She reaps what she sews Seamstress’s lifelong love goes from hobby to side hustle to full-time gig By: David Sanderson Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Friday, Aug. 19, 2022 Last Modified: 3:37 PM CDT Saturday, Aug. 20, 2022 Updates

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This article was published 18/08/2022 (858 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

‘Get your fix: clothing repair businesses taking off,” blared a recent headline.

The accompanying article detailed how there appeared to be a shift in attitude during COVID when it comes to fashion sustainability. As more people realize how much of a negative impact clothing consumption annually has on the planet — according to statistics from the United Kingdom, approximately 600 million kilograms of clothing less than a year old winds up in landfills there — an increasing number started to do their utmost to prolong the life of what was already in their closet, by having it mended and such, or by limiting their purchases to previously owned garments only.

Little of that comes as an eye-opener to Anna-Marie Janzen, owner of Reclaim Mending, a West End business that has been taking something old and making it new again since 2016.

The longer she’s been at it, the more she’s witnessed people being “super-enthused” over getting a cherished sweater or pair of jeans restored, says Janzen, seated in a Westminster Avenue juice bar, dressed in a blue-and-white sleeveless top, tan pants and sandals, thrift-store finds, all.

“There’s kind of this idea out there that we live in a throwaway society, but I truly believe the majority of people don’t subscribe to that,” she says. “I mean, it’s perfectly natural to get emotionally attached to something as innocuous as an old concert T-shirt, right?”

Janzen, 34, can’t think of a time when she wasn’t working with a needle and thread. One of her earliest memories is sitting on her paternal grandmother’s lap in Port Hardy, B.C., where she grew up, guiding material through a sewing machine while her grandmother worked the foot pedal.

“She was born in Ukraine during Stalin’s time, and lived through famine… all kinds of horrible stuff,” says Janzen, the second eldest of four siblings. “And because her family was poor, she started making her own clothing at an early age and, in turn, taught me how to, as well.”

Janzen, who once scored 103 per cent in a high school sewing class (she was so fast, she did extra, she says with a wink), can’t recall whether her classmates found it odd that she wore homemade outfits almost exclusively. It was the “early aughts,” she says, and “things were weird, all around.”

Also, don’t get her wrong; she loved chic attire as much as the next person. It was just the more she learned about the fashion industry in general, the more she was appalled by the goings-on, so much so that she ultimately formed a student-run, human rights group whose chief focus was drawing attention to mistreatment of workers and so on.

“There’s kind of this idea out there that we live in a throwaway society, but I truly believe the majority of people don’t subscribe to that.” – Anna-Marie Janzen

She moved from B.C. to Winnipeg in 2009 to take peace and conflict transformation studies at Canadian Mennonite University. Word got out that she was a whiz with a serger, and one day, after she’d expertly fixed a rip in a classmate’s jeans, he asked her, “How much?”

She had done it as a favour, she replied, and certainly wasn’t expecting any sort of remuneration. She finally agreed to accept his money, but only after he repeated, “You’re not a sweat shop, everybody should be paid for their labour.”

Janzen got a job with an international peace organization, following her graduation. She landed in the news during her tenure there, by wearing the same floral, cotton dress to the office for 30 days in a row, as part of a global campaign to raise awareness about unnecessary consumption.

Surprisingly no, she says, when asked whether her co-workers questioned her choice of ensemble, or lack thereof. “Literally nobody picked up on it, which was kind of encouraging, because now I knew people don’t really care what I was throwing on before leaving the house… they weren’t the least bit interested,” she says, adding in case anybody is wondering, yes, she laundered her dress regularly.

She left her job for mental health reasons in 2016. After a prolonged battle over disability payments — “I guess I wasn’t depressed enough for them,” she cracks — she thought back to a conversation she’d once had at CMU, when a friend asked her what she would do for a living, if money wasn’t a concern? That’s easy, she said; she would fix people’s old clothes.

And sew, err… so she should, her friend told her.

What started off as a side hustle six years ago is presently a full-time operation led by Janzen and her partner, with whom she shares a one-and-a-half storey abode in the West End, together with their two cats, Teto and Mooney.

It may sound like a cliché, but no job is too big or too small for her or her two employees. If a zipper needs a new pull, that’s simple enough. Or if somebody wants to don their grandmother’s decades-old wedding dress while walking down the aisle, she can update that for you, and make any necessary alterations.

She recently constructed a teddy bear out of a person’s late father’s favourite items of clothing, and also converted an old, eiderdown comforter from a queen-size to a king. Just don’t get her started on how she likely shaved five years off her life in regards to the latter project, owing to all the eider she inhaled in the process. (“Never, ever again,” she says, leaning into a reporter’s digital recorder, in case any readers are staring at their own bed covering, going, “Hmm, good idea.”)

“I’ve also repaired tents, hammocks… anything made out of textile, pretty much,” she continues. “What I love most, I think, is that it’s never the same job twice. I have one customer who’s been bringing me the same pair of jeans for six years now, and even though I know them inside out by now, it’s not like they’re ever torn or worn out, in the same place, when they’re dropped off.”

In addition to accepting repairs, Janzen also provides a line of merchandise for sale, at events such as the Wolseley Farmer’s Market. She goes thrift-shopping on a regular basis, looking for interesting fabric. One of her favourite things to do is convert lace tablecloths — she has a whack of ’em — into produce bags. Additionally, random swatches of fabric, the more colourful the better, are repurposed as totes, quilts, outer garments and — her current top seller — bucket hats.

“What I love most, I think, is that it’s never the same job twice. I have one customer who’s been bringing me the same pair of jeans for six years now, and even though I know them inside out by now, it’s not like they’re ever torn or worn out, in the same place, when they’re dropped off.” – Anna-Marie Janzen

“I’m hoping to grow that side of things but honestly, I’m kept so busy by my regular repairs, it’s all I can do to find enough hours in the day to do that, even,” she says.

Finally, you know that old saying about how a shoemaker’s kids go shoeless, because they’re so busy utilizing their skills for others that they neglect those closest to them? Same thing with Janzen.

“At home, I have one of those Ikea-type wardrobes, full of our own stuff that needs attention,” she says. “The running joke at our place whenever my partner or I catch a sleeve on a nail or whatever is, ‘Oh, no! If only I knew somebody who could fix that.’”

For more information, go to instagram.com/reclaimmending.

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca