About the Invention

In today's world of consumerism, the idea of sewing one's own clothes may seem odd. However, not too long ago, women sewed the clothes that they and their families wore. As recently as the 1960's, Canadian school girls learned the sewing arts in mandatory home economics classes. Today, many women, both young and old, enjoy sewing clothes for pleasure and for the opportunity to create something original at perhaps a fraction of the cost of a purchased outfit.

Since 1994, Tanya Shaw-Weeks has been offering a customized pattern service to home sewers through her company Unique Patterns Design Ltd. Intially, the custom patterns were hand drawn to customer specifications. Now, computer software developed by Tanya makes this service availble on the Internet through uniquepatterns.com.

Customers log on at uniquepatterns.com, where they provide their measurements, and then select a pattern from the many that are on display. The pattern is redrawn to fit their measurements and the customer receives the customized paper pattern within ten to twelve working days. More than 7500 regular customers, mostly in the United States, buy their patterns from Unique Patterns Design Ltd.

Recently, Tanya formed a partnership with pattern giant Butterick/Vogue. Her company will serve as a customer service arm for Butterick/Vogue. Tanya's other company, Virtually Yours Inc. launches in the fall 2000 with the website thevirtualyou.com. The site uses proprietory software that lets internet shoppers see how clothing sold on-line will look on the shopper's body. The software combines the Internet shopper's personalized photo with garments that have been altered on-screen to match the shopper's body dimensions.

About the Inventor

Tanya Shaw-Weeksgraduated from Dalhousie University Costume Studies program in 1991. In 1993, Tanya had a successful sewing business. Women often asked her to draw patterns specifically for their shape. It took a short while before Tanya realized that the commercial patterns available to them simply didn't fit right, and women were tired of altering and re-altering the patterns, never getting the right fit. Tanya felt that women would enjoy the time they spent sewing if they didn't have to deal with the frustration of a poor fit.

With the help of some engineers, Tanya came up with the innovative software, which she called Unique Patterns. Tanya has received recognition for her innovations and her entrepreneurial success. She won the Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, 1994, Smart Young Leader Award, 1999, finalist, Canada woman Entrepreneur of the Year Award, 1999 and her company received the Nova Scotia New Exported Achiever award, 2000. Tanya was born in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia in 1971. Truly entrepreneurial, she started her first business when she was just nineteen years old. She credits the tremendous support that she received from family and people in the business community for her success. Family is very important to her, and she lives in Fall River with her husband and two cats.