What’s the hardest part of hand sewing?
“Getting the thread through the tiny hole in the needle,” laughed Laura Walton. “If you have that done, you’re ready to sew.”
Walton has always had a love for fashion. She began sewing at a young age to create her own affordable pieces.
“People see styles they want and like. I wanted clothing to look a certain way, but I didn’t have much money to buy all the clothing I wanted,” she said. “So I just go to thrift stores where it’s really affordable, and then you can just buy a big T-shirt for $5 and then cut it into whatever shape you want. I think it just lets people express themselves, their unique style, their unique shape and body type, make it fit properly. And then it’s much cheaper and more affordable.”
Walton started a YouTube channel called Cinderella Sew to promote herself on social media, making full outfits to try and sell.
“I just loved the editing process and posting the videos. So that started earning revenue for me when everything else I was trying so hard was not earning revenue,” she said.
Walton started making tutorial videos, teaching people how to fix what they already own or make it into something beautiful.
“People get so excited about my videos, just how to fix a hole in their clothing. And I love the comments,” she said. “There’s comments like, ‘I’m a man in my 40s and I’ve never sewed anything and I feel so accomplished now,’ or, ‘My school uniform just broke and you helped me on my way to school fix it.’ It is really cool to hear from the people watching and hear all the different kinds of people that are using the videos.”
The sustainability portion of what Walton does is important to her.
“It’s so good to recycle, but we don’t always see fabric as a way to recycle, like clothing,” she said. “But it’s such a good, sustainable item. Clothing can last for years and years. So it’s cool to think about the clothing you’re wearing, being from the 70s or the different eras, and it’s almost just as good as when it was made decades ago.
“It’s nice now because people are getting more into vintage clothing and thrifting, and that is something where those clothing pieces might have holes and you can fix them really easily, or it might be something that’s too big, but you can alter it.”
Christina Pasquet, owner of Patch Halifax, agrees with that sentiment.
“People who make their own clothing, too, they’re going to wear it longer. It’s going to last longer. They’re going to take better care of it,” said Pasquet. “There’s just a sense of pride associated with that, too. Even just creating your own stuff is a very sustainable practice.”
Patch moved to Agricola Street and they’ve seen an uptick in foot traffic.
“I think people recognize that it is a very valuable skill. It’s fun. It’s something you can do with a friend,” said Pasquet. “But I do think that there is an absence of sustainability these days.”
Patch offers beginner classes for sewing on machines and in the last four years they’ve seen significant growth.
“Nine-hundred-forty-eight people in a pretty short period of time wanted to learn a new skill,” said Pasquet. “And many of those people have gone on to make so many different things. People have started making their entire wardrobes, quilts for like new babies and weddings. And like so many special things have come out of those intro classes.”
For Walton, hand sewing still tugs at her heartstrings.
“I got to learn that couture is actually hand sewing. So it’s kind of a really cool, lost art or it’s really precious,” she said. “Once I started doing that, I was like, ‘Oh, I like this way more than using a machine.’”
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