Sewing Against Domestic Violence – Les Ateliers: the women-led business in Bern making a difference

At Sternengässchen 1 in Bern, three powerful women have joined forces to create a creative workplace. The two seamstresses, Lisa Iseli and Katharina Stettler, and the illustrator and designer Frances Morrissey, love using their talent and imagination, and have turned their passion into a profession.

Les Ateliers was established in August 2020. Every day they sew, illustrate, design, and create. This is how new garments, collections, postcards, and many other great things are brought about. The artists’ joint projects and creations can be found on the Les Ateliers webshop. However, all three women have their own shop where customers can get a taste of the work of the three individual craftswomen.

Sewing against domestic violence

When Rhiana Spring, founder of Kona Connect, visited Les Ateliers one day, she told them about her non-profit organisation that combines human rights and artificial intelligence to empower people in need through practical assistive technologies. The three craftswomen had been eager to do something for International Women’s Day. When they heard about Kona Connect’s visionary project, it became clear pretty quickly that they all wanted to support it. Especially in a time when domestic violence has increased a lot due to the corona crisis, Katharina, Lisa and Frances feel obliged to do their bit in the fight against domestic violence.

The three women joined forces with Sex Educator Eveline Gugger to sew twenty pillows in the shape of uteruses. The motto of the action is “Know your body, know your rights,” and all the profits from the sale of the pillows will be donated to Kona Connect.

It took twenty hours to sew the twenty uterus pillows. “The cushions are not perfect or symmetrical, as we humans are not either,” Frances said during the interview. Every uterus is a little different and beautiful in its own way.

The uterus cushions have been so well received that they were almost sold out within the first three days! The women, therefore, promptly decided to start a second round. In addition to the four different coloured uterus pillows, there is now also a uterus pillow with cherry stones that can be heated in the oven or microwave. A perfect pillow to relieve menstrual pain, for example.

Uterus As Pillow – From the Idea to its Realisation

All the old models that had been used so far to represent a uterus and to explain topics like menstruation or the female cycle seemed very plastic and cold. That’s why Eveline thought that all these topics could be explained much more easily and vividly if the uterus was made of a soft, beautiful material.

Eveline Gugger is a social worker and works with youths. Together with Les Ateliers, she designed the cut so that parts of the uterus are as true to the original size as possible. That’s why the uterus part of the cushion is about the size of a fist and the vagina part is about 10 to 11 cm long. Evelin’s goal was to develop the uterus cushions for sex education workshops and it’s pretty clear she has achieved this goal.

Handmade From Bern – Three Self-employed Women Join Forces in their Creativity

Going into business for themselves is a courageous decision, but one that none of the three women regret; on the contrary, all three would take the step again in a heartbeat.

Frances Morrissey is still in the build-up phase to make her designs and illustration art her main profession. She wants to follow her passion and likes being her own boss. Frances has a fascination with insects, which often comes out in her art. Her aim is to inspire and create new impulses, as well as to bring people and nature closer together. Frances works with digital and traditional media —be it for a new logo, a book project, or screen print design.

Lisa Iseli has already been self-employed for nine years and ventured out on her own after her tailoring apprenticeship when she was only twenty-years young. Nowadays, she almost can’t believe it’s been nine years. Lisa loves working with high quality and beautiful fabrics, creating her own collections or working with customers to design their perfect garment. Alterations and repairs are also part of her everyday life. Her goal is to ensure that her customers’ garments always fit perfectly.

For Katharina Stettler, it was already clear during her tailoring apprenticeship that her goal was independence. She started making this dream a reality in August 2020, when she got a place in the studio. Her goal is to create the right piece of clothing for every customer and to respond to her customer’s wishes and needs. It wasn’t exactly easy for them to start in a pandemic year. Katharina, however, is more optimistic and thought that if she could survive this year, then she could survive everything as an independent woman. She will be all the more positive when people start going out again and need nice clothes.

From a Global Crisis to Bubbling Inner Inspiration

The corona year was tackled with strength and creativity. The time of the corona pandemic was not easy for the artists, especially financially. However, they are happy that they had their studio during this crisis and were able to support one another and be there for each other emotionally. The mutual inputs and reinforcements served them very well during this grey time.

The three artists find it exciting that very different people keep dropping by their rooms, as their clientele is delightfully mixed. Perhaps because of this, joint projects come about very spontaneously at Les Ateliers. They often arise from a crazy idea that is not as crazy as it had seemed at the beginning. Then, in a very short time, exciting projects arise. For example, the beautiful Design Foulards, which were hand-sewn by Lisa and illustrated and designed by Frances.

They have creative blocks from time to time, but these blocks are also part of the process and the artists can encourage and give each other advice. What helps most is to put the work aside for a while and then go on with fresh eyes. After a short break, ideas usually just bubble up, as the artists say. What motivates the three women most about their job is the creativity of their work, as well as being able to get up in the morning and do what they love most. They also enjoy the manual work, trying things out and always creating something new. They appreciate the imaginative and supportive atmosphere that prevails in the studio and can motivate and inspire them. Frances, Lisa and Katharina are happy to have found a job that is fulfilling. It wasn’t always easy and, especially at the beginning, independence can be a big challenge. However, perseverance is even more worthwhile when you have made it.

A huge and wholehearted THANK YOU from the entire team at Kona Connect!
This incredible gesture and campaign “Sewing Against Domestic Violence” by these four wonderful women (wonder women!) has made had a big impact on our work helping survivors of domestic violence. It’s been a tough year for everyone around the world, especially for those who are self-employed artists. So we courage you to support their beautiful work and check out their web shop, especially now!