Pauline Golightly, seated, is pictured with Lesley Joss (left) and Karen Walker.
A new business in the town has opened offering personalised Santa Sacks, aprons and cushions, vintage classic soft furnishings and custom made curtains – all lovingly and expertly made in a cottage industry in Newton Aycliffe.
For the past three years Pauline Golightly, who lives at Burnhope, has run The Little Dressing Up Box, a company which specialises in dance tutus for a worldwide market.
Then people asked for soft furnishings and clothing alterations so the enterprising mum decided to launch a second business, “Ella Golightly Designs”, to meet a local demand.
“I’ve called it after my Mam, Isabella, who is in her 80’s. She used to be an amazing tailoress and I’ve been learning from her since I was three, and when I was at secondary school I was altering jeans for my friends!” said Pauline.
She works alongside two other local seamstresses, Karen Walker and Lesley Joss and between them they have 80 years sewing experience.
“We’ve made literally thousands of tutus – we’ve found Australians like dark green, the French like multi-colours and the Italians like puffballs in just one colour! It’s an internet-based company and I remember one week having 546 orders!
Pauline loves home furnishings and they get fabrics from a national company which has a large range of contemporary, traditional and vintage designs.
“We can come out and measure and also add finishing touches such as matching or coordinating cushions and we’ve already started doing clothing alterations” said Pauline.
The sewing room in her home will soon be awash with personalised Christmas goodies with popular iems such as vintage personalised oil cloth aprons as well as the Santa sacks. For more information call 01325 308314 or 07790 206760
