Most designers have a great workroom on speed dial. Texas designer Nancy Charbonneau explains how having a seamstress on staff is a key part of her business.

Nancy CharbonneauCharbonneau Interiors

I grew up in a house my dad had built, and he made my mom a sewing room in our basement, so I was brought up with a drill in one hand and a sewing needle in the other. At first I thought I would go into fashion, but then in college I switched my major to interior design. This was in the late 1980s, and I was blessed to have to take a drapery workroom class—they would never have that now!—which really combined my love of textiles with design.