you would not believe the psychological shift. Cause all of a sudden you're like, but this doesn't fit anymore, but I can't even show my whole outfit anymore. And it's like, oh God, it's, it's an absolute minefield really. But I think I've had to.

Gemma Daly (30:31)

Ha ha ha ha!

Yeah.

Nicole Akong (30:51)

I've had to on a bit of a journey with it. And I think I sort of quit it very early on because I just thought it was too much of a pain. I spent all this time filming and editing this one video, uploaded it, and it didn't even get 200 views. And I was like, right, that's it. Nobody cares. And, you know, and then I think I had to come, I had to come to a point with it where I was like, okay, it's going to be a slow burn. I've come to peace with that. And I'm not going to go into this with the goal of monetisation.

Gemma Daly (31:05)

You

Nicole Akong (31:19)

You know, it's a goal, but the goal is to share myself on a different platform and grow my audience on a different platform. And in time, obviously it'd be great if that, that could be another monetisation stream because it is what I love to do. is, you know, doing my projects and sharing them on video is, is what I would love to do and what I would love to make a full-time income from nowhere near that yet. But that's the big focus for this year.

Gemma Daly (31:44)

Amazing. And you touched on so many interesting things just then. And I love that you were brave enough to trust your gut and flip your career into the direction you wanted to go at the time. And I noticed that on your Instagram, you have been talking about career pivots and things like that. Did anything spark that?

at this point in time, were you thinking about yourself or was it through conversations with other people and have like common themes come from that as well?

Nicole Akong (32:19)

I think it's a pincer movement of so many different things. So having myself pivoted careers twice.

It's not beyond me how I would want to see how difficult it is, but what a process it is. takes not even it takes a very big mental, psychological toll on you. It's not easy to do. so last year, around February last year, my hubby had lost his job. He's a copywriter and he worked in the advertising industry, which is itself being very disrupted by.

Gemma Daly (32:51)

you

Nicole Akong (32:52)

changing

media, you know, I think the golden era of advertising agencies is dying, right? Because advertising spend is now moving away from telly and newspapers and radio and more onto social media and you know, all of it's changing. And of course with AI, chat, GPT, all these language models, you know, being a copywriter, so much of that work is getting cannibalised right now. So he lost his job, which was quite scary for us really, because we...

quite dependent on his salary as a family and have been for many years. suddenly it was like, Oh Christ, you know what we're going to do now again, because I've been through this and because my husband and I were very, very different. My tolerance for uncertainty is actually very, very high. His is very, very low, you know, which is why he likes being employed. He likes the security of it. You know, and obviously being

made breadwinner, I understand that's, you know, it's very unsettling when he just loses that, you know, because then he feels like, you know, there's a lot of pressure on him. that happened last year. And when he was going through the whole process of redundancy and everything and sort of looking at copywriting jobs on LinkedIn, and it was just, they were very few and far between. And when they did arrive on LinkedIn, there would be 200 people applying for it within half an hour.

salary bands were going down, know, like all the signs were saying to him, it's going to be really hard for me to step into another copywriting job. And at the time I said to him, what would you actually like to do? Because I think the other way we're very different is for me, my work is such an integral part of my purpose in life. I get so much joy and so much purpose from the work that I do. feel like I know that this is what I came

here to do. For him, work has always been a means to an end. It's been a paycheck. And if he didn't need the money, he would not necessarily be doing those jobs. But, you know, I don't think he's ever really sat with the question of what would you do if you didn't need that to work for money? You know, and I've said to him over the years, I'm like, dude, one day, trust me, these tables are going to turn. That's what I'm working towards. One day, these tables are going to turn. I'm going to be able to support us.

and then I want you to know what you want to do because then we're to be scratching around and you know being a pain in my arse like you need to work out what it is that's going to fill you up you know and I just I don't think he's he's not really there with it yet you know yeah so that was that was a bit more of scary time for him but I was was constantly encouraging him to think about like what else could you do what would you like to do what would you actually like to do you know and forget about will it make money or will it not make money like

know if you enjoy it enough and you will and I can help you I will be here to help you you know we will make it work and yeah I mean you know kind of fortunately for him he managed to get another copywriting job after a few months but you know there may come a time again in the future where he's got to face that question again and I will see other people as well you know just so many of our friends recently lost jobs and you know I came across a video on Instagram which is what prompted the recent post I did about it where

this woman is in her mid thirties and she's mid career pivot and she's documenting the whole thing. And, you know, I just think every single podcast I listened to where they're talking about AI and predictions that up to 90 % of people across the world are going to be displaced in their careers. And you just think we are heading for the biggest crisis, not just in terms of people's financial needs.

Gemma Daly (36:04)

my god.

Nicole Akong (36:16)

But again, the existential need. So many people are going to have to be asking themselves that question of what do I do now? This is a question I have asked myself so many times over the years. And I've become comfortable with that question, but many people aren't because they've never sat with it. So for me, this is part of, I mean, I'm not saying, I don't know. I don't know if maybe I do need to lend a voice in this space now because I just feel.

Gemma Daly (36:23)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Nicole Akong (36:42)

so many more people are going to be facing that question and going to be feeling very lost and uncomfortable about it. And I understand because I've been there, but you know, if I could give people one bit of advice, and I even said this to my husband the other day, I'm like, dude, get a hobby. just the way you start the side hustle is now, and let's not even call it side hustle, because I don't really like that term. It seems a bit like, a side hustle needs to make money. I'm like, no, just find a side quest, find a side passion.

Gemma Daly (37:05)

Mm.

Nicole Akong (37:09)

Find something on the side you can do that just makes you feel like time stops. You know, that's something that fills you up, gives you joy. You do it for free. You do it in your free time and you just love it. The time to do that and to find that is now. Do not wait till you've lost your job and to suddenly go, I've always wanted to paint or I've always wanted to know, start doing that stuff now. If you've always wanted to paint, start painting now. Do it every evening. Do it every weekend. Like, you know, do the things now.

Gemma Daly (37:26)

Mmm.

Nicole Akong (37:37)

because it's coming, it's coming. And I just, do worry for, I do worry for us all in a way. And I just, I don't worry for me because I've been through it already. And you know, I know I'll always be all right. think I'll always find a way, you know, I feel very closely aligned to what it is I'm here to do. And, you know, I feel like if anybody ever feels lost, you know, the lamp.

Gemma Daly (37:39)

Yeah.

Mmm.

Nicole Akong (38:04)

the light that's going to lead you out the cave really is what I call is your bliss is that thing you know in Sanskrit they call it Dharma right you're that that purpose that thing you're here to do and fulfill in this lifetime I think that is the lamp that is the light that is going to lead you out of the cave so find it find out what it is and you know and it's not always a it's not always a thing I mean for us who in the crafting space it's it feels very obvious you know we love working with our hands or we love making things for other people to meet up with they're obvious but

Gemma Daly (38:29)

Yeah.

Nicole Akong (38:33)

I look at my daughter who, she's a born performer. Ever since she was really little, at five years old, she begged to have a YouTube channel. She just loved being in front of the camera. And she's into her dance and performing arts. And I keep saying to her, I'm like, whatever happens in your life, babe, just come back to that. If you ever, never know what to do, start dancing again. Without any, how am going to make money from that? I don't know, but just come back to dancing.

Gemma Daly (38:41)

you

Nicole Akong (38:59)

just start dancing again. So it's that thing, whatever it is. Maybe it's talking, you know, I know people whose, their gift is talking to people, connecting with people. You know, I've got a friend who I went out for coffee with her on Sunday. Literally, you cannot move for five minutes without her going, hey, you know, she knows everybody. and she remembers their names. She might've met you 10 years ago and she goes, God, yeah, Gemma, we met. So that's her superpower, you know? And I just think it could be something like that because the world needs all of these gifts.

Gemma Daly (39:15)

you

Yeah.

Nicole Akong (39:27)

because believe me, there are people out there who can't connect for anything. They really lack the skills, the confidence to create community, to get themselves out there, to communicate themselves well. And then you've got other people who that is their born gift. So it's by us using our gifts and our talents and our skills all together, I think this is really where the world...

is slowly coming back to, but it's going to be painful getting back to that after where we've been in this sort of career cultured, profession cultured society to go back to in a way the way things were in early civilization. You had your baker, you had your candlestick maker, had your shoe maker, had their skill. Exactly.

Gemma Daly (39:56)

Mm.

This is it. All the practical skills, this is it. So I think

it is important that we do use our hands and continue to use our hands because those are the skills that we're going to need.

Nicole Akong (40:22)

Yeah, yeah, just to become self-sufficient in something, I think, you know, to really become self-sufficient in something. And the more self-sufficient you can be, the better off you will be really longer term because, you know, I think even, you know, obviously during lockdown, I think one thing that really struck me during lockdown was how dependent we are systems, how dependent we are on supermarkets to deliver our food and to have our food available, how dependent we are on

Gemma Daly (40:26)

Mmm.

Yeah.

Nicole Akong (40:50)

companies to run things for us and to run our internet and all these things and how reliant we are on our banking systems working so that we have money. I mean, it's kind of scary really. And it just takes one of those things to collapse and all of a sudden we've kind of plunged into, I mean, a feral society to be honest.

if just one thing breaks down that causes people to lose their basic needs. So yeah, I just think the more empowered we can be to create the things that we need for ourselves, whether we grow vegetables, whether we make our own clothes, whatever it is, something, something we can contribute and something we can contribute ourselves, but ultimately contribute also to others if we need to.

Gemma Daly (41:27)

Yeah. Yeah.

So keep using those hands people. So going back then to the sewing bee. So you were on series six in 2020. Is that right? Yeah. And you had an amazing cohort that year. wondered if you could tell us a little bit about the experience. So were there any particular highs or lows that happened on the show?

Nicole Akong (41:37)

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

Oh, there were so many. the sewing bee was a very interesting experience. mean, obviously one that I would not trade for the world. It's one of those things that when I look back on it, at the time it felt very, very intense. I had the privilege of not having another full-time job competing for my time. So when I knew I was on the sewing bee, I was dedicating myself 100 % to the process. I was able to...

Gemma Daly (42:22)

you

Nicole Akong (42:25)

practice a lot of my made to measure projects. I mean, certainly for the first three weeks, for the first week, I probably made about four practice versions of that tea-dress Obviously by the time we got to final, that was a different story. But I was able to spend a lot of time really immersing myself in the sewing bee and getting prepared for it and feeling ready for it. I know a lot of my other sewing bees didn't have that privilege because they were also battling or juggling a full-time job. But for me,

Interestingly, going into the show, I knew I wasn't going to be the most technical sewer. Because I'm quite an experimental sewer. It's not that I'm not technically good, but I'm much more invested in the outcome, not the process. So whatever gets me from A to B, I'll take that, right? So I knew I wasn't going to be the most technical sewer. I was very clear in my mind that the reason for me going on the show

Gemma Daly (43:06)

Mm-hmm.

Nicole Akong (43:15)

wasn't to prove that I was a good sewer. The reason for me going on the show was to share my creativity with the world, having been effectively in hiding for the previous two years, right? I wanted to just share my creativity with the world again. So that for me was the thing that was first and foremost in my mind. So whenever we would get to any judgeings and things like that, you know, as much as it's lovely to win challenges and you know, I would...

from the start I would visualise myself like every night before I went to bed because of course when you're in the process it takes up 99 % of your mental space right for me it did I was 99 % of the time if you caught me at any single given moment in the day what am I thinking about is the sewing bee and I was every night when I'd go to bed I would visualise I'd visualise myself getting to the final because obviously it would have been great to win in my mind at the time I thought it would be amazing to win because obviously

I don't know, not obviously, but my nature is to do well and to try and be the best at whatever it is I'm trying to do. Not to the exclusion of others, but I will always do my best. And so I, but my main thing was I want to get to the final because I want to tick all the boxes. I want to do all the challenges. And I even all through the weeks, because there were some weeks that were quite shaky, right? But even in weeks I had leading up to the final that were quite shaky.

Gemma Daly (44:23)

I'm

Nicole Akong (44:34)

There was no one week where I stood there at the final judging where they reveal who wins what garment of the week and they reveal who's going home. There was no one single week where I thought it could be me this week. Apart from when it got to the semifinal. When we got to the semifinal, so it was  four of us at the semi. It was me, Claire, Matt and Liz. And Liz at this point, was clear that Liz was a crowd favourite.

She at this point had the biggest following on Instagram out of all of us by far. She was clearly the people's favorite, right? She was very popular with the viewers. It came down, it was gonna come down to me and Liz to go home. We kind of both knew that. And when we were in the green room before the final judging, and it was a really late night that night, we were still there waiting for the final decisions at about half 10. And Liz and I were sat there and at this point, you're so exhausted having done.

several weeks of these challenges and mentally depleted, physically depleted, all the rest of it. And we both just sat there and we were both like, you know what, if I go home, I think I'm going to be at peace with it because I'm so knackered. Actually, if I don't have to do this final dress, I will not lose sleep over it. And we both said that to each other. And when we stood there, when they were about to reveal who was going home, that was the first time I thought.

it could be me and I need to brace myself for it being me. And then when it wasn't, I was like, okay, okay, God, now, now I've got to get through the final, you know, but I think, in terms of highs and lows, I mean, I think.

Gemma Daly (46:00)

you

Nicole Akong (46:06)

I mean, there were some challenges that were dreadful, absolutely dreadful. And I was having the worst time of it. And I literally was like, this is my idea of hell. I cannot believe this is going quite so badly. But yeah, I mean, maybe it's rose tinted spectacles looking back, but really there was so many highs. was so many brilliant, brilliant moments. A lot of it to do with connecting with my fellow bees. mean...

You know, obviously I'm biased. I do think we were really good cohort. But, you know, I think every cohort probably feels the same way. You do grow very, very close. You know, I guess maybe it's that whole Stockholm syndrome thing. I don't know. You are in a very intense, stressful situation together and it's very bonding. So, yeah, it was a it's a very unique experience. And I think and that's why even us as bees across seasons, you know, we have a big WhatsApp group where we all.

Gemma Daly (46:42)

Yeah.

Nicole Akong (46:56)

we're

all in a group and we chat together. And I think there's an element of that. There's this element of we're the only people that know what we've been through. it's quite a unique experience and it's brilliant. And I remember actually, again, this is something that always sticks in my mind. So there was a lady called Fiona who was on my series, a Scottish lady, beautiful, I love Fiona. She went out in maybe week three or four. And I remember her saying during her exit interview,

she was you know she was quite emotional obviously you know she was having such a great time didn't want to leave but she said a paraphrasing but she said you know I don't dance I don't sing my passion is sewing and there are not many places someone like me can go to shine

And that really stuck with me because I always had this concept of arenas, a lot of it because I read this book around the time I was applying for the Sewing Bee. I read this book called Daring Greatly by Brene Brown. It's quite a very iconic book, a very significant book in the sort personal development space. But she starts with a quote from Theodore Roosevelt where, again, paraphrasing, but, you know, it's not the critics opinion that counts.

Gemma Daly (47:57)

you

Nicole Akong (48:01)

It's the man who is full of blood, and tears in the arena, daring greatly. I always bear this in mind when it comes to social media and things like that, because everyone loves to be a critic on social media. Everybody loves to have an opinion. But I just think until you get in this arena, until you start getting inside and fighting for your life, you can say as much as you like. You'll never know what it's actually like.

Gemma Daly (48:13)

Mm-hmm.

Nicole Akong (48:24)

And it's the same with everything, you know, the sewing bee, obviously it's not a gladiator arena, it's all very friendly, all very lovely, it's kind of more like a knitting circle, you know, we all just love each other. But, you know, in terms of showing up, showing up somewhere you are, you're there to contribute and display kind of skill, something that can inspire other people. And it's true, the sewing bee is very unique in that way, very unique in that way.

And so I just think it's, yeah, it's been certainly, you know, as we talked about before, a very pivotal experience for me when I connect my dots looking back to where I am now. major pivoting point for me. yeah, we'll forever be grateful for that experience and the friends I made from it.

Gemma Daly (49:03)

Yeah.

I love that. love that. Do you think taking part in some of those challenges, specifically like the transformation challenge has given you the confidence to do like some of the upcycling that you do now?

Nicole Akong (49:24)

for sure, for sure. The great thing about the sewing bee, and this is why I'd recommend anybody who's thinking about it to apply is, and we all said this, all of us on the show said this, the way your sewing improves from the start of the series to the end is like the biggest leap, partly because it forces you to go outside of your comfort zone. It forces you to sew with fabrics you would never have voluntarily sewed with before

to sew things and work with patterns you would never have chosen before. And also, like you said, to take garments and whatever materials they throw at you and make something with it. You would never ordinarily do that just by choice. But on the show, you are forced to do it and it really tests your limits, it tests your ability, and actually it shows you what you can do when you are faced with the challenge of doing it.

And so yeah, for me, the transformation, that was the one challenge actually I did not know how I would do with. Because obviously I've sewn patterns before. I thought, well, I'd probably be okay at that. Made to measure, you know what the brief is beforehand. You know what you have to make. It's, you know, that's, there's no uncertainty there apart from will you finish it in time on the show? The transformation was the biggest unknown really, because you had no idea what materials are going to give you, what the challenge was. And in 90 minutes.

which I'm telling you on the show goes by in the blink of an eye and your heart is just pounding right throughout. I I remember this distinct moment during one of the transformation challenges where I was sitting at the machine and I was literally like, I could just feel my heart beating out of my chest. And I just realised that I had been in this state of frenzied adrenaline for 90 minutes. You know, like it's, it's a rush. It's a rush.

Gemma Daly (50:41)

Yeah.

Mm.

Nicole Akong (51:08)

But yeah, it did. showed me what I was capable of when I was just using instinct, because that's all you have time to do. You do not have time to think. You are just using instinct. And I was quite pleasantly surprised at myself, you know, and I thought, having always been a creative person, sort of, I was putting a bet on myself that I'd be OK. But

Gemma Daly (51:22)

you

Nicole Akong (51:29)

As you said, that really did after the show, I thought, yeah, I could really do this. Like I have the confidence now that I could take something and turn it into something else.

Gemma Daly (51:40)

You really can. Like I would not know where to start, but you know, that's one of your superpowers, I think. And feel like that is like where your career path is going a little bit with upcycling and refashioning, because you've done some really exciting collaborations recently. And the first one I want to talk about is like that Barnardo's and Singer

Nicole Akong (51:42)

Hahaha!

Gemma Daly (52:07)

collaboration where you take some rag bag projects and upcycle them. can you tell us like how the project went and also where you get your inspiration from when you're, when you're changing up those garments?

Nicole Akong (52:21)

So that was actually one of my career highlights actually from 2025. That was such a wonderful series and paid partnership to a part of. It ticked so many boxes for me. I had already started pivoting away from the traditional dressmaking thing of buying fabric, getting a pattern and sewing something up. Obviously that's how I started like most people.

But then very quickly I started to find commercial patterns a little bit restricting and I started wanting to draw up my own patterns. So I was tinkering around with that, but I didn't always feel 100 % confident with it. So I got to a point where I thought I'm going to invest and actually learn how to do this properly. So I booked myself on a course in Molly College, is a further education college in London. And I did a seven week pattern cutting course. And then I went on to do an eight month pattern cutting course with them. And then when I became confident with that, I was doing my own patterns. I started to find the process of designing something from fabric from scratch.

quite fatiguing in a way. Because I think what people don't realise is how many micro decisions go into designing and making something completely from scratch when you're even doing the pattern yourself. Every single thing you draft, every piece you draft, you've got to decide how big is this, how wide is this cuff, how deep is this collar, how long do I want to make the sleeve, how voluminous do I to make the sleeve, does it want to be pleats or does it want to be gathers, does it need a pocket here, what type of pocket, does it have cordage, you know, so many decisions that go into it that

When I would finish a make, I would literally have to lie down for two days because it was just such a sort of a depleting process in every single way. I was so proud of the outcome, but I literally had to lie down for two days. And then when I started to discover, and again, I discover like it was never there before, but I started to discover charity shopping because of course, even though I was a big consumer of fashion in my twenties, when I started dressmaking myself, I didn't feel the need to buy clothes anymore. And actually my,

journey into dressmaking during that two year hermitry period largely came because I didn't see anything in the shops anymore that I liked or that I could afford. So I decided, okay, maybe I'll try and make the things that I want. And then my daughter who was about 11 at the time, she and her friends were really getting into charity shopping and one weekend she said to me, mommy, could you take me to charity shopping? And I was like, what's in charity shops? You know, I've never really set foot in a charity shop properly before, at least not for many, many years.

Gemma Daly (54:20)

Yep.

Mmm.

Nicole Akong (54:35)

or ever even. we went to one of our local charity shops in Crystal Palace and I'm browsing the rails and I'm like, there's some actually alright stuff in here. you know, I think I, I guess like many people previously I had this, this sort of preconception of charity shops being a little bit musty and, you know, the stuff being a little bit outdated and a bit, but I was like, God, there's actually some quite nice pieces in here. And that was the start of me going, wow, like I, I can buy a garment for a few pounds.

Gemma Daly (54:52)

Yeah.

Nicole Akong (55:04)

And instead of having to make something from scratch, which takes me two to three weeks and makes me lie down for two days, I can just take something off the rack for a few pounds, change what I don't like about it. And I've got something that I can do in a few days that I can just do over and over and over and I never get tired of it, you know? And so that was the start of me transitioning really in my own sewing from making things from scratch to then just buying things secondhand and reworking them.

And really, when I see a garment, come back to your whole thing about inspiration, sometimes the institution comes in different forms really. There are times when I will have a thing in my mind that's been living rent free. I might have seen a dress or something on Instagram, maybe even two years ago, that I saved in a folder and never really thought about it. Every now and then I might think, I'd love to make a dress like that. But then I just, you know, I don't have any.

particular reason or incentive to do it right now. But then I'll be in a charity shop and I will come across a dress that is the perfect starting point to the thing I have saved. And instantly I will go, my God, this is it. And I will buy it straight away because I'm like, I found it. This is now time for me to do that project. There are other times where, for example, the Barnados Singer collaboration. So.

That came about because Singer and Barnardo collaborated previously. So Barnardo's in two of their big super stores up north. They started to create what they call these refashion hubs. So they've got a bit of space upstairs in the store and they asked Singer to give them some sewing machines so that volunteers could come and mend some of the clothing that get donated that needs some mending or upcycle some stuff and then put them back on the shop floor. And then as part of that collaboration, Singer wanted to...

get me involved to talk about it, but also to do a little project with Barnados where I go through the rag bags and do some transformations myself, which I mean, is just the sweet spot for me because now it's not even just me buying and rescuing a perfectly made garment from a charity shop. Now it's me rescuing things that are otherwise considered unsalvageable. There were things that were stained or they were unsellable or they'd been on the shop floor and unwanted them.

or whatever it is and they were literally going to go off to rag. And, you know, for me to be able to use my skill to rescue even a few of those pieces and bring them back into circulation for me is like the biggest reward really, you know, it's just, I can't think of a more wholesome way for me to apply those transformation skills into something, you know? So yeah, absolutely love that series and we're hopefully going to be doing it again this year.

Gemma Daly (57:40)

fantastic. And it was amazing. And you've also done, which is incredible, a runway collection with one of your friends, John, wasn't it? Who is also a designer for Sustainable Fashion Week. Like, how did that come about? And how did you narrow down those looks that you wanted to put on the catwalk?

Nicole Akong (57:50)

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

So Sustainable Fashion Week has been a movement that has been started by a woman called Amelia. And the model that she has is, so she kind of runs it from headquarter level, but what she does is she encourages local communities to form hubs, to host local events that come under the Sustainable Fashion Week umbrella. And it just so happened that year before last, there was

fantastic lady in my local area of Crystal Palace called Jess who she's a sewer as well and she followed me from the Sewing Bee and she really is all into sustainability as well, not just in fashion actually she's growing flax and all sorts of stuff but she wanted to start she wanted to spear head getting some events organised in our local area of Crystal Palace for Sustainable Fashion Week and through a mutual contact one of the school mum friends who I know knows Jess and she said I know Nicole you know I'm sure she'd love to get involved and so we connected.

And one of the events that they were looking to do was a runway show, a fashion show. And it had been quite a long standing dream of mine to do a runway show, even from back in my jewelry days. But obviously I was just a jewelry designer. It's like, what runway show would I do as a jewelry designer? And at the time I was sort of envisaging like a fashion week runway type thing. But then...

when the whole sustainable fashion week thing came up and they said they wanted to do a fashion show of all I was like, I would love to be involved. It was not the glitz and glamour runway of my visualisations from years ago, but it was even better because even though it was in a rough and ready venue and it was 30 people in the audience and it was just again, it felt like this is the space I wanted to be. don't miss. don't really want to be at London Fashion Week, but sustainable fashion week for me is even better.

And then, so when they did it, this year just gone. So was the second time in the second year that they've done this fashion show and they managed to get a bigger venue, which is this amazing Gothic inspired church. It was run by this very flamboyant priest, Father John, who's this incredible guy. He wanted to buy my Gorton's old trousers. And he's such good fun. And so we just had the best time. first year we collaborated with Sustenta Carnival, which is the project.

run by a lady called Mariano that rescues all of these costumes from Rio Carnival. They get discarded in the San Pedro at the end of Carnival. So she rescues all these costumes and because she's on a base and we connected a couple of years before and so John and I made that first collection by repurposing those carnival costumes which I absolutely love. I love that collection. The second year we thought we branch out a little bit more beyond the costumes because what we found with the first one is that because the show happens in September

And obviously the carnival costumes being very colorful and very, they lend themselves much more to festival wear, which seems a little bit unseasonal showing them in September. especially if we wanted to sell some of the pieces afterwards, it kind of felt like the wrong time of year to sell those kinds of pieces. So when it came to last year, we decided to still work with Sistenta, widen the collection so that it had a bit broad seasonal appeal.

And so I reached out to Fara the charity, because I've been in touch with them over the last year or so. I met their CEO at a sustainable fashion week event actually the year before. And so we connected and then she invited me to a couple of their events and I just got to know them, they're lovely team. And so I pitched to them and said, would you like to collaborate with us on this collection? What we would love to do, John and I, come in and go through your rag bags because I had already done this with Barnados in the summer.

We'd love come and go through the rag bags, rescue some pieces and rework them for the runway show. And of course they were like, yeah, amazing, great. So we did that. yeah, was initially when we going through the bags, it was like we were, we kind of had a loose theme for the collection in our minds, which was, I called it Circus Romance. That was the start of a collection that I was looking to do for the fashion reboot sale. So I booked myself to do a pitch to sell some secondhand clothes at an event called Fashion Reboot.

And my inspiration at the time was what I call circus romance. was very, lots of very bold prints. If you think of circus prints, you think kind of big bold stripes, maybe polka dots, stars, like just a very bold geometric prints combined with a bit of femininity, a bit of maybe sheer fabrics, ruffles, you know, just sort of keeping it very extra, but still very fun. And so we kind of had that loosely in our minds as we were going through the rag bags. So when we would see a piece, we'd go...

First of all, what could we do with it? I think that's the first thing. We'd look at something and go, what could we do with it? So we'd look at it and go, well, okay, well, currently it's a dress, but we could crop it and into a top or we could, know, so we'd sort of brainstorm ideas on the spot as to what it could be. And then once we kind of got a working idea, like, is it usable? Could we do something with it? Would it fit into, would it look coherent with the other things that we're looking to or cohesive with the other things we're looking to do?

then it made the cut and there were loads of things that we ended up not taking because we thought as lovely as it is and as great a transformation as it would be, just don't think it would quite fit into the collection. how we went about it really. I mean, we probably took more things that we used because we didn't really know at the time. We just thought, well, as far as how more materials and less and we could always get back whatever we don't use. yeah, that's how we worked it really. And whereas in the first collection that we did with Sistenta,

We kind of, it was very half and half in terms most of the looks. was some of John, some of me. I think the more recent one we did last September, was a little bit more like John took on some distinct looks and I took on some distinct looks. It just kind of worked out that way. It wasn't really intentional. It just kind of happened to work out that way. that is the sort of stuff I absolutely love. It is my sweet spot for sure.

Gemma Daly (1:03:37)

you

Nicole Akong (1:03:38)

So this

year, another thing I'm looking to do is more charity partnerships like that. So in fact, next month in February, I've got a really nice little paid partnership with Salvation Army. So they're doing a big kilo sale in one of their distribution stores. And they've asked me to come down and go through the kilo sale. And I'm going to take some pieces and come back and transform them. And yeah, so those are the kind of paid partnerships I love, you know, and that's what I'm hoping to get more of.

Gemma Daly (1:03:43)

Mmm.

Nicole Akong (1:04:04)

It's kind of tricky when we're charities really, you know, I don't like to charge full rates with charities because I just think I don't want to divert too much money away from your actual causes, you know? And so I do give charities a hugely discounted rate compared to if I was working with another brand for the same output. But, you know, for me, it's just, yeah, it's where my heart is. I absolutely love it.

Gemma Daly (1:04:26)

I think all of it links back Nicole, like what you were saying about um, career and knowing what fills your cup, isn't it? Because although yes, you get to do the sewing and the creative thing, you also, there's a heart to it as well. Do you know what I mean?

Nicole Akong (1:04:44)

Yeah, yeah, there is. And I think the more that you can infuse your work with that, because, know, there were so many times, honestly, Gemma, there were so many times when I would make something it would be an amazing make. But I would sometimes think like, is in this for other people? You know, so.

Gemma Daly (1:04:50)

Mmm.

Nicole Akong (1:05:02)

Like I said, for two years after I came off the sewing bee my Instagram was pretty much just photos of me and my finished makes, which is probably 90 % of us sewers on Instagram, right? We just sort of show off our finished make and, you know, and it's, I'm not saying that that's not a value because I would follow sewers who do that. The value I would get is the fact that they would share where the fabric was from, they would share where the pattern was from. So I could see, my God, I've never come across that pattern before. That looks, you know, I'd look up the pattern, whatever it was, right? So they're giving you information.

Gemma Daly (1:05:07)

Mm-hmm. Yeah. ⁓

Yes.

Nicole Akong (1:05:28)

that's helpful or maybe inspiring for you to do a similar make yourself. I wasn't doing any of that because the fabrics I was sourcing were from trade shows in Paris where nobody could buy them. I was drafting my own patterns. It's not like I could say, here's the pattern. It's like self-drafted. That doesn't help anyone. know, so all I was doing was going, Here's my finished make. And even though, you know, people would be like, my God, it's so cool. It's so great. I'm like, what value am I actually giving to these people?

Gemma Daly (1:05:46)

Yeah.

Nicole Akong (1:05:55)

You know, and when I really looked at that question, I was like, I think they're still only following me because they saw me on the sewing bee. They're not, I'm not actually giving them a huge amount of value. Besides, at the time I used to do a lot of my process stories, process videos and stories. So when I was doing the make, I would show the entire process of my stories. And I think people would get value from seeing the actual sewing process. But from, but on the main grid, the photo, you're not getting anything from that besides me in an amazing thing, right?

And I think that's really when I noticed that when I started to pivot and transition more into video content, where I was actually showing the transformation, I was showing the thing before, I was showing the steps and then I showing the thing after. The value was for people who sew who could follow the process, the value is obviously seeing that thing. But then there was also the inspiration it gave to people to go, my God, I never thought to look at something that way before.

And I can't tell you how many DMs I get from people even now going, gosh, you made me look at my wardrobe in such a different way. Whereas before I might've seen something I didn't want anymore and thought, oh, okay, just, you know, donate it, give it away, whatever. Now I'll think, I do something with it? Could I dye it? Could I sew something with it? Could I? So I think for me, that is really biggest gift, you in terms of like product and a business, you know, cause I mean, every business...

needs a product, right? Whether it's digital, whether it's physical, whatever business needs to be selling something. And when I thought about myself and I thought about this new era of business that I'm in, and I say business, but it's only because I technically operate, I have a limited company that I operate all of my income streams through. But if you ask me, what is your product? I'm like, kind of don't really have one. I do sometimes do wardrobe sales, I get some money from that. do sell sewing patterns, in dribs and drabs occasionally for a website.

Technically those are products, but I don't know that you can see that caps in the encapsulates everything I do. It's just a little part of something I do every now and then. But I worked out even from back in my jewelry days, I had this light bulb moment where would be sitting at my trade shows, which is where I would beat buyers and I would sell my jewelry And these are seasoned buyers.

These are buyers from Liberty, Harvey Nichols, like all the big stores you can imagine all over the world. They come to these shows to look at accessories every year. They see the same stuff every year. It takes a lot for them to stop in their tracks. And the amount of times I see buyers, they're walking together and they're just like that chit chatting, looking around and then.

literally would see my jewelry for the first time. I would just be like, my God, like who are you? Where have you been? You know? And I realised at that time because where is there be other designers that who I became to know when they got their jewelry in Liberty's and when they got their jewelry in all these department stores, they would go to the store and take pictures of their stuff in the store.

Gemma Daly (1:08:46)

Mm.

Nicole Akong (1:08:46)

And this is like the highlight

of their career. my God, my stuff is in Liberty. This is like a dream come true. I used to cringe like I not at them, but I could never bring myself to do that. I was actually not that interested in seeing my stuff in the store. It was I mean, it was was great. It was lovely that a store one of my jewelry and they were I didn't feel the need to go there and see it. For me, what was the bigger thing? If I could take a picture of anything, I feel proud of it.

For me, it was the look on those buyers face when they saw my jewelry for the first It was that moment of seeing their brains just fizzling with like trying to take in what they're seeing, you know? it was then I realised that I think my product, the thing I'm here to sell proverbially is inspiration. It's not the thing because whenever I've tried to sell the thing,

It's not been with a huge amount of joy. So even now with my clothes and all that stuff, it's like, don't want, I have no interest in designing and making clothes to sell because seeing someone wearing something I've made is not the thing that gives me joy. I know for loads of other designers it is, to see someone wearing one of their creations is like the best thing ever. I have no interest in that whatsoever. In fact, I'd rather you use my pattern, use my fabric and you make it.

I'm just as proud of that. I don't have to design it and make it for you. You know, so, but for me to inspire you and someone says to me, you inspired me so much that that is for me the biggest payment, the biggest reward. So how one makes money from that, I don't know. I'm still figuring that out. But, you know, I do feel that that is a huge thing. I am here to contribute that.

is uniquely mine. I think there's a certain level of inspiration that people get from not just seeing the things I'm making but seeing how I'm making them and seeing how I have this vision for something and turn it into something else that then gives them inspiration that they might be able to do the same. And yeah, for me that is the biggest reward.

Gemma Daly (1:10:48)

Absolutely, and you are inspiring, Nicole. Absolutely you are. I mean, you know, if somebody can look at items in their wardrobe and think, like you said, instead of getting rid of them, let's repurpose them. Isn't that like, that is so amazing and what we should all be trying to do in this day and age. So not only that, but you are so inspiring in many ways.

Nicole Akong (1:10:53)

Thank you.

thank you. Well, I'm going to share with

you, I'm going to share with you a big dream that I've held in that regard. And I don't talk about it often publicly, but I feel like I need to start talking about it publicly because, I've got to start putting it out there. But I would love to have a TV show doing that. That is, yeah, because I just feel I don't know what format is going to be. I don't know. You know, it's very wooly around the edges. But as you said, there's something around. Inspiring people to see their wardrobes in a different way.

Gemma Daly (1:11:18)

Mmm.

wow.

Nicole Akong (1:11:40)

and to instead of defaulting to throwing something away seeing what the possibility of what it could be instead. Maybe you could turn it into something that you love instead. And even if you can't because you don't sew, I mean, look how many thousands of us there are just in the UK that do sew. And I would love to make a bit of extra money from sewing. So I just think you've got those two things. You've got those two things. I just, yeah, I just, and the time is now, I think more than more.

Gemma Daly (1:11:55)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Nicole Akong (1:12:08)

now that the tide is turning, people are starting to become a little bit more conscious about their consuming habits and feeling really guilty about throwing clothes away especially and contributing to landfill and yeah, I just think if I can use any of my skill to help in that process and to get people to see things in a different way then that is absolutely what I would love to do.

Gemma Daly (1:12:17)

Mmm.

I think that'd be an incredible TV show and I'd definitely watch that.

Nicole Akong (1:12:33)

⁓

Thank you. Well, if you ever come across any TV producers, you know what to pitch. ⁓ Exactly. All your listeners.

Gemma Daly (1:12:38)

This is it. Well, you've put it out into the airwaves now, Nicole. So who knows? Yeah, that's it.

So just to tie up the interview, I like to do a little game of this or that. Is that okay with you? Yeah. So first one, upcycling or repairing?

Nicole Akong (1:12:50)

Yeah, of course.

I mean, I've got to say upcycling because that's where my heart is. But obviously repairing is also very important. Well, and actually the two don't have to be completely distinct. Sometimes you can repair something by upcycling it.

Gemma Daly (1:13:02)

Yeah, that was a tricky first one. ⁓

Yeah, good one, good one. Wove-ins or knits?

Nicole Akong (1:13:13)

so.

gonna say knits? I'm in a bit of a knitting era. Yeah I'm in a bit of a knitting era in terms of actually sewing if you ask me about sewing.

Gemma Daly (1:13:17)

Hmm, that's different to what thought you'd say.

Nicole Akong (1:13:25)

and alterations. Let's, let's, okay, if I need to alterate from, alteration from somebody, movements. But if I'm, a hard one, Gemma. I don't know if I can choose between those two.

Gemma Daly (1:13:30)

Yeah.

⁓ sorry.

have both, I'll let you off.

Nicole Akong (1:13:39)

Okay, you've swayed me, you swayed me, they're woven just from

the ease of it all. But let's not discourage Knits.

Gemma Daly (1:13:46)

Okay.

Sewing for yourself or others?

Nicole Akong (1:13:50)

Oh, myself,

Gemma Daly (1:13:53)

An organised stash or creative chaos.

Nicole Akong (1:13:56)

If it's stash, I have to say organised. I have to say organised. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. While I'm mid-make, my sewing table is chaos. But stash, I mean, okay, it's a small stash right now, but it's all, you know, she's all folded and yeah. Yeah, so when comes to stash, would say organised.

Gemma Daly (1:13:58)

Mmm.

Have a look. yeah, very well folded and organised. Yeah. You're one of the few. One of the few, Nicole.

Hopefully an easy one now. Tea or coffee?

Nicole Akong (1:14:20)

Tea, hands down.

Gemma Daly (1:14:21)

I think I know the answer to this one, but bold prints or classic planes?

Nicole Akong (1:14:26)

bold prints yep love a print!

Gemma Daly (1:14:27)

Yeah, she's a bold girl.

A meal out or a takeaway.

Nicole Akong (1:14:33)

quite like a meal out just because after so many years of child raising and all that stuff, I feel like we're finally now, hubby and I, in an era where we can leave kids at home unattended for periods of time, short periods of time. And yeah, meals out just feel, and also gives you an excuse to dress. You know, I was saying to somebody the other day that because I work from home, I think when people look at my Instagram, they think I dress up every day. I really don't. I have two settings, slug,

Gemma Daly (1:14:50)

true.

Nicole Akong (1:15:01)

and dressed up. And when I'm at home, I'm pretty much look like a slug. So any excuse that I get to dress and go out for something that's not just me being at home, I will take it. So absolutely dining out at the moment.

Gemma Daly (1:15:14)

Spring, summer or autumn, winter?

Nicole Akong (1:15:16)

spring, summer, summer more specifically. Definitely a summer girl. I feel way more inspired in the summer. the clothes I love to wear because I feel like even in the summer at home, even when I'm working from home, I could just put on one of my nice dresses and it's dresses and it's all fine. In winter, I'm like, I don't, I don't like feeling fussy. I just like feeling warm. So I tend to default to my sweatshirts and my jumpers and

Gemma Daly (1:15:19)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Nicole Akong (1:15:40)

you know, whatever trousers are clean that day sort of thing. And yeah, I actually well, mind you, now that I've taken up knitting, so I got a knitting machine. I did a knitting course early last year. So I haven't quite fulfilled my first goal of knitting myself a jumper. But once I get going with that, I think the tide might turn. I think I might start to get a bit more excited about winter dressing from next year. But this year, as things stand, I have to say summer,

Gemma Daly (1:15:48)

Mmm. ⁓

yeah. Yeah.

Nicole Akong (1:16:05)

But in terms of color seasons though, which is why was asking you, I don't know if you're into color theory and all that stuff, because my

color season is winter. But in terms of colors, it has to be not autumn, definitely winter, summer and winter. ⁓

Gemma Daly (1:16:13)

Yeah.

Okay, okay, interesting. Scissors or a rotary cutter?

Nicole Akong (1:16:23)

I probably use both in equal measure, if I'm honest. I like to use rotary cutters when I'm cutting out generally, like if I'm cutting out big pattern pieces. If it's small enough to fit on my cutting mat, I will default to a rotary cutter because I find the pinning and then the scissors is all a bit faff from me. Rotary cutter, can just pop your pattern weights down and off you go. Scissors I will use if I'm cutting out small pieces obviously if I'm doing alteration work or that sort of thing, which is a big part of my...

income was last year, I will almost exclusively use scissors on alterations obviously, you have a lot more control with that. So I couldn't be without either one of them to be honest.

Gemma Daly (1:16:57)

fair enough, that's fair enough.

And the last one, statement sleeves or a statement collar?

Or neither.

Nicole Akong (1:17:04)

Yeah, you know, probably neither, actually. You probably expect me to be one, but I guess because of my days in jewellery, I used to use jewellery as my embellishment around the collar. And even, yeah, because I tend to, I mean, I know I'm wearing a turtleneck today, but I tend not to wear things that are very close fitting on the neck, like shirts or button-up things. So I don't tend to like collars that are very close on the neck anyway.

Gemma Daly (1:17:08)

Fair enough.

Mmm.

Nicole Akong (1:17:30)

And then I'm warming a little bit to statement sleeves, I have to say. I'm sort of slightly entering a mild statement sleeve era, I've never particularly been a puff sleeve, statement sleeve kind of girly. I think for me, I love texture I love trims and I love colour. I think that's probably where my extra comes from in terms of my garments and my sewing more than the actual sleeves or collars.

Gemma Daly (1:17:45)

Mmm. ⁓

Yeah, that's cool. So where can people find you Nicole?

Nicole Akong (1:18:00)

I am on Instagram, that's probably the first port of call. So my handle is at Nicole underscore Akong. And then this year on YouTube by the same handle. So my channel is still Nicole underscore Akong. And once get going with that and it's what, you know, again, it's one of those things it's like, so I decided because I took on a lot of knitwear repair work this season. In fact, I've got a

whole table full of jumpers there that I need to repair. This is all client work. And I told myself this story of, well, I need that work for money. I need that work for money in the absence of having YouTube monetize and all these other things I want to do. I need to still keep this work going. And then other day I sort of stopped and challenged myself and I thought, what would happen if that work were to disappear overnight? And I think we all have to think about this question actually. I think we all need to think about this question. What would happen if my job disappeared overnight?

Gemma Daly (1:18:49)

Mm.

Nicole Akong (1:18:49)

What would

I do? then I thought, I don't think it's going to be the end of the world. I would have more time to focus on getting my YouTube up and running, which is my ultimate end game, is my video content it on YouTube and, you know, kind of grow that. And I would actually have more time to do that. If I invest more time in that and I got really good at that, there's every chance that I could make more money from that than I do from this in time, by the end of the year, hopefully. That's my goal.

So I just thought, I'm just going to give it up. I literally, after these trans of repairs are done, psychologically, I'm checking out. I'm checking out and this is not something I am going to offer anymore as a service. At least not routinely. And then, yeah, so that is, that's where things are going to go. So yeah, anyway, YouTube and Instagram.

Gemma Daly (1:19:35)

Yeah, so watch this space. This

is a big year, I think.

Nicole Akong (1:19:39)

Yeah, yeah, it feels like it. feels like it.

Gemma Daly (1:19:42)

Yeah,

it's been such an inspiring conversation and I really appreciate you spending the time with me today on the Sewing Social podcast.

Nicole Akong (1:19:51)

Thank you so much for inviting me. I loved it. Thank You

Gemma Daly (1:19:54)

You're welcome. You take care.

Bye.