About

About Me, Miki Hau

Sewist

Started with mending my own socks and pants as a 10-year-old, I now find sewing my passion and business. It's my therapy, creative outlet, passion, source of joy, occasional frustration, and so much more. It just hits right in my sweet spot between creative dreaming and logical puzzle solving.

Designer

While designing wearables, my first priority is practicality. In fact, I have very strong opinions on how garments components should behave -- check out my design principles! Only after that comes my whimsical side, taking from inspirations I see from anime, movies, and street trends.

Engineer

Always wanting to build things, I'm an engineer at heart. My favorite way to think about patternmaking is "fabric engineering" -- building a shell with my preferred material to fit and enhance the body. The process of analyzing, prototyping, adjusting, and iterating applies to whatever that needs to be built, including sewing patterns!

About WildCress

I’ve always dreamed of sewing patterns that truly make sense. Why do so many designs put a zipper in the back where I can’t even reach? How do I know if I can swap one notion for another? And how can I get a good enough fit without endless rounds of muslins?

WildCress is my answer to these frustrations—my dream come true in garment design and the sewing experience. I want:

Thoughtful design that prioritizes function and comfort
Clear guidance on substitutions, alternatives, and trade-offs
Fitting and adjustments built into the construction process
Intuitive illustrations and video tutorials that actually make sense
A space for exploration, learning, and skill-building

And I want to share all of this with you—because every sewist deserves it.

Experience Levels @ WildCress

Sewing

Sewing is about precision and control. Examples include maintaining an even stitch line, aligning notches accurately, and achieving a clean edge finish.

Familiarity with Techniques

Understanding various sewing techniques and terminology—or knowing how to research and apply them.

Fitting Knowledge

Knowing when and how to make a toile, troubleshoot fit issues, and adjust pattern pieces accordingly.

Pattern Drafting

Modifying/hacking existing pattern pieces to suit your vision, swapping design elements, fitting your own sloper.

We consider these four following factors above when assigning experience levels to our patterns. Here’s our rubrics for each experience level:

Level	Sewing	Techniques	Fitting	Drafting
⭐	beginner	beginner
⭐⭐	confident	beginner	beginner
⭐⭐⭐	confident	confident	beginner/confident	beginner/confident
⭐⭐⭐⭐	confident	confident	confident	confident

Patience Levels @ WildCress

It’s tricky to define how “long” a project feels in an objective way. Everyone sews at a different pace, has different physical limits, and brings different levels of experience. Instead of measuring time-to-completion, we use a heart rating system ❤️ to indicate how much repetitive or fiddly work a project involves.

Every project starts with 1 heart ❤️, and additional hearts are added based on the number of detailed or repetitive components. A heart worth of patience equals the work of each component below:

4+ buttons & buttonholes
6+ pleats or pintucks
1 full circumference of gathers around the bodice
1 construction step requiring hand-sewing

For example, a blouse with 12 pintucks, 7 buttons, and a gathered peplum near the hem would total 5 hearts:

- 1 base heart

- 2 hearts for 12 pintucks — 6 per heart

- 1 heart for 7 buttons — 4 per heart, rounded down

- 1 heart for the gathered peplum

This way, you can gauge the effort involved at a glance and decide if a project fits your patience level.

Functional Design Principles @ WildCress

WildCress designs for real life, not just the fitting room or the photography studio. We prioritizes comfort, adaptability, and ease of use in everyday clothing. Below are some key design principles, ranked from most important to least:

1. Prefer functional pockets

Bottoms and outerwear should always have functional pockets. Tops may not require them, but they’re a plus.
Pockets should be able to ergonomically hold weight and volume proportional to their size, without affecting natural movement.
Example: a patch pocket does not hold volume well, and therefore is more decorative than functional.

2. Prefer fasteners at an accessible location

Fasteners should be placed in a location easily reachable by the wearer themself.
Examples: a laced strap on the front side, a back tie slightly below the waist, buttons at the back neck are good locations. A center back zipper is not.

3. Prefer size adjustability for close-fitting garments

Life happens, and bodies change. As wearer’s weight fluctuates, clothing should adapt rather than become unusable, ensuring longer wearability and better value.

4. Prefer other types of fasteners over zippers — with some exceptions

Zippers inherently discourage/limit size adjustment, so it should be used only when the garment has enough built-in ease or stretch.
Exception: knits. Fabric stretch naturally adjusts size, but knits don’t usually need fasteners at all.
Exception: outerwear. It's typically designed with extra ease.
Exception: jeans. Just because. It won’t be called jeans without zippers.