|
|
|
Wendy Fleat came from Southampton which is on the South coast of England and whilst not quite a "Silver Surfer". She is a little grey round the edges. She lives with Alan who has been my partner, soulmate and best friend since 1995. He runs the technical side of their business.
She has first taught to sew by her Gran when she was 11 years old and found that she both enjoyed it and had a skill and flair for it. During her early 20's she did a number of college courses to further improve those skills and the majority of her employment was within the soft furnishing sector.
She took time out to have her 2 daughters but still used those skills to design and make all their clothes. Once they were at school she again returned to her love of designing and making soft furnishings and within a few years, because of the income it was generating, decided to set up her own business. This ran very successfully but because of personal reasons she gave it up in the mid 90's but still made for friends and family.
In 1998 they joined the "Internet Revolution" and Alan suggested they set up a web site with soft furnishing instructions and so Alternative Windows was born. By 2001 the number of visitors had grown to about 5000 per day and many people who were aware of the limitations of the Internet suggested that she/they write a book. It was a daunting task and a steep learning curve on the technology front but in January 2002 they launched their first Soft Furnishing Manual, they also set up a small company at the same time. Sales of the book exceeded all their expectations and later that year they launched a software package to assist in the estimating and calculating of fabric requirements.
Their latest soft furnishing e-books, with their colour coded diagrams, have been a runaway success with 1,000's sold worldwide. They have expanded the business and endeavour to launch new soft furnishing educational products on a regular basis.
They also run a website directory enabling Curtain Makers in the UK to advertise for free.
Remember that their selection of e-books contain many more detailed projects which go much further than these web pages will permit.
|
|
Geo Graphical Region
Worldwide
|
|
 |