Sewing my way out of debt
The email made things perfectly clear. For what felt like the
five millionth time, my job application was being passed over
because of “inexperience”. As much as the irony of the catch 22
of “you need the job to get experience and experience to get the
job” I was disappointed – again. Of course I’d
been a stereotypically out-of-work actor/writer for a couple of
years so rejection I was used to. But I couldn’t pay the bills
with irony and whimsy.
My mother passed her new sewing machine with a sigh. Every year
she told herself that she was going to get back to sewing more
and altering her own clothes again but every year she just worked
more. So much so, that as the youngest child my sewing lessons
had been postponed after the button and ribbon stage for so long
that nearly ten years had gone by. I was earning a little cash by
helping her with the annual clear out of clothes and crap that
would be sent off to charity shops. We were as bad as each other.
“Oh but this fabric is so nice”, “all we’d need to is take that
in” or “yes the buttons are hideous but if we changed them...”
and such statements were made so often that in the end we had an
entirely separate bag of things we were so optimistic to throw
away.
I don’t know when we came up with the idea but that was
definitely when it was born. Upcycling I called it, “doing old
stuff up” my mother called it but either way I was doing it. TORN
Upcycling and Accessories was born.
It wasn’t as easy as it sounded. My sewing skills needed serious
improvement and practise; materials are an expensive and risky
investment not to mention the price of tables at weekend craft or
flea markets. So far I’ve sliced my hand on a seam ripper, nearly
pierced my own (due to my bad habit of holding my needles in my
teeth while I’m stitching) and stabbed myself more times than my
poor tortured hands can count.
But here I am. A suitcase full of pre-loved clothes with added
love and a few stall bookings, but most importantly I’ve got a
sense that I’m still the master of my own destiny.
I think that was the worst thing for me (not using the big R
word) was the sense that the economy had somehow taken my future
away as a young person. I don’t know if this venture will keep me
in tea and Doc Martins or maybe be a completely disaster but it’s
given me and amazing feeling that we’re all going to be ok.
And in the spirit of us all being ok I thought I’d share that
thought. Wish me luck.
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12 Comments
You guys have all been fabulous!
There's a big market for retro clothes, stalls and shops now. A nearby town has a street with a heavy retro theme. It has 2 old clothes shops (with other items from 40s50s60s70s) doing amazingly well. I think it's a mix of individual fashion and nostalgia, but it works. Brilliant buttons too.
Good luck with the project. :-)
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