‘I finally found the courage to do what I love’
Gillian Redin, 63, is the founder of Lovingabag, and lives in Loughton, Essex.
I’ve always loved sewing, but I never had the confidence to do it full-time. My nana Rose taught me how to crochet when I was 10, and I made a blanket that I’ve still got today.
After leaving school, I qualified as a hairdresser and then worked as a teaching assistant for 18 years – if there was anything arty going on, I was always in the thick of it. When COVID-19 struck, I had to shield for medical reasons. Although I was clinically vulnerable, I’m not one to give in. When I saw a post on Facebook calling on people to donate scrubs bags to the local hospital, I thought, I can do that! I put a post out asking friends and family if they had any old duvet covers and pillow cases, and I was inundated. Within a couple of days, the house was full of fabric. I washed every piece and set myself a goal of 100 bags. The nurses at the hospital were over the moon.
I then joined a national network of volunteers sewing scrubs for NHS workers.
By the time I finished, I was flagging. The pressure of lockdown was starting to get to me. I knew someone who had died of COVID-19. The school had reopened and I was anxious about going back.
Then one afternoon, the doorbell went. It was my friend Sue. ‘Why don’t you have a go at making tote bags?’ she said. We’d been friends for over 30 years, Sue loved making things and had brought around some fabric. ‘You could use the material left over from the duvet covers to line them,’ she said encouragingly.
The fabric was fabulous and inspired me to get my sewing machine out straightaway. When friends and family saw the tote bags I’d made, they kept saying how wonderful they were, and people kept asking if
‘I took a leap of faith and resigned!’
they could buy them. I’d lost a dear friend to cancer, so I decided to sell them and donate a portion of the sales to Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust.
My younger son’s partner Sophie, then 27, helped set me up on Instagram and Etsy, and my local interiors shop, Hazelwood Interiors in Loughton, offered to supply some gorgeous highquality soft furnishing fabric.
It was their encouragement that gave me the confidence to believe I could do it, and in September 2020, I took a leap of faith – I resigned
from my job and started my own business selling handmade bags.
I absolutely love opening my fabric cupboard doors each day and seeing what colours and patterns catch my eye, and feel extremely proud that through my small business I am able to support sustainable living as well as slow fashion. It really is a dream come true.
See etsy.com/uk/shop/ lovingabag jostrust.org.uk instagram.com/ lovingabag
To support Jo’s Cervical Trust, see linktr.ee/ Lovingabag