#047 - Sandra Scotthorne Christmas Special

And how did you do that? Did you work for someone? Did you do it on your own? Where did you do it?

Well, I did it from my back bedroom to start with.

And even in the summer, I used to take the sewing machine outside and sew in the garden.

Just you, on your own?

Yes.

I hadn't got any money.

I don't think my husband was working then because we'd moved from Nottingham back and lived in Mistleton on the canal.

Chesterfield

Canal at Mistleton.

And so I don't think he was working.

And it was like, right.

So I got a job in a pub, hated it, hated every minute of it.

And the landlord was horrible.

Will not dwell on that then.

No.

And then I went for my dad.

My dad was a farm manager and I went tater picking during the day and then working in a pub at night to afford to buy some fabric to make the jackets.

And then I'd sew in the spare time I had and then make the jacket, sell them, sell them, some of them to the shooting friends of my dad's.

some to the fishing because I used to make a wax cotton all in one suit.

And from home, I think I probably took on two other machinists while I was working from home.

And then I took a small garage in a neighbouring village.

And from there, I wasn't there very long, I took two rooms above Tom Pickering's fishing tackle shop.

So you quickly grew in a short space of time.

Yes, that probably was over a year and a half.

Right.