Pair sews their next chapter
New store offers quirky mix of books, clothes
THE shop at 22 Russell St is unlike any other in the Toowoomba CBD and that is exactly how its owners want it to be.
The store primarily features two different businesses, The Sewing Exchange, which does clothing alterations, tailoring and repairs, and The Next Chapter Bookstore, a good quality second-hand book store.
Owners Julie MacDonald and Peter Macqueen opened the store about five months ago, deciding to go out on their own and to put an emphasis on recycle, reuse, repair and read.
Residents are invited to sell their old books as well as clothes, as long as they are good quality.
“I used to work in a shopping centre for five-and-a-half years,” Ms MacDonald said.
“I just got sick of the chain stores and everything being the same.
“I also couldn’t believe there wasn’t enough book stores in Toowoomba.”
Ms MacDonald had been a seamstress for about 30 years.
“I just wanted to work for myself and we just wanted to combine it to give people more of a reason to come in,” she said.
“They can come in for the books or the sewing or a bit of both.”
Mr Macqueen’s interest is the book store and while he does not have a background in book stores, he is an avid reader with his home resembling a store.
“It is something interesting in the streets of Toowoomba, rather than going and seeing the same thing wherever you are,” Mr Macqueen said.
“The emphasis is on second-hand, good and interesting books.”
But the sewing business and book store is not all 22 Russell St offers. Ms MacDonald and Mr Macqueen teamed up with other like-minded small businesses to offer a range of giftware - from art and clothes to soaps and candles as well as shoes made by a local Congolese refugee.
A new project will soon be launched from the store, called Boomerang Bags - a worldwide organisation that originally started in Australia.
The idea of it is to get donations of fabric and through the use of volunteers at sewing and screen-printing bees the bags are made to reduce the use of plastic.
“We just want to encourage people to reuse their things rather than have that throw away mentality,” Ms MacDonald said.
“So far people think the store is really interesting and that it has a nice vibe.”