Introducing... Christiane Poulos of La Petite Poulette

This week, CLOG is proud to introduce to you Christiane Poulos of leather bag label La Petite Poulette. Christiane frequently participated in Craft Hatch during its early stages and has since gone on to stock at COUNTER, the Craft Victoria shop. It pleases us to no end when this happens, it's a bit like graduating isn't it!

Based in Melbourne, Christiane crafts her bags from her bedroom studio under the label La Petite Poulette. Using a variety of different natural and dyed sheep, cow, calf leathers (all of which are ridiculously wonderful to touch might we add), the real gem is perhaps the pop of colour that comes from the lining fabric. With quite a selection on hand, the hard decision would be deciding which lining is your favourite!

Without further ado, read away. Happy Friday everyone.

In the beginning…
It all began as a hobby. I’ve always been one of those people who go out shopping for particular things and then think “I could just make that”. So when I needed a new leather bag I decided to just make one myself. Then I started making bags for my friends, and then for my friends’ friends and it all took off from there.

I’ve been sewing since I was 10 years old, and after school I studied fashion and costume, but once I’d finished my studies I couldn’t work out what I wanted to do with myself. I’d always wanted to make a career out of doing something creative, so when the bag idea randomly became a business possibility I couldn’t help but give it a go.

It’s all in the name…
This will probably sound a little bit cryptic. La Petite Poulette means The Little Chick in French. One of my nicknames at school was Poulet (chicken), courtesy of my surname, and I’m the youngest in my family. My mother is French so it’s a bit of a shout-out to her, too.



About working with leather…
Working with leather has been both challenging and rewarding. It’s an unforgiving but very versatile material to work with. Having had no formal training in working with leather I’ve had to work out a lot of things along the way, like the magic of glue and the importance of eliminating thickness wherever possible. I started out sewing with softer sheep leather on my old domestic machine, and I had many broken needles and much heartache. I now work with an industrial lockstitch machine, and although I’m still breaking needles every once and a while, it has become a whole lot easier.

I have a tendency to work with the leather in the same way I would fabric, and this has been one of my on-going challenges. Being self-taught in leather craft I was always going to depend heavily on my fashion training when making patterns and constructing bags, but with time I’ve learnt that leather can actually be treated in a much less complicated manner than fabric. I have learnt of the wonders of leather adhesives and rawhide mallets, I now revel in unfinished edges, and I am gradually learning to lay-off on the top-stitching.

What gets me in the mood to make…
I’m a real thinker when it comes to my work, so a chat with a friend about my ideas helps to put me in a doer frame of mind. I can’t bear the thought of working in silence, so there’s always going to be music involved in getting creative too. I owe my current flurry of creative activity to Betty Davis and Nina Simone. And deadlines! They really help.

And when it comes to overcoming creative obstacles…
Working from home is most definitely my biggest creative obstacle. There are way too many distractions. I’ve found getting started the minute I’m up and at ‘em helps to keep me focused on what I have to get done each day. And leaving my laptop turned off also helps. I’m hoping to get myself a nice little studio space the minute I get the chance. Also, being a one-woman-show has its difficulties. I still work a few days a week at my other job so when I’m home I often feel overwhelmed by all the things I need to do to run my business, whether it is making the bags, working on marketing or bookkeeping. Sometimes I just have to drop everything, refocus, and decide what is most pressing, but with time I am learning the art of time management.

My proudest achievement to date…
Appearing in Frank Bits in the July/August 09 issue of Frankie Magazine has been really amazing. Stocking to COUNTER and seeing bags sell has also got me feeling pretty darn proud.

Another craft skill I’d love to learn is…
I love to knit, but have never come to grips with knitting patterns, so I’d love to learn how to knit something more exciting than a scarf one of these days. I’d also love to learn quilting, bead appliqué, book-binding, weaving, screen printing… I’ll stop there.

If I could do anything in the world tomorrow, I would…
This is a hard one, as I’d really like to think of something insightful and socially/politically/environmentally thought provoking. However, my overworked and sleep-deprived brain keeps crying out for just one simple thing: a long and guilt-free sleep-in.