Business sewn together with textile adventures
With her needle and thread in hand, Sam Jay has done it all, from sewing spy cameras into button holes to making backdrops for heavy metal band Iron Maiden.
The New Plymouth sewer, originally from the UK, has a long resume of jobs including some form of textiles or sewing.
She has now started Stitch Up Society, where she hopes to give people the skills to alter and repair their own clothes, in turn reducing the amount of garments ending up in the landfill.
“It’s been brewing in my head for quite a long time,” she said.
Jay first got involved with textiles as a 14-year-old work experience student where she spent a week at a bridal shop.
She went on to get a degree in textile crafts before landing a job as a tailor for the police in the UK.
“I thought ‘oh this sounds good’, and it was my favourite job I’ve ever done.
“I would issue police with their three sets of uniform and when they went undercover they would bring their normal clothes and they’d want a little camera sewn into the buttons and the wire sewn in discreetly.”
Jay loved the job but eventually the government decided they didn’t have the resources to pay for a dedicated police tailor. So she was on to the next job.
That happened to be with a set design company which made backdrops for big band tours, primarily Iron Maiden.
The design would get printed and then it was Jay’s job to make it into big drapes.
Although most would view these as impressive roles, Jay started to feel social pressure she didn’t have a “proper” career.
To solve this, she enrolled in teacher training.
After completing her training she found she didn’t enjoy administrative and the political side of being a teacher and decided to head to New Zealand on a work visa.
Upon arrival, she took a number of odd jobs, including fruit picking and hospitality, but eventually ended up finding work with her needle and thread again – this time as a taxidermist in Arrowtown.
“I’d never thought about doing it before but I loved it, it was so interesting.
“I didn’t do all the preparing, I just did the end part stitching it up.”
Among all this she met her Kiwi partner Bevan, who was living in New Plymouth.
The pair now have kids aged 2 and 4 and last year she began thinking about starting up a business after a few years at home raising her children.
Enter the Stitch Up Society.
She completed an entrepreneur course through Flourish in Taranaki in December and has built on her idea from there.
“It is impossible to do anything at home with two kids, they’re always touching everything and pulling things out.
“I thought wouldn’t it be good to go somewhere and have time to do something and spend time with other people who enjoy the same thing.”
Jay said after going to the Taranaki Women’s Refuge sale, where thousands of donated clothing items are up for sale, she realised a lot of people weren’t buying clothes simply because they didn’t know how to tailor it to themselves.
She began wondering what would happen to all these clothes if no-one bought them.
“I want to give people the knowledge to do the things they want to with these clothes.
‘‘It’s a social group where you can go drink wine, have a chat, and do some stitching.’’
She will also be offering kids’ classes at Peeps DIY on Gill St this school holidays.
Stitch Up Society can be found on Facebook and Instagram.