KALAMAZOO —
Just a glance at one of designer
popular slapdash wallets or patchwork totes and you can tell it’s hers: The colorful, multipattern design speaks to a signature style that’s distinctively her own.
Yet as unique as 28-year-old van Almelo’s style may be, in at least one sense, she’s like her mother, who van Almelo said recently “does every craft under the sun.”
“I used to just watch her sew,” van Almelo said of her mother on a recent evening, seated in her craft room at the house she recently purchased in Portage with her husband and 5-year-old son.
“And then one year in Kalamazoo, I had my first apartment alone and I couldn’t afford cable or the Internet or anything, so I was like, ‘Mom, I need something to do.’ And I borrowed her sewing machine and just started sewing stuff.”
Van Almelo — like her mother with her crafts — now designs and sews just about everything there is to design and sew. In addition to bags and wallets, she’s done snap pouches, magnets and mirrors, hats and legwarmers, “pillow cube” toys and bibs for babies, dresses and tank tops, even camera cases and coasters.
“Anything colorful,” she said, laughing.
No matter the style, her items often feature small pieces of different colored cotton fabric and patterns sewn into a whole.
Her most popular items, however — sold like the rest of her items through her online store hosted through Etsy.com — are her custom “ninja pants,” wide-legged pants with a fold-over waist typically crafted from 100 percent cotton fabric or a 50/50 cotton-poly blend.
“They’re like yoga pants, but I didn’t want to just call them yoga pants,” van Almelo said. “My husband and his best friend used to make fun of these pants all the time, and they’d call me a ninja in them, and that’s where (the name) kind of came from.”
Van Almelo’s had the last laugh, however, having sold more than 250 pair of the pants since she began making them three or four years ago. Through her online store alone, she’s sold her goods to individuals in 41 states and 10 countries.
“There’s one girl in Sweden that owns nine pairs of ninja pants, she just loves them,” van Almelo said, adding that the girl is really tall. “I’ve got a lot of people that can’t find yoga pants that are a long length, because they don’t make them that long in stores.”
Van Almelo’s been selling her goods for six or seven years now, and a lot of her sales have actually been to friends, and friends of friends, through word of mouth. This spring she’ll begin selling a number of her goods at the new fashion apparel shop i heart ipanema, 115 W. Lovell St., in downtown Kalamazoo.
But the word-of-mouth sales are likely to continue.
“Sometimes I’ll be wearing something and be at Bell’s and somebody will be like, ‘Hey where did you get those cool pants?’ or that bag or something, and I’ll be like: ‘Well I’ve got one in my trunk if you want to check it out,’” van Almelo said. “I’ve sold a lot of things in the Bell’s parking lot.”