Meet Kat Parker, who has turned the skills she has learned to combat her own personal shopping challenges into a business, changing lives and supporting charities along the way.
Tell us about your business story Kat
I started years ago, as you can tell from my stature, being very small, everything I buy even including petite I need to alter. When you’re 4ft 11, if something is too big, it is too big everywhere. One or two things I’ve bought from a shop that might have been right straight away but very rarely. So, I take them in, take them up and just about everything else to make them fit. This is where my Nan’s influence comes in as she was a brilliant tailoress and inspiration. My Nan and Mam taught me all the skills to alter clothes and I have expanded on this ever since.
When I was a young girl, about twenty to thirty, working in an office, I remember I liked to wear skirts, so I had to alter them to fit or make them myself. I also helped friends and family with their alterations and things like that. But as I got a little bit older and had my son, I started doing more jobs for a few quid here and there and moved forward from there.
The big change came when me and my husband got together 14 years ago; he kept saying to me “you should do something with this.” So I started doing alterations and advertised myself for alterations and it really went from there. I had to do it around work and the kids but as the kids have got older that’s got easier, and I’ve been able to take more work on. Eventually we got to here, a few years ago my eldest left and Jim transformed that bedroom into my sewing room, which is an amazing space, and when the youngest left we have been able to install a changing room with rails for clothes bags and accessories. Now here we are with what is my main job, alterations and selling dresses.
Tell us about your dresses
I buy them from charity shops and other sources they are washed, pressed, steamed and sometimes repaired and sell them to my customers for not much more. I am interested in people who want to go out to a do, who can’t afford to spend a lot of money on an outfit. I love a customer coming in and choosing clothes that they love and if it needs tweaking I can do that and make it look perfect for them and is still affordable and sustainable.
I love to see something that might be boring as hell. I bought a very plain big baggy dress (pictured) and it was too big for me and that’s my new dress. I like to make things out of stuff.
It’s not just dresses. I like to make things from material often from the clothes I buy; bags and phone cases and things like that. Two pairs of jeans I picked up a while ago for a couple of pounds each are now bags. Even down to the lining, the buttons– it has all been cut off from things I bought.
How does your service make your clients feel?
I gained a lot of followers in lockdown, people sitting in the house and browsing Facebook. Many of those people turned into customers. Since lockdown I have said “come and have a rummage if you want” and a lot of my customers say they wouldn’t have looked at that particular dress in a shop but because it’s here it makes them think differently about it, knowing I can tweak it here and there and make the item specific for them. That part of it is my passion and I love it.
How does your husband help?
He is just brilliant. He was an engineer and he can repair my machines for me when I need it. He supports me so much and helps with the business side of things he is great! But I couldn’t have done it as easily without the support from him. Now that I work from home, we are both loving it, we have the quality time together now and I can be flexible around my clients and sewing.
What are your top tips?
Darts are the way to heaven. If you dart it in the right place, it can transform a dress. Darting and shaping is the way forward for a garment that needs some shape and pizazz.
Everything I buy isn’t just for selling, because when you buy a dress from a charity shop, if you like the fabric, the fabric is actually cheaper to buy in that dress than it is to buy as fabric. So if I see fabric I like on a peg, I might think I don’t know what I’m going to do with it but I like it so I’m going to buy it.
Buttons and accessories are really expensive. I buy blouses just for the buttons sometimes.
What are you most proud of?
It’s building a community, I’ve noticed on my estate where people use me that you get chatting and learn things about them that you never would have known. You might have said hi but didn’t really know them. So it brings a community together, local people and that this all started in the garage around my family and with all their support I got here.
The feedback and the reviews, I mean, last week I had two or three absolutely fantastic reviews. One lady, petite like me, she was recommended by her friend, she didn’t know what to try on and when she tried this particular dress on, she was close to tears. She sent me a message saying “Thank you so much, there is no going back for me now because she had never had a dress that fitted properly” That type of thing means a lot to me, it’s not a job, it’s such a pleasure.
What would you say to people about shopping in charity shops?
I have been shopping in charity shops for years now, but I would say you’re giving something back, because someone will put something in a charity shop because they have grown out of it, or they have had it for years and it isn’t their thing, sometimes even with labels on. Without the charity shops it would go in landfill, it would be unsustainable. You buying it is giving it a second life.
What would you say about the quality in charity shops?
I’m particular about the things I buy as I am selling to clients, so it needs to be immaculate. Everything I have bought today for example is amazing, there isn’t a mark on them, some with labels. The amount of ladies who have bought dresses off me, which I have bought from charity shops, they can’t believe they have been pre-loved. I also buy quite a few handbags and jewellery too, so that I can offer my clients the accessories to match the dresses.
If Katrina has inspired you, why not checkout your local charity shop for inspiration or find out more about what Katrina creates on Facebook at: Katrina Parker Clothing
Do you use the Willow Burn Charity Shops to assist your business or hobbies? Please contact us to tell us your story: Rachel Todd - Marketing and Communications Manager - 01207 529 224 / rtodd@willowburnhospice.org.uk
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