Sewing and reaping
Sewing-course company IzzoSew Studio has a philosophy that focuses on presence of mind and the fabric of communities. Stephanie Smith meets its founder Izzy Butcher.
AN early childhood spent in a small village on the foothills of the Himalayas meant Izzy Butcher grew up knowing that hand-making beautiful clothes was perfectly achievable. She spent several years living with her family in Nepal, thanks to her father’s work as a surgeon. “All my clothes were made by local tailors, and I just thought this was really normal,” she says.
Izzy was seven when the family moved back to Manchester. The clothes-making bug remained, but she did not pursue it, and after school she went to Sheffield University, choosing what she thought might be a more sensible option than Fashion, a degree in
Landscape Architecture and Town Planning.
She has lived in Sheffield ever since and her choice turned out well.
She ploughed a successful career in the field for 15 years, designing outdoor spaces at schools, prisons, hospitals and public places, reaching senior management level and handling multi-million pound projects. But she did not find the fulfilment she craved.
“It felt like there was no creativity in it any more, and it was more about managing people and projects and finances and Excel spreadsheets, which was fine but it didn’t really give me joy,” she says.
She had always found joy in making her own clothes, so she sat down with her husband,
Tim, and said: “I would love, love, to have a sewing business, where I teach people how to sew and I design patterns.”
And that is what she now does. “It’s much more creative, much more about community and face-to-face interaction, rather than dealing with builders and contractors,” she says.
She prepared for her new leap by going to Nottingham Trent University to learn how to pattern draft. Three years ago, she set up IzzoSew Studio, still working part-time as a landscape architect, then quit her job a year ago to focus full-time on her own business. She says: “It’s doing well, paying as much as my professional landscape architect job.”
There are a few strands to IzzoSew. First, there are size-inclusive patterns for home sewers to buy, two dresses at the moment, with a jumpsuit on the way. “But the big thing is the YouTube videos that I film and create – that takes up about half of my time,” she says.
Izzy works freelance for an international fabric company called Minerva, based in Darwen, making educational content for their social media and YouTube channel. She says: “I run a very technical series all about how to make and draw your own patterns based on your own exact body measurements. People love it.”
Then there are the highly popular IzzoSew Studio sewing courses, which have many returning attendees. There are four twoday retreats a year at Kenwood Hall Ho