Who are you?

Clare Booth (one half of Top Drawer Diva) . Top Drawer Diva offers the modern girl a creative experience with a difference. From fun knicker-making to vintage style pinnies, we have the tools, techniques and the knowledge to show you how to become a creative diva.

What does your business do?

Mainly – hen party activities; from knicker and garter-making to sew wedding bunting. The knicker-making classes get a great reaction and are the most popular amongst the hens. With these mainly being at weekends we offer children and community sewing workshops called Stitch Club Monday – Fridays and hold these in schools, libraries, community centres etc.

Where are you based?

Home is Motherwell but as a mobile service we cover a large area of Central Scotland and north England. Vicki (business partner) is based in Lincolnshire, between her and a small army of divas’ we can pretty much offer our mobile services throughout most of the UK.

How did you get started?

With a 10year old Brother sewing machine. While I was on maternity leave Vicki and I wanted to set something up that worked around our families. Having met each other working in Panache Lingerie our common ground was knickers! Knicker-making hen parties grew from there!

What is your background?

I have a degree in Textiles from Heriot-Watt Uni (Scottish Borders Campus) and worked in the Lingerie Industry as a Fabric Technologist for 10 years before starting a family. It was a great place to work; travelling, sourcing, working to deadlines and the people were great, but it wasn’t something I wanted to do full-time after having a baby. Part-time was difficult in that industry due to the nature of the job so Vicki and I came up with a creative solution that suited us both

What is your top tip?

Believe in your idea and keep going with it even if you feel as if you are getting nowhere!

Or we do have a bit of a diva motto ‘just wing it’

How long has your business been running?

Just over five years, we started in July 2011 in Lincolnshire, Clare relocated home to Scotland in July 2015 and the great thing about the business is we saw the move as an expansion to offer hen parties to the Scottish hens!

Has anyone helped you get started and how?

As I lived in Lincolnshire at the time we went to an enterprise group called efactor, they were very helpful with social media workshops etc. At the time there was no funding available so we self-financed for the first year and then when the business started to generate revenue we heavily reinvested back into the business to create for the website, marketing and PR which all paid off.

What was your first deal?

We started off with few parties at friends’ houses and from there word of mouth took hold and we had several bookings from friends of friends. The first time we actually thought this could go places was a party in January 2012 – a knicker-making baby shower for 25 fun loving girls in Nottingham.

What was your biggest mistake/or what would you do differently?

There probably has been a few ‘mistakes’ but they are learning curves – we just know not to do that again. Sometimes it’s the best way to learn by knowing what not to do.

Who was/is your mentor/or inspiration?

Our inspiration was a creative business that worked around our families!

Where do you plan your business to be in five years time?

To be completely nationwide and be the number one hen party activity in the UK.

Contact details

http://www.topdrawerdiva.co.uk/