The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
‘I’m very 1890s’
Seamstress sets up shop in Howard building
TORRINGTON — Emily Delventhal-Sali, a seamstress and quilter, makes her own clothes and subscribes to what she calls a 19th-century woman’s experience.
“I’m very 1890s,” Delventhal-Sali said. “People talk about simpler lives and going back to basics. I think sewing is a big part of that.”
On a recent Thursday afternoon, the 23-yearold Torrington native was working at the Howard building on Main Street, which artist John Noelke purchased in 2020. She approached him about renting a space in the former department store building — which Noelke is renovating into a bookstore and gallery — for her sewing business.
After a few conversations, a partnership was born. Delventhal-Sali is helping to catalog the massive collection of used books, while taking consignments for sewing projects and making new business connections.
Delventhal-Sali wore a dress she made herself, a Victorian-style plaid flannel number with pleats around the waist and buttons from top to bottom. The muted tan and cream-colored fabric and the style of the dress were a contrast to the bright colors or basic black that’s popular in clothing styles these
days.
“She’s quite a young lady,” Noelke said. “She’s very focused on her work, and she’s also quite a reader. These are the kinds of things I want to bring into the Howard building; things based on art, on creativity.”
Delventhal-Sali is a graduate of the Greater Hartford Academy for the Arts high school, where she first learned about sewing and fashion design. She also is a graduate of Nazareth College in Rochester, N.Y., where she majored in interfaith religion studies.
“I use my studies to teach CCD classes at my church, Our Lady of Hope in Harwinton,” she said. “I use the degree to show the love for my faith, and my love for reading and writing papers. I tell stories to the CCD kids, which I really like to do.”
Delventhal-Sali’s mother, Beverly, taught her her to sew as a child. “I still remember my first rag doll that I made when I was about 6,” she said. “I got into quilting about six years ago when my friend was having a baby, and I wanted to make one for her. I haven’t done a big one yet, but I will.”
The Delventhal-Sali family also includes her father, Michael, and her older brother, Jacob. Her mother owns Autumn Rose on Main Street, which features handcrafted soaps and other personal care products.
Delventhal-Sali works on sewing commissions from friends, and also does alterations, zipper replacement and other types of sewing repairs and modifications.
“A friend of mine wants to wear her mother’s wedding dress, but the bodice needs to be modified,” she said. “It’s too small for her, so I’m going to take the dress apart and do a new bodice for her.”
It’s that type of work — repurposing an old dress that might otherwise languish in a closet, or, worse, a landfill — or taking pieces of used clothing and making something new.
“I have a nightgown I’ve had for a long time, and I just keep fixing it,” Delventhal-Sali said. “I love it too much to throw it away.”
Her approach to her work reflects her regard for a simpler way of life, unfettered by social media, instant gratification and spending, she said. “Social media is addictive, and it’s meant to be, to keep us online,” she said. “That’s how the businesses online make money, every time we click on something. But we’re buying things that aren’t made to last, and everything is very fast, but not always with a lot of quality.
“It’s hard to break away from all that, and focus on a long-term project. I put social media away for a while, and now I try to strike a balance. I have email and an Instagram account,” she said. “Now that I have more fabric to work with, and people keep asking me to make things, so I am focused on themmore, without the constant scrolling on my phone.
“I think the hyper-consumerism that we’re seeing now, with that instant gratification, drives people to buy, buy, buy,” she said. “But if you compare cheap, versus well-made and more expensive, you can spend a little more money on something you really want, that will last. Buying quality really saves you money.”
She’s also an avid reader, with favorites leaning toward books written in and before the 19th century, or about the people from that time. “My favorite books growing up were ‘Little Women,’ the ‘Little House’ stories, things like that,” she said. “I have all Louisa May Alcott’s books from the ‘Little Women’ series. I love older works of domestic fiction.”
At the Howard building, Delventhal-Sali will help run the bookstore once it opens, while working on her sewing projects. “I’m on Instagram, so my friends know what I’m doing, and the door at Howard’s is open all the time. I’ll show people around, help them find a book, make coffee. And I’ll be sewing.”
Delventhal-Sali can be reached on Instagram @Howards.sewing, where she has more samples of her work.