About Us

As far back as I can remember, I've always loved playing with threads: first knitting with my mother, who patiently corrected my mistakes at night, secretly, so that I wouldn't get discouraged. With her, I also discovered sewing and the magic of transforming an old pair of my brother's pants into a pretty dress for myself. And with the scraps, I made clothes for my dolls.

Macramé came later, when I was already an adult, out of necessity, to make space in tiny studios, to fit in clothes, books, and plants. Bead weaving is much more recent: I got into it during lockdown.

My name is Mireille, I've traveled quite a bit, I've met wonderful people, and I've seen what they do with their hands in sewing, macramé, embroidery, and weaving. Their fingers replicated ancestral gestures, telling stories to anyone who took the time to watch them. What they made was not only beautiful and useful, it was the memory of a family, a people, a country. It's to all these people that I think of when I start a project.

Today, I've settled in the southwest of France. And it's here, in the arid plateaus around Rocamadour, that I recharge and draw inspiration for my projects.

With Fil Free, I wanted to create simple things, useful, sometimes frivolous. The materials are carefully selected for their quality and respect for the environment. Whenever possible, I favor small businesses. The work is done with patience, research, and more or less successful trials to arrive at a finished product.

In the workshop, I am never alone: Altaï, my loyal second, follows me like a shadow and monitors every one of my movements. And then, when ideas don't come, Shiva, Chachou, and Shinobi come to comfort me and lift my spirits.

Mireille & Altaï