Sew Busy

Rachael Hanel

North Mankato — Punky clothes. Funky clothes. Big clothes, small clothes. Men’s clothes, women’s clothes, kids’ clothes.

A quick trip to the mall, or any discount store for that matter, reveals the vast clothing selection available for shoppers. From the obscure to the common, someone probably sells it.

As a result, the standby of any town from decades past — the tailor or seamstress — is obsolete. Men have no reason to have a suit constructed from scratch when they can go to one of many stores and buy a decent suit off the rack. Why should women have a shirt/dress/skirt made when the selection available now would make their grandmothers swoon?

A handful of people, though, still making a living working with a sewing machine. A descendant of tailors from the past, today’s tailor or seamstress spends the bulk of his or her time altering clothes or creating home décor.

Jo Robbins of North Mankato says customers are more likely to come to her for repair jobs — mending favorite jeans or a shirt.

“Jobs like fixing jeans are more gratifying in a way. It’s nice to work on something someone is comfortable in,” she says. “It’s more fun to work on something that someone likes rather than a piece of clothing they’re going to be uncomfortable in.”

Robbins creates some clothes from scratch. Not everyday clothing, but specialty wear such as prom dresses, dance and ice skating attire and Halloween costumes. She makes some formal wear such as wedding gowns, bridesmaid and flower girl dresses. But even wedding attire can be easily bought at chain bridal clothing stores or specialty shops. Robbins cautions, though, that quality is lacking at the large “big box” stores.

“But if you’re going to wear it for just a day, sometimes it doesn’t matter,” she says.

For Kaili Nelson of Mankato, the desire for a unique dress brought her to Robbins. Nelson needed a dress to wear to a wedding and couldn’t find what she wanted at any store. By having Robbins sew a dress, Nelson got to pick out the pattern, color and fabric for a unique look.

“It was a simple dress, but people came up to me and said, ‘Really? Someone made this?’ It was really gorgeous, beautifully made and it fit really well,” Nelson says.

Robbins has made dresses and done alterations for Nelson’s family for many years. Nelson says she didn’t spend any more money by having Robbins make the dress than she would have buying one.

“Now I have something unique and special,” Nelson says.

Robbins does some alterations, mostly on business attire, such as shortening jacket sleeves or taking in pants. She did more alteration work at her previous home in Wheaton, Ill., where she lived up until seven years ago. Wheaton is a suburb of Chicago and Robbins often worked on professional clothing, high-end and expensive clothing at that. She even worked on a suit coat for an NFL quarterback.

“Kent Graham stood in my sewing room with his shirt off,” she says. “He was very comfortable; most guys do not want to take their shirts off.”

In Mankato, Robbins finds herself sewing more home projects than clothing. A tent sits in a sewing room, ready for repairs to the netting. She shows small boxes covered with a woman’s lacy wedding dress material. She’s creating curtains for a Betsy-Tacy house in Mankato, which involves historical research.

“I get to do a lot of interesting projects. It’s not just alterations,” she says.

Students still learn the basics of sewing in school, but there’s little demand for them to create their own clothes when they can buy nearly anything off the rack.

Clothing and clothing construction was a major offered at Minnesota State University up until about a decade ago. However, many colleges still offer degrees in clothing, says Kelley Brigman, chair of the Family and Consumer Science Department at MSU. The department still offers some textile and clothing courses, which students who plan to become secondary FCS teachers often take.

“Home production of clothing is much lower than it used to be,” Brigman says. Many students who study clothing often become fashion merchandisers or marketers. The creative few become designers and actually make clothes.

Robbins sees a resurgence in her field.

“Look at knitting. The hand arts are coming back,” she says.

They likely won’t come back in the form they once were in. Still, for a woman such as Robbins who says sewing is in her blood and can’t go a day without her 20-year-old Bernina machine, there’s work available. Maybe not the careful construction of the past, but as long as there are clothes, there will be clothes that fall apart. As long as there are homes, there will be curtains and cushions and quilts. As long as there are weddings, there will be the bride who wants something unique and crafted.

And Robbins, with others like her, will be there to meet the demand.

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