THEBACHA/FORT SMITH
Debbie Purchase of Fort Smith learned how to sew and make alterations to clothes when she was just a girl.

Debbie Purchase of Fort Smith recently launched a home-based business called Debbie's Sewing. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

"I started at age 12 on my grandmother's old foot pedal machine," she said of growing up in Newfoundland. "And I was making my own clothes."

Those clothes included pants and tops, and Purchase also learned how to make alterations under the guidance of her grandmother.

"She would sit at the sewing machine every now and then and mend some stuff, and I would sit next to her," she recalled.

"And that's what got me interested. By the time I was 16, my mom bought me my first sewing machine."

Purchase recently launched a home-based business called Debbie's Sewing in Fort Smith.

"It's a talent that I had from an early age," she said.

"I kept it up over the years. But right now it's something that I want to do full time."

The new business opened about three weeks ago.

"I've gotten awesome, awesome feedback," Purchase said.

"It was advertised, and people started calling right away."

Debbie's Sewing focuses specifically on alterations, zipper replacement and hemming, but also features some patchwork quilting and souvenirs like key chains and Christmas coasters.

Purchase said zipper replacement is particularly in demand.

"That's the big thing right now," she said, noting everyone in the North has expensive winter coats and the zippers sometimes wear out with constant use.

"It's best to replace the zipper than it is to go out and buy those new coats."

In essence, she said the zippers don't last the life of the coats.

Aside from that, she said many people require hemming for jeans and dresses.

Purchase said many people have favourite pieces of clothes, such as a pair of jeans or a jacket, and they don't want to get rid of it.

"So I'm basically going to reunite the customer with their favourite old clothing," she said.

"I'm happy that they are happy that I can do the work for them."

Purchase said sewing is a bit of a dying art.

"Years ago, there were homemakers. Everybody works today," she said.

"So nobody has the time to do it anymore."

She said her sewing services are equally required by men and women.

Purchase first came North to Iqaluit in the mid-1990s, and not long afterward, opened a hairstyling salon where she also had a sewing machine set up.

"It was just a sideline there," she said of sewing.

Purchase and her husband have lived in Fort Smith permanently for about a year, although they have been spending summers there since 2007.

In the mid-1980s, she studied dressmaking for a year at a college in Newfoundland and Labrador.

When she graduated, she opened her own business called The Fashion Shop and made dresses for weddings and graduations.

With her new business in Fort Smith, Purchase is going to stick to alterations and sewing.

"I'm going to stay small," she said.

However, along with the alterations and sewing, Purchase makes a combination light winter jacket and snow pants.

"That's my own design and then I put on a little bit of embroidery," she said, adding she sometimes wears the outfit around town and it is noticed by people.

"They compliment me on it and I tell them I could make it (for them)."

Aside from sewing, she helps keep the books for her husband Corwin Hann's business Corwin's Painting and More.

Purchase hopes to eventually teach sewing.

"I would like to in the future teach basic sewing and intermediate sewing," she said.

A lot of people have sewing machines and don't know how to use them, she added.

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