Helle Matthewman takes her time with people. “We have time to talk to people,” she says. “People don’t get that in many shops.”
She has been doing it for 30 years. Every morning she walks half an hour down the hill to The Sewing Rooms on Lacy Road. “It does me good,” she says. She has run the shop since the day the landlord, standing on the pavement, asked her if she wanted it. She was out with her parents. She said yes, and they wondered what she was doing.
She had come from Copenhagen and a job in the City, which paid better, she says, but was nowhere near as much fun. The shop sold only sewing machines at first. Now it is mostly alterations, and its windows are dressed by a man of 79. We asked her what has changed.
What has changed?
After lockdown, we’ve had many more people bringing in things they would have got rid of before. We repair them, recycle them, and do what we can. It’s a changed world.
Is that the cost of living, or are people thinking differently?
I think people are thinking differently. During lockdown people had time to go into their wardrobes and find the clothes they never used, and there was a lot of talk about how we should behave towards the world. I think that’s definitely still happening, which is a good thing. It also got some children into sewing. If one girl goes to school with something she’s made, all her friends want to do the same. Boys too.
They don’t spend £5,000 on a wedding dress any more.
What do people bring in most?
A lot of standard shortening of trousers and skirts. But the busiest time of year is the wedding season, from April or May until August or September. What is happening now is that brides are buying either once-worn wedding dresses or ones imported from China, which cost hardly anything. They don’t spend £5,000 on a wedding dress any more. They come in here, we take them apart and put them together, and we charge less than the wedding dress shops, whose alterations are more expensive. Then you have the bridesmaids, the mother and father of both the bride and the groom, and the groom. We have a couple of ladies who are trained male tailors as well. It’s almost too much for the girls.
Who buys sewing machines now?
We used to sell all the high-tech, very clever machines. Now the top one is about £15,000, so they don’t fly out like they used to, when they were three or four thousand pounds. So now we sell up to mid-range machines, and I think a lot of people aren’t aware we do that. We still have an account with Husqvarna, and we sell Husqvarna Viking, the Swedish machines, and Pfaff, which are German.
What should people spend on one?
Around £300 is the level a schoolchild might be given for Christmas, if Mum can use it too. Don’t ever buy one that costs less than £250, because they don’t last. The motors aren’t strong enough. £300 is a good level, and it will last ten, fifteen, twenty years. Then we sit down and demonstrate how they work and how to thread them. We give free lessons.
Should I send more people your way?
Yes. It’s always good to have a busy January and February. We have space for five seamstresses, and usually three in. One has been with us for 25 years. She left at Christmas and came back in May, which was the plan. She’s in her sixties, and she’s going to do the same next year. She has customers here who wait for her. She’s a very good tailor, but they all do brilliant work. I’m so lucky. They’re not easy to find these days, and they have all walked through our front door.
My twelve-year-old is keen. Is she too young?
I was five. I learned to sew from two grandmothers. One had a machine like those, and the other worked hers with her feet on a pedal. If it gets you at the right time, you never want to stop. It’s a real passion.
Do you look at the cut of people’s clothes in the street?
Yes. It fascinates me. You can tell who knows what they’re doing and who doesn’t, and you can also see the ones who don’t care. There is a difference.
Would you do it all again?
We are dealing with people who care about their clothes and about keeping them going. They have a good attitude on the whole. So yes, like my marriage, I’d do it again.
