I have been sewing all my life! Well since I was 8 actually. I started by making a dress for my Barbie doll which wasn’t my best work, but I didn’t give up.

I made a skirt after that and my wonderful Nan showed me how to follow a pattern. It quickly became a passion, and I have lost count of how many posh party dresses I have made.

If you were a teenager in the 1980’s I was the red head, propping up the bar in The Peacock Inn wearing a posh frock and super high heels. I know this doesn’t sound odd, but I have to admit that it was probably a Wednesday night when everyone else was in jeans! … I love to dress up!

The mad party years were great, and I never lost the passion for sewing. I honed my skills over many years, and became quite the perfectionist while working at the Aquascutum factory.

The thrill of making something special that is my own unique creation has never worn off and as soon as I had children they got dressed up too. Every wedding or special event meant that a new outfit was made for each of them, and I’m not averse to a fancy dress costume either!

My haberdashery business started very small in a tiny unit in Dryden Street, and has grown and moved until I settled in my beautiful Victorian shop premises at 12 Montagu Street, Kettering.

My shop is my favourite place to be and it’s full of wonderful fabrics of every colour. There is an array haberdashery stuff to inspire the dressmaker and artisan alike. I always have an abundance of buttons, ribbons, zips, elastic, cord, tape, press studs, needles, scissors and lots more!

I keep a stock of materials for the crafty customers too… like embroidery hoops and floss, mountains of fat quarters and I have wool for the knitting fanatics together with lots of knitting patterns too if you need inspiration.

I have noticed lately how important it has become to local Kettering people that we should preserve our clothing and not live in such a throw away society.

I spend my days selling new zips and buttons to home sewers and making alterations to perfectly good garments that have a lot of life left in them. The trend for upcycling is definitely growing and I’m all in favour of making the clothes we have last as long as possible.

When I’m not selling the supplies I’m sewing and altering. So many people are thinking (like me) that to prolong the life of our clothing is helping the environment.

Some of my customers were children of the second world war and that ‘make do and mend’ mindset is still engrained in them. I’m fully behind keeping our wardrobes wearable. It’s lovely to buy new clothes and I am such a fashion junkie it’s hard not to splash out occasionally and get that gorgeous new outfit, but living through Covid has made me appreciate that life is about more than money and things, and that we should save money along with saving the world we live in.

I talk to customers every day who want to keep their clothes wearable and so I am happy to take in their alterations and make their jeans or coats or whatever they need last a few years more. So many clothes go into landfill every day, it makes me glad when my wonderful customers do their bit for the environment and bring me their loved items.

MONDAY to WEDNESDAY

10.00am – 5.00pm

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THURSDAY to SATURDAY

9.30am – 5.00pm

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SUNDAY

closed

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