Front page · Trixie’s Textiles
Patches, teddies and a dress on the form: Trixie is not retiring, thank you
Purple glasses, a zebra top and a mint-green sewing machine. Trixie makes and mends for the whole of Cosyford, and she would like a partner, not a buyer.
Some of the work is mending. A hole in the knee of some jeans or the front of a hoodie: pick a patch (a heart, a star, a flower) and drag it over the hole, then sew round it on the machine. Hold the pedal and steer the work so the needle follows the dotted line. A shirt gets its missing button back, two stitches in an X to hold it on.
Soft toys never go under the machine. A teddy or a toy cat who has lost an eye gets a new button by hand. A bunny or an elephant who has split a seam and gone floppy gets stuffed back up, then sewn shut with a needle and thread, a stitch at a time.
The rest is making things new: tote bags, drawstring bags, pencil cases, teddies, bunnies, cats, elephants, dinosaurs, skirts, T-shirts and dresses. Pick the fabric, lay the paper pattern pieces on it so they fit, and cut them out: the scissors follow the dotted line as you run your finger round it. Sew the seams, then turn it right side out, and finish it the way it wants: stuffing and eyes for a toy, a patch on a bag, a press with the iron for clothes.
Trixie hangs the dresses on her dress form by the window, where everyone walking past can see them. She has no plans to retire.
