How I Built a Functional Brand Out of Chaos

My story, my failures, and the mission behind Threadwise.

I remember the day I saw an ad on Facebook to join a free challenge to build your handmade business. I was sewing kids clothes, had no system, taking pics of my clothes on the floor, wall, table… anywhere 😅 The pieces were nice but no system whatsoever and zero presentation skills 😂✨

That free challenge turned everything upside down for me. I started building an e-shop, worked on the foundations for my brand and later joined the club of the woman who ran the challenge. I met an amazing group of entrepreneur-minded women and together we’ve been on the journey ever since 💪💜

“Obvious visuals sell. If it looks intentional, it works.”

I shaped my brand, learned how to sell, and made comfy oversized clothes for toddlers 👕🧸 I remember the first time I found the perfect pattern, my customers loved it. But one day I saw the same pattern on a new collection by a fellow entrepreneur. It was public, but I didn’t want to be so easily copyable. I wanted something unique, something just mine. That moment shaped how I think about patterns 💡

So I started playing with my own patterns 🎨 But the problem was that I can’t really draw 😂 I never could. Huge imagination, zero drawing skills.

That’s when I started experimenting with AI 🤖 Luckily both me and Viktor have tech backgrounds so we understood the tools fast. That helped me build a system for creating unique patterns without needing to draw. People started loving them ❤️

I built a handmade kids clothes brand with only around 1500 followers, but each launch was close to 4000 EUR 🚀 I felt like I made it. That I will be able to actually have this as a main job and bring enough money to my family by doing something I really loved. But Norway isn't very small business-friendly. Costs were high, and I couldn’t afford to pay anyone. So I sewed everything myself. It made me feel like I was on a factory line 🤖🪡 I couldn’t accept more orders and I felt stuck. This, unfortunately, wasn't the way for me.

Don’t get me wrong, I love sewing, but if you want to make real money you need someone to sew with you. It’s not a one-person job, especially because you have to do everything else: accounting, marketing, designer, planner, and so much more. And I couldn’t do that in Norway.

So what now 🤔 I loved making patterns, printing them on fabrics, creating, advertising it… but I couldn’t handle everything that came after. So I had to stop. But I didn’t want to stop creating, I was addicted 🔥 That’s when I realised there must be so many women out there in the same situation. Good at creating but can’t draw. Blocked in their creative process with something that used to be, before the age of AI, unconquerable: not being able to draw. Those people could benefit from the same knowledge of AI, even if they don’t know much now.

“AI does not replace your creativity, it unlocks it.”

And that’s when it clicked 💡 If I couldn’t scale sewing, I could scale helping others.

Marketa 🪁